Articles written by Mark Browning

Advanced Search

What is Helium

About me - Mark Browning

+ more bio information

RSS Feed

Politics, News & Issues > Party Politics & Ideology 2006 elections: Whether democratic control of the house will affect change: 6 of 35
A new day has dawned as Democrats have taken over the Congress! Nancy Pelosi is in charge on one side of the Capital, while Harry Reid runs the show on the other. Oh Brave New World! What marvels do we have in store for us.1. Immigration reform. For years now, Republicans have talked tough about illegal immigration and done n... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Sports Archives College basketball predictions: 2007 March Madness upsets: 2 of 11
It's pretty tough to predict upsets when the brackets aren't even out yet, but the old Prognosticator is here to offer his first insights into the byzantine barricades of bracketology.Here are my predictions:1. Dick Vitale will get really excited about roughly 2/3 of the teams that he talks about, baby.2. Roy Williams' hair w... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Spiritual Insights What is spirituality?: 15 of 74
One's view of spirituality might depend on one's belief system, but I'd like to try to answer this question independent of any particular belief system. Much of Western philosophy and theology is based on a dualistic view of the cosmos. There is body and there is spirit, the material and the spiritual. Some belief systems-gn... More..
Arts & Humanities > English Language Improving your English: 18 of 61
Me speaks English much good! Okay, you know what that means, but we certainly wouldn't call it good English. Having taught English to college students for some twenty years, I've seen a lot of students, both non-native and native speakers of English, who needed significant improvement in their English. I'll tell you what I t... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Catholicism Why you should confess your sins: 22 of 62
Harold Bloom, the literary scholar, says that most writers never go anywhere without meeting Shakespeare on his way back from already going there. He applies that, notably, to Sigmund Freud. Everything that Freud thought he discovered, Bloom argues, Shakespeare had already noticed. How much more true is this about the God wh... More..
Sports & Recreation > Football (Other) Why L.A doesn't have pro football: 3 of 8
The true reason that Los Angeles does not have NFL football has nothing to do with the availability of a stadium or the lack of investors. It has everything to do with demographics. People L.A. has, some 13 million of them at the latest count. That's plenty of people to support an NFL franchise. Indianapolis, with only 1.6 mi... More..
Education > Homeschooling Explaining why homeschooling has gained popularity: 8 of 21
When my oldest daughter, who is now twenty-three, started her senior year of high school, she asked us a question: "Can I stop being home schooled and go to school for this last year?" My wife and I conferred and determined that she could. Emily spent something like three weeks back at Raytown High School. After those three w... More..
Sports & Recreation > Football Players Greatest pro football players in history: 11 of 28
Time and again I hear TV commentators proclaim this player or that player as "one of the best guards/receivers/returners/etc. in the NFL." What foolishness! Of course they're "one of the best." It stands to reason that the starting center on any given team is one of the best thirty-two (or perhaps thirty-five). What does it ... More..
Business > General Management How managerial jargon undermines business communication: 2 of 5
"Embrace a total quality paradigm while prioritizing the achievement-oriented outcomes relative to demographic impact on the enterprise-wide economies of productivity."Yes, I'm all about embracing. Let's embrace. The rest of that stuff can be jettisoned.Jargon is the refuge of small minds cluttered with even smaller ideas. Ja... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Sports Archives 2007 Super Bowl predictions: 30 of 66
Surely any of us can do better than Sports Illustrated, who picked a Miami-Carolina Super Bowl back when the season began. Here's my try.In the AFC, we have the following:KC vs. Colts-I believe that the Chiefs are going to upset the Colts. Larry Johnson is going to run all over the weak Indy run defense. Plus the Chiefs owe t... More..