Cynical Dog Whistles

I was born in Limbaugh Land: Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I’m four years older than Rush, but the Limbaughs were face cards in that town long before he (or even I) came along, and remain a powerful local dynasty today. One of them crunched my sister’s car a few years back. There was no question of […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Surveillance

That’s a speed enforcement camera. The reason you can’t see it is because someone put a bag over it. This rebellion against the police state happened in England; click on the photo to learn more. Here in Tucson we have speed enforcement and red light cameras: they’re not yet everywhere but we’re getting there. Just […]

Facebook Common Sense

A friend posted this to Facebook yesterday: Like you, probably, I didn’t recognize the guy in the photo. Is he the head of some teabagger group calling for the impeachment of the President? Out of curiosity I clicked the “See More” link. Turns out the guy’s a respected reporter named Charley Reese. The link takes […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Bleeding Heart

What am I being a big old pussy about today? Trapping. A young nephew in Missouri is a hunter. He also traps coyotes and bobcats and posts photos on Facebook. Photos of living animals in pain. I unfriended him yesterday in order to block those photos. That sounds pathetic and weak, but I don’t know […]

Going Nuclear

After the Newton school shooting I posted a couple of tweets using the hashtag #FuckTheNRA. When I originally set up my Twitter account I foolishly checked the box that allowed other users to contact me by email. I’ve now fixed that, but not before the gun nuts found me. The pro-mass murder emails I’ve been […]

You Can’t Read That!

YCRT! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Is your child’s teacher thinking about sex? Right this minute? Smutty-minded parents in Ohio clamor for a high school teacher to be fired after she writes a novel with sex in it Same thing (Pennsylvania, last year) Michigan educators stand firm against removing Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass […]

Thursday Bag o’ Right-Wing Hatred

I should write about our Christmas with the kids in Las Vegas, but when I think of it I’m happy, and as with most things happy, words are slow to come and inadequate when they do. When I see right-wingers getting up to their old shenanigans, on the other hand, I see red and words […]