Greg Cravens About Jen Clarke’s column, “Legalized Bigotry: Tennessee Outdoes Mississippi and North Carolina” … I doubt the sponsors of this bill have ever met a transgender person. I doubt most people have ever met a person they would call transgender. They’ve seen Bruce Jenner become Caitlyn Jenner, and since that seems bizarre to most […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Tennessee Sharia? Closer Than You Think
Seemingly, few issues have vexed the members of the Tennessee General Assembly in recent years so grievously as has the specter of Sharia law — the Koran-based and severely fundamentalist legal framework which militant jihadists have imposed on Islamic societies in lieu of secular law, when and where they can. There has been an infinitesimally […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said…
Letters and comments from Flyer readers for the week of April 12, 2016
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Un-Conventional: High Drama Ahead at Both Parties’ Summer Confabs
Disproved now are trhoseindications earlier in the year that presidential politics would be played the usual way — with one candidate in each major party developing an early lead, usually after only three or four (and sometimes just two) primary victories, and then gradually pulling away until sometime in mid-March or mid-April, when it would […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said …
Greg Cravens About Toby Sells’ post “Greensward Protest Caused ‘Almost Irreparable Harm’” … A recent statement from the Memphis Zoo to the Flyer regarding last weekend’s protest on the Greensward was filled with false insinuations, half-truths, and outright lies, and I cannot let it be disseminated to the general public without responding. Here is a […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Strickland’s First 100 Days
It has been 100 days since the formal ascension to the mayor’s office of former city Councilman Jim Strickland on New Year’s Day, and, though it wasn’t his formal “First 100 Days” address, which will occur soon, along with the mayor’s first budget message, members of the Rotary Club of Memphis got a preview on […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
De-Annexation Pollyannas
We know that politicians, even wise and knowledgeable ones, whose local constituencies lie primarily outside the current boundaries of the city of Memphis, may find it difficult to fully tell it like it is in the case of the de-annexation bill under consideration in the Tennessee General Assembly. That fact might explain why Shelby County […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said …
Greg Cravens About Joey Hack’s post, “Questions Raised by Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’” … The answer to these questions, and many more like them, is that in 1974, Prozac had only just been invented. It wasn’t until years later that it went into wide circulation. OakTree He should be wearing a piano key necktie in […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said…
Greg Cravens About Frank Murtaugh’s post, “Memphis Tigers Post Mortem” … Josh Pastner is my guy. He’s 38, a great recruiter, has gotten us to the tourney three times, and is destined to make a great run because he’s a great coach. How stupid will Memphis look if he leaves and gets that run for […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
De-Annexation: The Moral of the Story
As this week’s Flyer cover story notes, the city of Memphis — in the judgment of numerous spokespersons for city interests — may have dodged another bullet in the General Assembly this week. This was a bill, the product of longstanding collaboration between various opponents of urban expansion in Tennessee, that would have crippled the efforts of […]
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
What They Said …
Greg Cravens About Bianca Phillips’ story, “Hispanic Man Sues City Over Beer Laws” … I’m glad to hear he won. I am so tired of laws that tell your neighbor how to live. If you don’t want to buy a bottle of wine on Sunday, then don’t. I might have a dinner party that night […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
Jim Eikner
Memphis lost one of its finest citizens last week — Jim Eikner. Lawyer, onetime prosecutor, actor, singer, painter, wit, public speaker par excellence, he was, among many other things, the on-air presence and golden voice that sustained WKNO, Memphis’ public broadcasting station, for decades. He was a blend of dignity, service, and wit who, even […]