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By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)yahoo.com
How does one go from being the top dog in New York to being a afterthought in the public eye, you do this when you get caught in the middle of a high priced prostitution ring. Two weeks ago, NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer stepped down amongst an investigation that he had paid thousands […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
As I sat down to write my column this week, I faced a dilemma. Last year I did a column covering the debate over gay marriage. I had to sit down, ask myself if I should continue to hide in the closet or if I came out of the closet, and take my […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
Here we were, Wed. March 5, and the Republicans have officially settled who will represent them at the convention. On the Democratic side, things are still murky as to who is the leading candidate. I must confess I had already typed up an obituary for the Clinton Campaign to run as my column this week. So I […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)yahoo.com
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how the Presidential candidates are bickering over who the true Conservative is. In contemplating this week’s column, I was struck at how much Mitt Romney did (and John McCain still does) sound just like Ronald Reagan. I went back into my research materials and pulled up […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
In many ways this country is on a road to recovery. Whether we are recovering from a disaster that has struck or an administration that has taken advantage of their position in office, we all, in some way, are on the road to recovery.
Let me ask you this: What is a conservative?
I bet that […]
By JIM MONTANAM
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
As many of you may know Memphis was one of the many cities in the Tennessee region to suffer from a series of devastating tornados last week. Now normally I would start my column with some sort of odd incoherent gobbledygook, however this week is different you may have noticed the lack of […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)yahoo.com
Now before anyone gets too excited about that headline, let me say this the following is not an actual announcement. It started out as a parody of the political season so far when one of my coworkers suggested I actually make it into a column, so here there […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
On Saturday night John “Don’t count me out yet” McCain won his second major primary of this election year by taking South Carolina. Mitt Romney won the primarily uncontested Las Vegas caucus with Hillary Clinton winning the Nevada caucus for the Democrats.
Now for those keeping score at home, that leaves Hillary with two […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)gmail.com
After taking the last couple of weeks for reflection in Montana, I am pleased to be back in a rested frame of mind and am ready to tackle the New Year and all of the political news that comes with it. If my columns sucked, let me apologize that is what happens when […]
By ANDREW STEEVES
steeves(at)uwm.edu
I’m from Wisconsin (Milwaukee, specifically), and I have a certain level of pride in where I live. I remember checking out some magazine article a couple years back claiming Milwaukee to be the No. 1 Most Underestimated City in the Country. I wear that probably outdated fact like a […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)gmail.com
Happy New Year: Let me take this time and wish everyone a Happy New Year. I apologize for the lack of a column last week. This will be my first column… of 2008. With that being said, it’s that time of the year where people make New Year’s resolutions and vow to […]
On Christmas, a tiger escaped from the San Francisco zoo. On Saturday, an 18-page transcript about the incident was released.
One of the highlights was that zoo employees “questioned whether early reports of the Dec. 25 attack were coming from a mentally unstable person,” according to Jordan Robertson of the Associated Press.
The potentially unstable person was […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)yahoo.com
Six months ago I came to the cactus as the sports writer, but, due to personal issues, had to relinquish that position. However I was fortunate to be able to return in a capacity as the politics and current events writer. As I sit here, writing my column, it was brought to my […]
It’s Christmas Eve, a day for family, friends and, for some, presents.
Yes, there is the materialistic side of Christmas. There’s the religious side that everyone tries to avoid — “Take the Christ out of Christmas,” they scream as they write X-Mas on the store windows — but no one ever says, “Take the presents out […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
Every year it is like clock work. Parents take their kids to the mall to see our dear old jolly fat man from the North Pole and the routine is always the same.
Santa: And what do you want for Christmas this year little Billy?
Little Billy: Um… um, I want a fire truck
[…]
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that 64 journalists have died in 17 countries this year, the deadliest year in more than a decade (and two short of the record). According to the group, 31 journalists died in Iraq — one fewer than a year ago.
