GOP town halls go viral (The Hill) Last weekend, Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) told a crowded town hall that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to healthcare.” Feeling some backlash, he later posted a statement on FB to clarify exactly what he meant, if only the mean old media wouldn’t take him out of …
Continue reading ‘Maybe They’ll Offer a Two for One Special!’ »
Timing is key. Comey had few friends on the left. Obama could have fired him last fall, but he didn’t because it would have been a political move. The FBI Director is supposed to be independent and outside the sphere of politics. Trump could have fired him in January as part of his transition, but …
Continue reading ‘Do you honestly not recognize the context here?’ »
The amount I’ve come to know about cider – varieties, brands, tastes, methods – seems to have snuck up on me. I was at a social gathering a few weeks ago, and I was chatting with some people about cider, having brought some to drink that evening. After we got passed the usual, “oh, you …
Where do your NEA dollars really go? What we learned on an Indiana road trip. (WaPo) Think you know where NEA dollars go? They go to controversial big city artists who urinate on the crucifix, right? Think again. This is an excellent article on the many programs funded in Indiana, including therapeutic art and folk …
Re/ A Time to Choose for the Supreme Court (NYT) I read this opinion piece last week about the then-upcoming Gorsuch confirmation hearings and one section that called back to the Bork confirmation hearings has really stuck with me. It keeps coming back to me, surfacing in my mind daily, so it’s time to voice …
Continue reading ‘Constitutional Rights are not a Finite Resource’ »
I have seen comments on some friends’ timelines that lead to me to think some people don’t really understand the consequences of the Global Gag Rule that Donald Trump reinstated this week via Executive Order. The fact is that US funds already can’t be used to perform abortions, but the Global Gag Rule bars US …
This was me 8 years ago. The Bush years had been tough. There was Abu Ghraib, Hurricane Katrina, and the first reports of polar bears cannibalizing each other due to lack of sea ice. There was the room full of old white warmongers: Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Darth Cheney. I was on high alert. I had …
Re/ Ethics office accuses GOP of rushing Trump Cabinet confirmations (The Hill) The frantic pace at which Congress is trying to push things through – from changes in ethics rules to repealing Obamacare without any plan for replacement other than an insistence that there will be one – speaks less of excitement over being back …
Okay, this bit of blathering about my November reading selections is long-delayed. Between prepping for the holidays and generally running around like my hair was on fire since November 8th, this review was put on the back burner. But here it is, at last. Wayward Pines trilogy (Pines, Wayward, The Last Town) – Blake Crouch. …
Re/ Why Men Don’t Want the Jobs Done Mostly by Women (NYT) I’ve got to say, I’m getting pretty sick and tired of this kind of “soft misogyny”. Setting aside for a minute the fact that occupations that employ a predominantly female workforce generally pay less, in and of itself a problem of our society …