Trailer Blues

Our daughter Polly’s possessions are still at the ex-boyfriend’s house in Ajo, Arizona: furniture, kitchen stuff, clothes, the lot. Since she’s still with us and doesn’t yet have a place of her own, the ex has been allowing her to keep her things there. Polly found another job, this time with our local school district. She starts this week, […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Boy Came Back

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Textbooks confiscated from Tucson Unified School District classrooms, January 2012 Banned Books Week Commentary From Friends & Foes Can you parse this Banned Book Week letter to the editor? I can’t make heads or tails of it! An attempt to ban a […]

I Know, Let’s Have a Debate!

We watched the first Democratic presidential debate this week. Judging by the wealth of post-debate comments posted on social media, we weren’t alone. Most of us who sat down to watch already knew our own favored candidate would win, and funnily enough, that’s exactly how it worked out. I’m no different. I favored Hillary Clinton going in, […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Yaks

No doubt all right-thinking Americans will tune in the Democratic presidential debate tonight. We’ll be watching, if for no other reason than to see how the candidates hold up under questioning and attacks. I’m not betting on Joe Biden coming in, and will be surprised if he shows up at the last minute tonight, but what do I know? I haven’t paid much attention to the news today. I think Joe will definitely step in if Hillary stumbles, but I don’t expect her to do that.

The Test

Conservative friends tell me Democrats are the real racists, not them. Their argument, if you can call it one, is based on the universally-acknowledged fact that the Democratic Party was, during the Jim Crow era, the party of white southerners. They love to point out that Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat, was once a member […]