Reclaiming liberty
This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue, but one of independence vs. dependence. Both political parties claim to have the high ground on advancing liberty, the left for social issues or the right for economic issues, but in truth, both parties use the language of liberty to advance their own power and our dependence.George…
Beware compromise
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact number…
Do your homework
Wrong! If Lepo will Google a KWTV Channel 9 investigative story from May 20, he should come up with video plus this statement: “A 9 Investigates hidden-camera investigation shows how easily someone with a criminal record or mental illness could buy guns at a gun show — no questions asked. In all, the 9 Investigates…
An inconvenient truth
However, the implied alternative that God is not “in the selective intervention business” is problematic for Meyers. If God never intervenes in “the utterly capricious and amoral world of motion” he created, why emulate and obey Jesus by asking and thanking God for food (or anything else)? If God has nothing to do with surviving…
Misplaced blame
He is upset about the National Security Agency and its invasion of our privacy. Let me remind you about some things that happened in 2008 during the Bush administration. There was the Protect America Act, which Hillary Clinton (a Democrat!) opposed, as well as then-Sen. Obama and Nancy Pelosi. This removed the need for a…
Reel jobs
On May 24 — the final day of this year’s session — the state House voted against extension of the Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program, which provides incentives for qualifiying film productions that spend money on Oklahoma goods and services. Before the vote, House Democratic Leader Scott Inman of Del City called the Democrats in…
Pretty vacant
The Marion BY: Mark Hancock More than 12,000 of those structures are scattered throughout OKC, which prompted city officials last year to commission a study about the severity of the issue, coupled with potential solutions. Vacant homes and commercial buildings create a revenue loss because money typically collected from sales and use taxes, franchise fees…
A court in their court
Recent lawsuit reform legislation was struck down 7-2 by the Oklahoma Supreme Court on a constitutional technicality unrelated to partisan politics. Morgan condemned the seven who “legislated” from the bench and called for action from the Oklahoma Civil Justice Council (OCJC), a right-wing group organized to “evaluate” those running for judicial office. Whatever happened to…
Beans on ice
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US” lang=”EN-US”> The best way to continue to enjoy your coffee addiction throughout the worst part of summer is to buy iced coffees. But all iced coffees are not created equal. That’s chiefly because the one thing sure to ruin that delicious goodness is pouring hot coffee over ice. Congratulations! You now have…
Get in line
My food history is all backward. In high school, my brother and I begged my mom to make meat loaf, because we wanted to know why so many people hated it. (We loved it.) I first tried asparagus and Brussels sprouts as a college student and have come to savor one and tolerate the other.…
Open house
BY: Shannon Cornman In those days, the city had about 25 Sikhs and fewer than 10 families. In May, the brand-new house of worship, called a gurdwara, opened its doors at 4525 N.W. 16th. About 300 people attended its grand opening, but Sabi Singh, Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma president, estimates the metro is now home…
Heating up
Denver garage rockers Sauna dreamed that meeting one of its musical heroes would lead to a record deal. And it kind of did, if not in the way the four members had expected. “We were 16, just a few months after the band formed,” said guitarist CJ Macleod. “We saw Hunx and His Punx were…
Time for middle-out economics
Yet the 2006 tax cut also increased the standard deduction. This eliminated income taxes for some 45,000 moderateincome families and lowered taxes for Oklahomans at all income levels. At the time, lawmakers wanted to make sure tax reduction was both bottom-up and top-down. By contrast, the current governor and Legislature have pushed tax cuts that…
Berberian Sound Studio
Berberian Sound Studio isn’t directed by Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, but it may as well be. His influence is draped lovingly all over the British film: • A projectionist seen only by his hands dons black gloves — the requisite accessory for many a murderer in the director’s giallo efforts. • The movie within…
Avoiding a fiasco in education
High-stakes testing forced schools to narrow the curriculum, focus on remediation and test prep, and commit to basic skills instruction that verges on educational malpractice. Worse, states must start using primitive bubble-in tests for teacher evaluations. Teachers are also supposed to turn on a dime and teach the opposite types of tests, known as Common…
Something wild
Photo: Heather Brown Spring is always a busy time for the WildCare Foundation, as babies arrive needing extra attention, but this season, the organization took in more than 840 animals. The facility, which works to release animals back to their native habitat, took in an average of 40 animals per day in the three weeks…
Water, water everywhere
TapIt helps fulfill multiple objectives, according to Angela Jones, director of health and wellness initiatives at YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City. “TapIt is a good way to give people greater access to water, which ultimately encourages people to drink more water. And from an environmental standpoint, this will reduce reliance on plastic bottles,” Jones said.…
