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When I first learned of the ghost towns of New Jersey, I could hardly believe it. How could a state with more than 1,200 people per square mile have ghost towns in it? In New Jersey there are people everywhere. And the traffic? Hell, you can’t even make a left…
Read moreThe United States today is a country of two different people, liberals and conservatives. The partisan divide is stark and unnerving. But at bottom what exactly is it that divides us? The best definition I’ve heard comes from libertarian essayist P.J. O’Rourke who said, “Conservatives fear the government more than…
Read moreSometime around 10:30am on the morning of Saturday, November 12th, 2011, a 24-year-old Danvers, Massachusetts man knocked on his neighbor’s door. When the neighbor opened the door, the man took the cat he was carrying under his arm and tossed it into the neighbor’s house. Startled, the neighbor asked him…
Read moreHere’s a tip for any would-be hikers out there. Don’t trust the Internet. The trouble is anyone can post anything on the Internet, and if it meets the criteria of Google’s algorithm it can be driven to the top of the search engine rankings, laying in wait like a coiled…
Read moreWhen I was a boy of about nine I had a sexual awakening. A friend and I were wandering along a rural road, kicking cans, throwing stones and inspecting the debris along the roadside, when we came upon a pile of discarded magazines. It was quite a find. Those magazines…
Read moreJust after 4:00 in the morning of April 15th, 1865 two men appeared on horseback at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd near present day Waldorf, Maryland. One man was suffering a broken leg and needed help. Dr. Mudd helped the injured man into his house, cut away his boot…
Read moreMy medium was striking out. Oh sure, she had gotten June. Sitting in a white wicker chair in the sunroom at the back of her Victorian home on a flower-lined street in Lily Dale, she had gotten June, my mother’s lifelong friend who had passed away recently. But that wasn’t…
Read moreIt would make your eyes burn. It would irritate your throat. Those who tried to use it as a lamp oil ended up with a thin layer of greasy soot on their skin. Those who had used it as a patent medicine reported poor results. It was more than useless….
Read moreThere’s a conspiracy theory making the rounds at Occupy Wall Street that alleges that building no. 7 of the old World Trade Center was blown up deliberately on 9/11 because it housed documents revealing government collusion with widespread insider trading on Wall Street. Ah-hem. Excuse me, guys. First of all,…
Read moreSee if you know this story. After enthusiastically supporting a hugely expensive war, an angry, combative segment of the American public became outraged at the idea of paying taxes. Complaining of government overreach and darkly warning of the nation’s doom, these self-proclaimed patriots insisted that the government must live within…
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