Well, I’m Not Pessimistic-Pessimistic …

… but I am, these days, a little more down than up.  Particularly over the union-busting going on in so many states, and peoples’ refusal to see what lies behind it.  Republican governors and Republican-dominated state legislatures aren’t trying to save money by busting public employee unions and cutting back on education and services funding.  […]

Running for Higher Ground

Nancy Nall on today’s earthquake in Japan: “I’m touched by the grocery-store employees whose first impulse is to try to protect the stock from falling off the shelves. We give our lives to our jobs and we take pride in even the smallest ones. We deserve a few benefits in the bargain, Gov. Walker, you […]

Entrapping Mau Maus on Trail: a Science Fiction Plot?

I’ve never liked entrapment.  Not when the police do it, not when civilians do it.  Not when the right does it, not when the left does it.  I particularly don’t like it when people are tricked into voicing their personal, non-job-related opinions on things, then lose their jobs as a result.  But you know what […]

Fat Tuesday Blogging

My sisters and I grew up in a non-Mardi Gras home: Mom, like all Southern Baptists, observed Lent the whole year round; Dad, an agnostic, pretty much did whatever he wanted to do regardless of the time of year.  I married a Catholic girl, but Mardi Gras wasn’t part of her family’s tradition either.  Oh, […]

Vandals and Varmints and Mau Mau, Oh My!

Someone spilled paint on the highway leading to our house and my poor daughter, driving home in the dark, didn’t see it in time to avoid it.  The result was brown paint all down the left side of my car.  Fortunately it proved to be latex and Polly was able, with elbow grease and a […]

Bird Feeders and Dog Whistles

A reasonably busy morning for a retired person: writing a book review, catching up with friends on Facebook, posting an entry on the hashing blog, answering email from people who want their addresses removed from a list I have nothing to do with, refilling bird feeders, replacing lightbulbs, taking out garbage, rounding up all my […]

More on Spite

Note: I put this post up yesterday and then took it down. It came across all wrong, reading as if I were calling conservatives spiteful and stupid, when in fact I think we’re all spiteful and stupid. What I was really talking about was maturity and childishness, and the pressing need for mature leadership in […]

Get Off of My Clothes and Out of My Tree!

Last month, in the wake of the Tucson shootings, I joined a chorus of bloggers commenting on what many saw as a connection … not necessarily causal but closely related … between calls to violence from the right and the spate of politically- and ideologically-motivated shootings we’ve seen in our country over the past two […]