We obviously cannot bring these people back, but today’s cactus […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
In the months of October to December of 2003, many people say that deplorable acts took place at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and those acts are intolerable. However, the United States need not be judged by the acts of a select few. I have seen all of the photos in question, and […]
When people die, they leave behind a will, giving out limited amounts of money and family heirlooms — and lots of “junk” — to living relatives.
When rich people die, they leave their stuff to people and places unrelated to them. Like museums. Or libraries. Or friends with a Chinese restaurant and a great recipe for […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
Warning! The following column expresses views on a controversial subject. These views are the author’s alone and does not represents that of cactusiv.com or any of the site’s other writers. If you are easily offended or don’t believe in other point of views, please do not read on. Thank you. […]
So today we give the imaginary “Newsmaker of the Day” cactus to a Pittsburgh woman who sued Kmart.
If you go back a few weeks, you can see why I hate Kmart. So does that Pittsburgh woman.
See, Pennsylvania state law says that says that while paper products are taxable, toilet paper is not. Kmart is fascist […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
On a personal note: First let me say that I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Second let me apologize right now for what could be sub-Jim Montana quality of this week’s column. This past Thursday, I lost a true inspiration in my life: My Grandmother finally lost her fight […]
By ROXY RETAIL
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
A few weeks ago, NBC had green week. Basically, the new episodes of each show had nothing to do with recycling — except Scrubs because, I don’t know, Zach Braff is totally in tune with the environment. I mean, look at how his hair is au natural. He doesn’t use hair spray at […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
Greetings from Montana: This week’s column will be larger than normal because it has been two weeks, and I have a lot to say.
First let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. That being said it’s not too late to send me those birthday presents. […]
By CAITLIN HANVEY
caitlinhanvey(at)gmail.com
of five
[[Ed.’s note: Caitlin is our new movie reviewer. This is her first week taking over for Michelle L.]]
While it is hard for anybody (besides the Sudanese government) to deny the genocide currently occurring in the region of Darfur in the Sudan, what is not hard is for many in the western world […]
By ANDREW STEEVES
steeves@uwm.edu
[[Ed.’s note: You’re going to see a couple of these Editor’s notes in the next few weeks. We’ve got a few new columns, beginning with this video game column, which you’ll see every Thursday.]]
And the debate rages on. Sparked by the recent release of Manhunt 2, parents everywhere (led by the […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
Notes from the edge: Ahh fall, that time of the year where temperatures take a plunge and new opportunities present themselves. I’m talking about the news I received last week. A newspaper in Pennsylvania gave me a call, informing me that they would like to hire me for a columnist […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)yahoo.com
Ramblings from a Madman: This week I found some interesting little news nuggets to share with you. First up, in his soon to be released book The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack, author Ronald Kessler writes […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
Ramblings from a lunatic: First, let me say Happy Halloween. Yes, I know Halloween is not until next week, but I just wanted to get an early start on the holiday. I have decorated my yard to mimic that of the George Bush Cabinet — with victims everywhere. Okay, enough hating on […]
By JIM MONTATA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
On a personal note: I want to thank everyone who emailed me last week with their opinions on the new format. Some were good, some not so favorable. In addition, for those who posted a comment on the cactus, thank you. I will continue to make slight changes to tweak it until […]
By DA SOUTHERN
dasouthern(at)gmail.com
William Shakespeare, I believe, said it best when it comes to the discussion of the reality show Kid Nation on CBS. The season is barely two weeks in and poor Kid Nation garners no respect at all. The show premiered before the rest of the Fall season got under way, and it […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montana(at)hotmail.com
And now a word from our sponsor: As promised last week I am debuting the new look for the column, I realized in a stroke of genius that I was in fact spending excessively too much time on President Bush so I will lay off of the Commander-In-Chief — or at least […]
By JIM MONTANA
jim.montata(at)hotmail.com
In the past two weeks, I have spent many restless nights trying to figure out what direction I wanted to take my column.
After countless revisions, I finally figured out where I wanted to go, so next week’s column will debut the new format. Until then, here’s this week’s column.
Last week Iranian […]