Big Sole Blog (BSB)

NBC talk-show host Lawrence O'Donnell is on point with his challenge to his own network to force Donald Trump to tell the American public now if he plans to run for president and stop postponing the announcement. O'Donnell makes an excellent case that Trump, by not officially filing for candidacy, is either lying about running for president and using this political flirtation as a publicity stunt

President Barack Obama said that he and First Lady Michelle wanted to express their deepest condolences to families in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and the other states hit by tornadoes earlier this week. "I've never seen devastation like this," the President told reporters as captured in CNN video, and he also assured citizens that he will get the maximum federal help to the ravaged states as soon as

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyClick image for larger View of Obama'soriginal birth certificate.President Barack Obama finally lost patience with birther nonsense, and so, Wednesday morning the White House released the long form of Obama's birth certificate from Hawaii, his birth state."We do not have time for this kind of silliness," Obama told reporters

The L.A. Times and other news sources report that singer Phoebe Snow has died from complications due to a stroke suffered in January 2010. I love her music, which was a large part of my youth in the 1970s. I am saddened at this news. She was 60 years old.The video up top is Snow singing "Poetry Man," and the one below is "Love Makes A Woman" with dancers on Soul Train. A DJ played the latter at

A male student at Riverview High School in Tampa Bay Florida was called out of class to the principal's office because he wore high heel shoes to school, reports Tampa Bay's Fox station. School principal Bob Heilmann decided it was best if the student not where the shoes and told him to take them off. See video below.A teacher notified the school principal and said that the boy’s high heels were

Last week, a small plane crashed at the intersection of West End Boulevard and Harrison Avenue in New Orleans, La. As it went down, it clipped a minivan, but no one was treated for injuries. The plane crashed along a route I travel often, and I would have taken a photo of the wreckage when I drove by hours later and the police were still there, but my adult son and daughter, who were in the car,

The video above shows Michael A. Stefanone discussing the results of a study he and other researchers conducted through the University of Buffalo, "Contingencies of Self-Worth and Social-Networking-Site Behavior" that has been published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Shari Roan of the L.A. Times reports that "a study :on how people use social networking websites

More news on Nicolas Cage's arrest:Cage appeared before a magistrate this morning where his bond was set at $11,000. He was ordered to return to court for a hearing on May 31. A "stay away'' order was waived. (Per Nola.com)And I may have to take back some of what I said suggesting the police may have been overzealous with Cage. He's getting a reputation around here, according to what the Times

After being shown on Fox News, uploaded as cellphone video to YouTube, and then reported on WWL TV, New Orleans, this story's gone viral:Outrage after TSA pats down 6-year-old at N.O. AirportNEW ORLEANS -- Some civil rights advocates are outraged after a 6-year-old girl received an intense pat-down at Armstrong International Airport security on April 5. ... Someone caught the pat-down on video,

I love good music whatever the genre--blues, pop, rock, R&B, jazz, bluegrass, opera--but let's face it, some song lyrics about people in love are really about people locked in obsession and would be labeled more accurately "confessions of a control freak." For instance, you do know that "Every Breath You Take" by Sting and the Police is really about a stalker, don't you? I'm not criticizing the

I do not have the time to surf YouTube all day, and so I thank NPR for bringing composer and choral director Eric Whitacre's virtual choir to my attention.At NPR, reporter Jeff Lunden says: I've been singing in real choirs since I was a kid, so I was intrigued to participate in a virtual one. I recently asked Whitacre how he came up with the concept."Well, it all started with this video — a young

I lived in Augusta, Georgia, for nearly a decade and did not know that Frank Yerby, a famous African-American author, was from there. And I was also a fan of swashbuckler movies as a child, but I had no idea a black man, Yerby, wrote the book upon which the movie The Saracen Blade was based.From the New Georgia Encylopedia, Frank Yerby (1916-1991):Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular

Nietzsche v. Jesus Christ from The Veritas Forum on Vimeo.The video above features Dallas Willard lecturing at Stanford University in 2002 on objective versus subjective constructs. He is comparing and contrasting the teachings of Jesus Christ to those of Nietzsche. From a description from the video's sponsor, the Veritas Forum:"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," Jesus said. "God is dead,"