There are so many incidents of protest and counter-protest these days that it is easy to filter out some of it. However, a story from the weekend caught my eye. Armed protesters, some wearing masks and carrying rifles, set up outside the Irving (TX) Islamic Center ( http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2015/11/armed-protesters-set-up-outside-islamic-center-of-irving.html/ ). This center, on Esters Road, is in my mother-in-law's neighborhood. We have driven by it countless tim

The Grace Immanuel building, currently under renovation, is OLD (well, for America). To put it in perspective, the church was built in 1887 and the Wounded Knee Massacre took place in South Dakota three years later. As one might expect, the demolition process in such a building is turning up some little treasures: old Bible story cards from 1900, a very stylish but decomposed woman's high-top shoe, a 7-ounce Seven Up bottle, and many 19th-century square nails. I have alwa