BackboneAmerica

Book Review by John Andrews

I’m honored to help an old friend, Allen Orcutt, bring out a little book of poems, prose, and pictures that explores how a year at war can change a man for life. And much for the better in this Marine pilot’s case, searing as the ordeal was. No Rest Elsewhere: Vietnam Notes, 1968-2008, expands on a poetic collection initially published in 1973, just after Allen came home. It includes his account of reconciling war-shattered relationships in later years, climaxing with a trip back to Vietnam in 2007. (more…)

Ted LaMontagne, a longtime pillar of the idyllic mountain community of Evergreen, Colorado, passed away this week. With his business (more…)

What some people won’t say about themselves with bumper stickers or tee shirts. I saw a charming one and an infuriating one this week. (more…)

Americans typically are very thoughtful this time of year. We have retrospective thoughts about the past year and we ponder (more…)

Last night the Backbone Radio audience was subjected to some wretched holiday doggerel performed by Kathleen LeCrone and me. (more…)

Looking out the airplane window, on about the twelfth hour of a fourteen hour flight to Ethiopia, the hazy streak of water (more…)

My friend Marshall was that rare combination, a devout Christian and a rigorous libertarian. Heroically he led the Alliance for Separation of School and State, (more…)

If you haven’t visited the GOP War Room, McCain’s rapid response media facility at 2810 Speer Boulevard, it’s worth a look today (more…)

A young friend of mine started at Hillsdale College this week, and his dad, with whom I attend church, gave the new freshman (more…)

The campaign grows ever more bizarre. Today the segmented electorate and micro-targeting reached a new extreme. (more…)

I am of Scottish and Danish stock: what could be sterner stuff? Yes, Braveheart and Norsemen. My people made Europe (more…)

Marshall Fritz of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State is one of the most effective freedom advocates and brilliantly buoyant human beings I’ve ever known. (more…)

I’ve found that when a thread of conversation has developed, some patients have surprised themselves by realizing they’ve actually had a good time at the dental office. (more…)

Sunday on Backbone Radio, again as in years past, we observed Easter by playing five minutes from a classic sermon (more…)

“Be who you are, use what you have, do what you can.” Russ Oberlin stopped me at a recent political meeting to pass along (more…)