Tag Archives: Robert Kennedy

How do we reconcile these two visions for America’s future?

By Mark | November 8, 2012

In the wake of this incredibly divisive campaign season which we just lived though, I can’t help but wonder whether our nation has a reasonable chance of surviving this perfect storm which has arisen around us, having been fed for so long by the forces of paranoia, fear, environmental volatility, and economic uncertainty, which are [...]

Posted in Media, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged being human, Christian soldiers, Christians under attack, demagoguery, Glenn Beck, humanity, Obama, persecution complex, RFK, Ripples of Hope, wrath of an angry god | 19 Comments

The subject of poverty finally makes its way into the presidential campaign

By Mark | September 15, 2012

As I’ve mentioned before, I was born in Lexington, Kentucky, the day before Robert Kennedy arrived there to begin his tour of Appalachia. I don’t know that it explains why, over the course of my life, I’ve been so drawn to Kennedy, but it’s an odd coincidence, I think, and I find it hard to [...]

Posted in Mark's Life, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Appalachia, assassination, Baptists, Bruce D. Meyer, budget cuts, Bush tax cuts, Christian, Christianity, Conference of Catholic Bishops, entitlements, faith based initiative, homelessness, hunger, hunger in America, James X. Sullivan, Jesus, John Edwards, Kairos Prison Ministry International, Kentucky, Lexington, Martin Luther King, Matthew Yglesias, MLK, National Association of Evangelicals, Obama, poverty, poverty tour, Presidential politics, RFK, Romney, social safety net, tax the rich, The Circle of Protection, wealth inequality, welfare | 12 Comments

Bob Zmuda on securing Andy Kaufman’s penis with gaffer’s tape prior to his wrestling matches, the origins of Tony Clifton, Andy’s plans to fake his death, and a million other things

By Mark | April 28, 2012

Last night, I listened to Marc Maron’s interview with Andy Kaufman’s old writing partner, Bob Zmuda. My sense is that Maron… who has a brilliant podcast, by the way… found the experience somewhat frustrating, as Zmuda insisted on being evasive about a few things, like the circumstances surrounding Andy’s death, and the question as to [...]

Posted in Art and Culture, Crimewave USA, Uncategorized | Also tagged Abraham Lincoln, Andy Kaufman, Andy Kaufman Revealed, Andy Warhol, Ben Franklin, Bessie Smith, Billy Wilder, Bob Zmuda, brilliant comedy, Buckminster Fuller, Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin, Charlie Chaplin, comedy, FDR, gaffer's tape, George Harrison, Gregory Peck, Harriet Tubman, Houdini, J.D. Salinger, Jack Benny, Joey Ramone, Katherine Hepburn, Kurt Vonnegut, Leonardo Da Vinci, Malcolm X, Marc Maron, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King Jr., Myrna Loy, Nicola Tesla, Norman Wexler, Patrick McGoohan, Peter Falk, Stanley Kubrick, tape, taping down penises, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Pynchon, Tim Carey, Tony Clifton, Woody Allen, Woody Guthrie, wrestling, wrestling women | 13 Comments

On wanting the ghost of RFK to visit Obama like Jacob Marley visited Scrooge

By Mark | July 17, 2011

I was just lamenting to my friend Pete yesterday that we didn’t have any leaders today like Robert Kennedy. Apparently others are thinking along the same lines. The following clip comes from an opinion piece by former Senate staffer Brent Budowsky: …I believe there is now an economically unpatriotic wing of the GOP. They express [...]

Posted in Mark's Life, Politics | Also tagged Appalachia, Brent Budowsky, ghosts, Kentucky, Lexington, Mark's birth, Obama, Pete Larson, poverty, RFK, Scrooge, tax the rich, The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America, unpatriotic, using ghosts to achieve political goals | 23 Comments

John Edwards picking up college girls

By Mark | October 17, 2010

One of my biggest regrets, at least politically speaking, is that I invested as much as I did in the John Edwards campaign. It sounds incredibly naive in retrospect, I know, but I really believed that he was sincerely running because he wanted to stand up for regular Americans, and bring morality and integrity back [...]