“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “The buck stops here.” “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Those are quotes from three 20th century presidents. “I am not a crook.” “Government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.” “I don’t take responsibility …
In the first 60 years of my life, I had exactly one surgery. It was 1976, and I spent four days in the hospital for what today might be outpatient surgery. On New Year’s Day 1972, I was engaged in playing football with other guys from my neighborhood. One of the players on the opposing …
It’s very rare to get wonderful emails. An awful lot of what we get is spam and much of the rest tends to be people trying to get us to give someone money, vote for someone else or just to e annoying in some way. Yes, there are occasional nice emails. But I’ve gotten three …
I was reading a blogpost by my California friend Kay Murphy, one of the best writers I know It was about almost losing one of her dogs in the foothills in the Inland Empire, and even though it ended happily, I finished it with tears in my eyes. Not because of her dog. As I …
With the sad death of Matthew Perry … Mike, aren’t all deaths sad? Trump? Well, maybe not all. Carry on. With the sad death of Matthew Perry, there seems to be a lot of talk about how wonderful “Friends” was. People of a certain age seem to think sitcoms started and ended with “Friends” and …
MY FAVORITE SITCOMS AREN’T ALL THE MOST POPULAR ONES Read More »
There is an old expression that basically says, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It may be the main reason so few serious problems ever get solved anymore, especially in this country. Take the issue of abortion, for example. Ever since the Supreme Court legalized a woman’s right to have an …
EVEN IN RED STATES, VOTERS WANT REASONABLE SOLUTIONS Read More »
“There is no solution to the gun problem, and little more to write, because Americans are addicted to firearms. “Representative Jared Golden, from Maine’s Second Congressional District, has reversed course and says he will now support outlawing military-style semiautomatic rifles like the one used in the killing of 18 people in Lewiston this week. But …
“It’s one way to bring people to this recognition…that what we read in the Bible are actual historical events.” What’s the one thing in the world someone could believe that ought to disqualify him from holding high office, particularly in the line of presidential succession? For lack of a better way of saying it, that …
Ronald Reagan. Grover Norquist. Newt Gingrich. Wayne LaPierre. Rupert Murdoch. Without those five gentlemen — and I use the term loosely — Donald Trump and the other MAGAts would never have made it through the doorway. Reagan was the one who said government was the problem, not the solution, and that the scariest sentence in …
FIVESOME OF VILLAINS GAVE US A VERY DIFFERENT AMERICA Read More »
This is an idea I explored a few years back. It drew some ridicule then, but as time passes and the problem looks more and more insoluble, it might be worth examining again. If there’s one thing that always bothers me, it’s banging my head against the wall again and again looking for a solution …