In _____ we trust
Illustration: Brad Gregg What Oklahoman readers didn’t see was a full-page counter-ad released by Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit committed to preserving the separation of church and state. While Hobby Lobby’s “In God We Trust” ad included quotes from presidents, founding fathers, Supreme Court rulings and even “foreigners” (their words), FFRF’s “In Reason We…
Pooping Tom
Illustration: Brad Gregg Kenneth Webster Enlow was discovered by a woman taking her 7-year-old daughter into an outdoor bathroom in a Sand Springs park. Enlow, caught brown-handed, was inside the cylindrical septic tank that houses the toilet. He blamed an enraged girlfriend named Angel for his predicament. Supposedly, she knocked him unconscious with a tire…
Battle royale
Photo: Heather Brown Through battleground memorabilia and personal mementos, the summer exhibition at Edmond Historical Society & Museum localizes a Civil War battle’s overwhelming death and destruction. The Legacy of Gettysburg coincides with the historic battle’s 150th anniversary. A museum patron’s private collection supplied approximately 110 pieces from the Battle of Gettysburg, including rifles, swords,…
Get the scoop
BY: Mark Hancock And not coincidentally, July is an opportunity to indulge in the celebration of National Ice Cream Month. What better way to take the sting out of the searing sun than an icy treat? From double scoops to fancy sundaes, the metro is home to plenty of cool confections that will make you…
Bad aim
Illustration: Brad Gregg OK, so drugs play a part in it, too. Ada woman Christie Dawn Harris sent the Internet into one of its tee-hee tizzies in March, when it was reported that while she was under arrest for meth, police officer Kathy Unbewust noticed, per her report, “a wooden and metal item sticking out…
Fat to fit
Illustration: Brad Gregg Facebook Stories — a website de- signed to “celebrate the different stories that are coming out of Facebook” — released its list of top 10 Fittest Cities last week, and OKC placed eighth. That’s right: The same place that, in 2007, launched a citywide weight-loss program (ingeniously branded as “This City Is…
Bowled over
Photo: Kerry Amanda Myers Description defies Oklahoma City trio Bowlsey. With guitar, organ, synthesizers, rapping and singing all making their way into the mix, “music” is about the only apt descriptor for the sounds Bowlsey makes. “People will ask us what we think we sound like, and I honestly don’t know what to tell them,”…
Music Made Me: Chris Harris
The Cure, Disintegration (1989) This record was released when I was 15, but I don’t really remember listening to it a lot when it came out. I started playing guitar when I was 17, and it was probably sometime around 19 that I revisited it and realized that my guitar playing was subconsciously influenced by…
OKG7 year-old eateries
Tacos el Primo5603 S. Pennsylvania681-2579 If you’ve got a hankering for tacos or burritos that are muy auténtico, make a stop at this new spot. And if traditional Mexican fare doesn’t grab you (perish the thought!), opt for the corn dog. The taqueria stays open until 9 p.m., making it ideal for a late and…
Mountain Smoke — Roads Well Traveled
Maybe enough time has passed that I can enjoy this truly American art form once again. How can songs like the Brooks & Dunn cover “Brand New Man” or the redemptive “Wild Horses” not make you fall in love with this Oklahoma group? The original “American Dream” is a patriotic spiritual that isn’t cloying or…
Nina Medley — Red Dirt Redemption
Well, I can say that I’m pretty sure she’s found it. Her smoky, soulful vocals slink around the archetypal blues riffs, but beneath every song is that homegrown, Red Dirt, roadhouse rocking ’n’ rolling that draw immediate comparisons to Janis Joplin. “Drive Right Through Memphis” has a down-and-dirty groove that’s as playful as it is…
Cham wow
You’ve got juices and glasses. You’ve got friends. But the one thing absolutely necessary, and absent, is the champagne. Thanks to arguably antiquated liquor laws in our great state, the sabbath remains a day of rest here for liquor stores, so the bubbly stays out of your hands. If only there were a way to…
Kali Ra — Electric Living
“Black Leather Demon” is a cranium-pounding opening that recalls a time when Marilyn Manson wasn’t a bloated joke, but the album really kicks things into gear with the second cut, the title track, a song so sweeping and beautiful that it would be on my playlist for traversing a futuristic wasteland of death and darkness,…
Plan of action
Crowds at a Dillinger Escape Plan show can expect to hear booming drums, roaring vocals and heavy guitar played at breakneck speed. And maybe, if you’re lucky, the cruel snap of bones. “A Dillinger show is always unpredictable … and always full of bumps and bruises,” said guitarist Ben Weinman, who is wrapping up rehab…
Precious gems
Promoting women’s global entrepreneurial and social success, the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (IEEW) is hosting the fourth annual Jewel Fashion Show at Liberté clothing boutique on Classen Curve. Tuesday’s event spotlights students in IEEW’s Peace Through Business Program, as well as the latest fashions from metro boutiques and shops. A lifelong acolyte for…
Them Hounds — Them Hounds
Given the parameters of what actually constitutes the blues, it’s easy to see why: There just aren’t that many variations of the genre’s 12-bar framework that retain that “bluesy feel.” Instead, its divergences usually come in the form of vocal variance and guitar solos, and Them Hounds thrive within these confines. Two things immediately jump…
