I am writing this as a way to immortalize a little girl who is probably dead. I do not know Patricia Ann Miles. I have never had the pleasure of meeting this beautiful 7-year old girl. I can tell by her picture (http://www.asp.state.ar.us/mnaa.html) that she must be a spunky, vibrant child with a zest for life. She looks to be well cared for and interviews with her parents convey their warmth and love for Patricia. Patricia was last seen riding her bike by a local grocery store. Why wou...

Is same-sex marriage worth ripping America apart? It's likely a question people found themselves asking during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's-1960's. But this is the only parallel one can draw between the two issues and remain intellectually honest. The Black fight for equality centered on perceptions and treatment based on an unchangeable genetic trait (skin color), while gays suffer discrimination based on an arguably chosen behavior (sexual liasons with one's own gender). ...

Racism is real. Racism is insidious. Racism costs this country billions of dollars in lost productivity and untold litigation. But how do you define racism? How do you prove racism in today's sanitized P-C society? These are questions Black Americans must wrestle with every day. These are questions I have only just come to grips with, as a White man married to a Black woman. First, let me say that I grew up painfully aware of the predjudice that exists in America. I grew up diminish...

The short-sightedness of Americans watching the tug-of-war between George W. Bush and John Kerry, over the Presidency, is amazing. How easy it is to forget that the election takes place on the first Tuesday of November...not tomorrow...not last month. Pundits on both sides have called this race for their respective candidates, both sides using the same figures, spun-out beyond all recognition (S.O.B.A.R.). What most fail to remember is that there are still more than five months before vote...

Polaroids of Iraqi prisoners in various poses...nude and simulating sex acts...are making the rounds on all the news channels, and in diplomatic circles...like dirty pictures of a dirty secret. President Bush calls the abuses they depict, "abhorrent." His opponents and enemies say they are the tip of the iceberg...a cold, sharp mountain of failed policies and a sadistic military. Neither of these is the case. At worst, these abuses amount to kids who didn't really know better trying to...

Yes...this is the dawn of a new era in blogging. I have now ventured into a new arena...a new venue. After more than a decade of writing for newspaper, radio, television and internet news services, I am now blogging. Come back soon to read some of the most insightful political and social punditry this side of "The McLaughlin Group". I envy you your first experience with my creative thought and commentary. Congratulations and welcome to my world. John Gilliland