You will probably get depressed reading this article, but it’s worth it to stick with it to the end. It ends on a hopeful note, and a lesson for talking about climate change. The plight of the polar bears may hurt me in my soul, but lots of people have more immediate concerns. If you …
Continue reading ‘Pollution doesn’t respect borders, but climate change has to be made local’ »
I’ve grown increasingly concerned over the last several months about the divisions in our country, and have been wondering how we’re going to reconcile and come back together. I thought about the last time that an iconic deep fracturing and cultural shift occurred throughout our society – when a liberal, inclusive movement clashed with old …
As should be quite clear by now, I love me a good cider and the surge in the craft cider movement has made me quite happy. In my pursuit of a good cider, and my chronic need to catch ’em all on Untappd, some of our more recent vacations have taken on an added planning …
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 …