The Way, Way Back
Fox Searchlight — the studio that brought us Garden State, Juno and Little Miss Sunshine — has a knack for these pleasure centers, and The Way, Way Back is the latest installment in this line of cutesy, sentimental films. It opens Friday. The story follows the 14-year-old Duncan (Liam James, TV’s The Killing), an awkward,…
Hour of scour
It’s true and also the most common compliment visitors make. Nowhere is that friendliness stronger than in the hundreds of small towns that dot the state. One doesn’t have to venture far outside the metro to find these places, and many of them are worth visiting for much more than a kind word and sunny…
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh
Two more ingenious shorts have followed, and now, finally, Gudiño’s first stab at a feature with The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh. The budget remains small, while the creeps have increased exponentially. Do not watch it while alone and in the dark. Narrated by grand ol’ Vanessa Redgrave (Atonement), the newly departed woman…
Femme Fatales: The Complete Second Season
This second batch of episodes, 12 in all on two DVDs, seems more confident than Femme’s freshman outing, even if story quality remains wildly varied. Tanit Phoenix (Safe House) hosts the proceedings, with scenarios that include: • a comic-book heroine, • time-traveling clones, • noir-drenched detectives • and so much moaning. For every leaden dud…
The Naked Jungle
Back in print through Warner Archive, the meat-and-taters adventure is based on Carl Stephenson’s classic short story “Leiningen Versus the Ants” of two decades prior. Heston is the clenched-jaw Leiningen, owner of a cocoa plantation in South America, and so lonely and away from civilization that he has to mail-order a wife, played by Parker.…
Bullet to the Head
Based on a French graphic novel, Bullet shoots in the so-tired setting of New Orleans, where Sly’s Bonomo plies his trade as a hit man. Following his assassination of a former D.C. police officer, Bonomo finds his own partner killed by a hulking minion (Jason Momoa, Conan the Barbarian) taking orders from corrupt businessman Baptiste…
Hands of the Ripper
Fifteen years after watching her dad slay her mother, the frail, teenaged Anna (Angharad Rees) exhibits signs of possession; her hands contort into mitts that look caked with day-old guacamole and she slips into a murderous trance when those around her dare get too close. Rather than alert authorities, Dr. Pritchard (a regal Eric Porter,…
Field trip
Zumba class at the North Little Rocksenior wellness center credit: Tim Farley The 15-member group, led by Mayor Mick Cornett, City Manager Jim Couch and MAPS 3 Director David Todd, checked out the programs and equipment of that city’s Patrick Henry Hays Senior Citizens Center. Facility director Charley Baxter and North Little Rock Mayor Joe…
Walking Western
The plan, culminated after a months-long study, would narrow traffic lanes and increase sidewalk space throughout the five-block area of Western. Proponents say it will create more appealing public space and ease parking and pedestrian concerns. “We can make Western Avenue a better place,” said Blair Humphreys, executive director of the Institute for Quality Communities…
Prisoners and pooches
What you notice first in this scene is the bond between man and dog, both content to sit side by side as long as they’re allowed. Then your eyes drift to Miller’s standard-issue gray uniform, and you remember that this tableau is taking place not in a recliner in the living room, but rather the…
Google warming
But there was Google, which has invested more than $1 billion in clean energy, hosting a July 11 lunch fundraiser for Oklahoma’s senior senator. Protesters gathered outside Google’s Washington, D.C., offices, chanting, “Google, don’t fund evil” — a reference to the company’s slogan — while the $250-$2,500 per plate lunch went on as planned. Not one…
The Hot Flashes
Opening today at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 W. Memorial, The Hot Flashes appears at first to be Sex and the City meets Whip It with a menopausal twist. However, the film pulls more from reality than Hollywood; there is more social and political relevancy in this movie than most comedies dare offer. With…
TEEM effort
TEEM gave away more than 1,000 toiletry items last year — everything from denture tablets to deodorant — to those who needed them most. This year, the organization looks to build on that success and continue equipping students with the tools necessary to gain employment and break cycles of poverty. With partners Allegiance Credit Union,…
Build the cathedtral
Shadid supports his premise with statistics and facts from other projects and cities. This kind of research is vital when entering into something as important as the expenditure of taxpayer funding. We must be careful to remember, however, that facts and statistics can be read multiple ways and stated in a supportive fashion rather than…
None of your business
In fact, many of these individuals have eagerly stepped forward to help the tornado survivors. Whether they have or not, what business is it of Johnson what they do with their own money? —Carl Hall, Edmond
Sweet charity
The middle class and the poor are always willing to give to those more needy. The wealthy do not. The wealthy in Oklahoma could donate enough to build a shelter for every school in Oklahoma, but they will not, because they love their money more than they care about other people’s children. —Jeannie Yarger, Edmond
