What's Dispensationalism?

Since the issue of dispensationalism recently cropped up at Tblog, it's useful to have an exposition from the horse's mouth. Here's a precis:

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2007/06/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-word-“dispensationalism”-part-1/

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2007/06/what-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-the-word-“dispensationalism”-part-2/

And here's a representative article:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3817/is_200109/ai_n8977565/?tag=content;col1