Take a wild guess – throw a dart with a blindfold on – and you might divine that I’m not a big fan of establishment politics. Nor am I big on PR stunts. The problem with PR stunts is they are inherently deceptive. The stuntmen and stunt women want us to believe what we’re seeing is real. The problem with establishment politics is that society’s pressing need – “the children,” for instance – always ends up playing second fiddle to flaccid businessmen and guileful dealmakers.
PR stunts and establishment politics go hand in hand. One such stunt, designed to protect the status quo against what has become a groundswell of support for an elected school board in Harford County, played out in Annapolis Wednesday.
Del. Mary-Dulany James (D-District 34) considers herself a stalwart of the community’s educational institutions. She has every right to. Not just because her father helped found Harford Community ...Continue Reading
As a writer and a movie-lover, I’ve long admired Sylvester Stallone’s brilliant early effort as the writer, star, and visionary behind the first Rocky movie.
Back then, a still-poor Stallone famously held out against studio offers that would have cast a more well-known actor as the lead while lining his pockets with a huge payday. In the end, he got to make the movie he wanted; the result is a moody, realistic, and inspirational film.
In the decades since, Stallone has unapologetically rested on the laurels of his bold, early success. There was one scene, I admit, in the latest installment of Rocky that got to me. But that moment came well before the old fighter stepped into the ring and took his shirt off, where he quickly made Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds look like steroids taste-testers.
In 1999, I was traipsing somewhat aimlessly through my early college years, playing in rock and roll bands, working the register at a music store, and writing heartfelt vignettes about my blissful suburban childhood. And, I was excited about quarters.
The 50 State Quarters Program had just launched – nay, galloped – into the American consciousness with the Paul Revere-esque Delaware edition, which depicted the brave, ailing Caesar Rodney, blazing through the night en route to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to declare the nation’s independence.
My dad had long since bequeathed to me his collection of bicentennial quarters, which are forever locked in a square, glass-block coin bank. Now, instead of keeping an eye out for the rarely-passed-on 1976 favorite, I would have nine years’ worth of new quarters to collect. At first I carefully dropped the new state quarters into the glass bank, letting the Massachusetts Minuteman ...Continue Reading
We heard along with the rest of the world Wednesday morning that Harford County Executive David Craig had joined Team Rudy, signing on as Maryland co-chair of the Giuliani presidential campaign (http://www.joinrudy2008.com/article/pr/1007).
Craig joins his old buddy, ex-governor Bob Ehrlich and Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold as supporters of the 9-11 hero.
What I’m wondering is whether anyone saw or remembers the spoof-quality Fred Thompson for President video shot on Main Street in Bel Air this July featuring, among others, Craig’s boy-wonder Director of Human Resources, Scott Gibson.
From the field office, comes this weird one, as if many of you hadn’t already seen S. Fred Simmons’ most recent defacement.
What’s different this time is the vandal’s literacy. Supplanting the anarchy symbol and goofy, tagger-style lettering of the preceding spray-painting is a quote from Ayn Rand’s more obscure philosophical ramblings: “The law of identity does not permit you to have your cake and eat it too.” I suspect the vandal chose this quote because it sounds like something a bad sport would say to someone he or she had defeated in, say, a local election – or dodge ball.
Read in context, however, this cryptic quote means next to nothing unless you’re a member of the rarified, crusty, Randian faithful (Alan Greenspan is in this group, if that tells you anything). Some say it has ...Continue Reading
Barry Glassman, after years of biding his time, playing it cool, and largely avoiding major election-year face offs many thought he could have won (the Heltons came awfully close to ousting David Craig last year, after all) looks poised to assume the position of Harford’s Northern Senator. With Hooper set to step down before the end of the year due to failing health, Glassman’s competition for the gubernatorial appointment to replace him looks slim – in the early stages at least.
Last Wednesday, Steve Johnson stood, dressed in a tan sport coat and a dress shirt, on the sidelines and watched as candidates for mayor and Aberdeen City Council passed a microphone in front of a crowd of 120 voters. This Wednesday, Johnson stopped the election.
Tossed from the ballot by Aberdeen’s Board of Elections over questions of whether he lives within city limits, Johnson won the first round in his legal quest to get back on the ballot late Wednesday afternoon when Harford County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Waldron put the election on hold until the matter can be resolved. Waldron will decide Friday on whether to rule on the injunction himself, or to let the sitting city council decide Johnson’s fate.
Wait. That sound you just heard was the needle screeching off the record. That’s right, folks, the city council, including the bloc Johnson described late Wednesday night as “The Three ...Continue Reading
As one Dagger reader in attendance described it, last night’s Aberdeen FOP candidates forum was “pretty vanilla.” That it was. There were no meaningful outbursts from the crowd, and only glimmers of passion from the candidates. Even the powerful Redshirts showed up in their new, more subdued blue shirts. The questions, written down by attendees and apparently selected for mildness by FOP officials, were beach balls. But some of what went down before – and after – the forum was a bit more interesting.
Before things got started, as 19-year-old mayoral candidate Nicole Burlew (who could make national news with her campaign if she sharpens her act just a bit) stood for a TV interview, we at the Dagger hung out in the background at Festival Park, booting a soccer ball around. Mayor Simmons stopped by, and it was ...Continue Reading
One of the greatest moments of my career as a local newspaper reporter came a few days after Maryland District 7 Delegates Pat McDonough and Rick Impallaria got into a scuffle with a pro-immigration activist in an Annapolis hallway.
I was sitting at a Board of Education meeting and in a break between presentations, listening in on a hushed recounting of the incident. The board’s liaison to the state legislature was filling the school system’s second in command (a congenial guy named Ray Brown, who’s since taken another job) on details too grisly for print.
I leaned over and said, “You know the best part – when the guy pushed Pat McDonough…” and I held my hands up to show how a toupee might have been slipped halfway off (when we said we’d publish rumors, this is what we meant…Pat could very well be ...Continue Reading
The weekend started like this: me, stopping the car at an intersection in the middle of a 44,000-acre state forest, gray dust rolling past the windows. “Do you want to try it?” I backed up the car and eased the 1997 Nissan Maxima (manual, with spoiler) onto the brown dirt ski slope that is Kirk Road. A Coleman lantern, filled to the brim with kerosene, dangled from the rear view mirror. There was an hour of daylight left, and as battery acid leeched into my veins, I pushed the car harder and harder up and down the impossible rocky hills of the off-road trail.
About five minutes after I had yelled at the guys in the car to shut up, I pulled to a stop at the zenith of a rollercoaster-looking drop-off; I turned off the engine, jumped out and lit ...Continue Reading
close to ousting David Craig last year, after all) looks poised to assume the position of Harford’s Northern Senator. With Hooper set to step down before the end of the year due to failing health, Glassman’s competition for the gubernatorial appointment to replace him looks slim – in the early stages at least.
Redshirts showed up in their new, more subdued blue shirts. The questions, written down by attendees and apparently selected for mildness by FOP officials, were beach balls. But some of what went down before – and after – the forum was a bit more interesting.
