As Independence Day approaches, most in the U.S. say they are proud to be an American, including a slight majority, 54%, who are “extremely proud.” The percentage saying they are “extremely proud” is slightly lower than in recent years and…
Read MoreCategory: Culture
Gay Marriage Lands With a Thud in Nashville
Record numbers came out for the Nashville Pride Festival held just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic same-sex marriage ruling. The event has been on the calendar for months, but the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The…
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Gay Marriage Now Legal in TN
The Supreme Court declared Friday that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the United States, a historic culmination of two decades of litigation over gay marriage and gay rights generally. Gay and lesbian couples already could marry…
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Local Politicians Jump on the Flag Bandwagon
The Governor of Tennessee said if it were up to him, he would remove the bust of one-time KKK leader and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol. The Tennessee Historical Commission, of which Governor Bill Haslam is…
Read MoreNashville a Benchmark for the Nation
With one shocking gunshot, Paul Thomas Anderson bisected his epochal porn epic Boogie Nights. On New Year’s Eve 1979, William H. Macy’s emasculated assistant director Little Bill walks in on his wife rutting with another man one too many times,…
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Nashville’s Fireworks to Be the Biggest Ever
The city of Nashville is slated to have the biggest Fourth of July firework display in the country this year, according to Butch Spyridon, the President of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. Spyridon told News 2, during a live…
Read MoreTN Won’t Change Birth Certificates for Transgendered
Since Vanity Fair tweeted its latest magazine cover on Monday, the Caitlyn Jenner story has been the talk of the country. The Nashville transgender community hopes the conversation will help lead to changes here in Tennessee, among them a long-standing…
Read MoreAre You Ashamed of Being American?
Americans’ pride in our country is legendary … or at least it used to be. The World Values Survey – a global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life, led by an…
Read MoreRace, Politics and Lies
Among the many painful ironies in the current racial turmoil is that communities scattered across the country were disrupted by riots and looting because of the demonstrable lie that Michael Brown was shot in the back by a white policeman…
Read MoreCould Baltimore Happen Here?
I visited Baltimore once, about 10 years ago, for an academic conference. While I remember its colonial-era architecture, the historic cathedral that once housed the great Cardinal Gibbons, and fun, chowder-laden conversations with local and visiting economists in brew pubs—the…
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