The following are the first 3,600 words of Vin’s new novel, “The Testament of James,” published by Mountain Media on Dec. 16, 2014. In all, six excepts are posted at this site, taking the reader through the first 20,000 words of the mystery. Click “Fiction” in the index, or click link at bottom to read […]
I bought a few jazz records over the weekend, as I do whenever the opportunity arises. One was a 10-inch Mercury LP from 1950, produced by Norman Granz and titled “Charlie Parker with Strings.” The disc was a bit controversial when producer Granz brought it out. Critics wondered whether Bird Parker, who had fought the […]
For centuries, a few hundred wealthy individuals, families and corporations have had de facto control over what we consume as “news” — simply because they could afford to buy big printing presses, and ink by the barrel. Despite early fears in the newspaper industry, neither radio nor television ever broke this monopoly. You’d quickly realize […]
How are we doing, safeguarding those “unalienable Rights” with which we are “endowed by our Creator” — in support of which 56 patriots solemnly pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred Honor, 236 years ago? We remain free by many measures. Americans can still pretty much live where we want, work where we want, […]
I see where two local groups have announced the largest in-kind donation ever made to Southern Nevada’s Public Education Foundation, the nonprofit that channels charitable aid to the Clark County School District. The Latin Chamber of Commerce and Another Joy Foundation plan to give to the Foundation textbooks for which they list a value of […]
Mark Aug. 8 on your calendar. Few realize it, but the events of Aug. 5 through 8 marked the beginning of massive changes in America. No, I don’t write today about the overdue Standard & Poor downgrade of the actuarially bankrupt federal government’s bond rating, or even the (possibly more important) whining, petulant, vapid reaction […]
It used to take years to get a book into print. And during the laborious process of re-keyboarding the manuscript, plenty of people had a go at the thing. Today’s technology has enormously speeded the process of creating a book from the author’s original computer disc. But in an era when young high school graduates […]
“Vin, sometimes you run excerpts from letters that arrive at your desk, but you rarely run an entire letter, much less an uninterrupted series of letters from the same writer, which would give us a better idea of the thought process of a typical reader.” Yes, and there’s a reason for that. But since such […]
When a reporter for CNSNews.com last Thursday asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., where in the Constitution Congress is delegated the specific power to order Americans to buy health insurance — a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of Obamacare — Ms. Pelosi responded: “Are you serious? Are you serious?” “Yes, yes […]
I see where the Review-Journal published without notable dissent (lede story, Page 2B, Jan. 16) another one of these cooked-up “report cards” on how Nevada is doing, this one from a Henderson-based outfit calling itself the Children’s Advocacy Alliance. As usual, the finding was: “We suck.”