Providing news and information while helping aspiring writers and journalists, http://thesop.org/index.php?bio=marbrook http://thesop.org 118 67 http://thesop.org/images/thesop_118x67.jpg Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:15:00 GMT There must be a better way for a society to exist than to lurch from one upsetting headline to another. There is a better way, and I know where it is. Its in Nebraska. (Well, where would you want it to be?) http://thesop.org/usa/2009/11/20/nebraska-shows-us-what-it-takes-to-celebrate-our-language http://thesop.org/usa/2009/11/20/nebraska-shows-us-what-it-takes-to-celebrate-our-language dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:36:00 GMT Joelle Biele in the November-December issue of The American Poetry Review offers a fascinating examination of the papers of poet Elizabeth Bishop. http://thesop.org/journalism/2009/11/19/what-happens-to-a-writers-notes-in-cyberspace http://thesop.org/journalism/2009/11/19/what-happens-to-a-writers-notes-in-cyberspace dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:08:00 GMT Everyone who appeared on that show was tarnished by his use of his guests as stalking horses for his preconceptions. http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/16/will-cnns-reporters-miss-the-great-fulminator http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/16/will-cnns-reporters-miss-the-great-fulminator dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:13:00 GMT Of all the things Americans are hectored into taking to heart "patriotism, low taxes, Ayn Rand, trickle-down economics, etc "one thing remains conspicuous for its absence: ignorance. http://thesop.org/politics/2009/11/15/do-americans-really-want-to-be-bothered-with-the-facts http://thesop.org/politics/2009/11/15/do-americans-really-want-to-be-bothered-with-the-facts dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:06:00 GMT Without troublemakers like Greg Palast we're left to wallow in our own ignorance. Take his most recent article in Zeek. What are we doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, he asks, when it was Saudi Arabians who attacked us in 2001? http://thesop.org/journalism/2009/11/14/palast-shows-us-what-good-journalism-might-look-like http://thesop.org/journalism/2009/11/14/palast-shows-us-what-good-journalism-might-look-like dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:00:00 GMT Compartmentalized news makes it hard to see the big picture. Example: the cost of sending 30 or 40 thousand more troops to Afghanistan directly impacts our ability to improve health care, but the press ignores the interrelatedness of news in areas "war, health care reform, education "where taxes must fund what the taxpayers want but are unwilling to pay for. http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/12/news-is-presented-with-no-narrative-thread http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/12/news-is-presented-with-no-narrative-thread dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:00:00 GMT Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Crusaders, Health care reform, Iraq, Islam, Israel lobby, Jihad, Joseph Cao, Joseph Lieberman, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Nic Robertson, Opium, Palestine, Paul Cruickshank, Poppies, Saudi Arabia, West Bank Settlements, Shi'ism, Wall Street, War, Washington, Yemen http://thesop.org/world/2009/11/10/a-clear-sign-al-qaeda-is-losing-influence-among-muslims http://thesop.org/world/2009/11/10/a-clear-sign-al-qaeda-is-losing-influence-among-muslims dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Sun, 8 Nov 2009 06:30:00 GMT My partial list of the courageous in a posting asking What Is Courage? now strikes me as partial in the sense of having been partisan. http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/07/youth-is-seeded-with-roadside-explosive-devices http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/07/youth-is-seeded-with-roadside-explosive-devices dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Fri, 6 Nov 2009 06:33:00 GMT We must not leave it up to ideologues to tell us what courage is. They think its anything you can beat drums and make speeches about. http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/05/there-are-more-heroes-among-us-than-we-think http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/11/05/there-are-more-heroes-among-us-than-we-think dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:17:00 GMT Car bombers just killed more than 130 people in Iraq while here debates drone on about health care, more troops for Afghanistan and economic recovery. http://thesop.org/world/2009/10/27/we-need-national-security-against-our-own-foolishness http://thesop.org/world/2009/10/27/we-need-national-security-against-our-own-foolishness dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:36:00 GMT When the Palestinians suffer in their own accents they're foreigners to us, but when they speak and sing and explain in our language and our own accents they become as real to us as Brad Pitt playing Achilles in Troy or the poet Homer telling us about the Trojan War. They come alive. http://thesop.org/world/2009/10/25/when-the-palestinians-speak-to-us-in-an-american-accent http://thesop.org/world/2009/10/25/when-the-palestinians-speak-to-us-in-an-american-accent dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:12:00 GMT Communicators mug language. They may know when to use channel-lock pliers vs. a vise grip, but they lack respect for the word as its own beast, its own household genius. http://thesop.org/poetry/2009/10/22/poets-stand-in-the-way-of-language-gunslingers http://thesop.org/poetry/2009/10/22/poets-stand-in-the-way-of-language-gunslingers dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:15:00 GMT The rap against the President is that he has done nothing to deserve the prize, that talk does not constitute action. But talk "and not just talk, but the way it is conducted, its demeanor "is action. http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/10/15/nobel-peace-prize-critics-act-as-if-20th-century-never-happened http://thesop.org/opinion/2009/10/15/nobel-peace-prize-critics-act-as-if-20th-century-never-happened dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:18:00 GMT The voters are as willing as the people they elect to overlook the problem, and yet everyone deplores the result high taxes. http://thesop.org/politics/2009/10/11/too-much-government-for-gotham-mums-the-word http://thesop.org/politics/2009/10/11/too-much-government-for-gotham-mums-the-word dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)) Wed, 7 Oct 2009 18:33:00 GMT I find myself at times swimming through the poems towards distant lights, but I am a reluctant swimmer, because I want to stop and float, and yet I fear I might tire or the current might capture me. http://thesop.org/poetry/2009/10/07/tension-between-formalism-and-lyricism-gives-ravi-shankars-poems-elegance http://thesop.org/poetry/2009/10/07/tension-between-formalism-and-lyricism-gives-ravi-shankars-poems-elegance dmmarbrook@earthlink.net (Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor))