What is the most important constitutional right an American citizen has? It isn’t freedom of speech, press or religion. It isn’t the right to assemble peaceably. And contrary to what the gun nuts would say, it isn’t the right to keep and bear arms. The most important right we have as Americans is one so …
RIGHT TO TRAVEL A BIG DEAL IN OUR POST-ROE WORLD Read More »
If you’re looking for consistency and an overall philosophy linking the Supreme Court’s two big decisions this week, it’s fiarly simple. “Once you’re born, duck.” Yesterday, the Court released a ruling that said New York State didn’t have the right to make it more difficult for people to go out in public packing heat. New …
Another horrific ruling by the Supreme Court today, further dividing the country over guns. I’ll address that specifically later, but here’s a piece originally from eight years ago about the divisions in our country. *** I wish I weren’t so angry at my country. I wish I didn’t see so much bad in our political …
It was the summer of 1973, and one show on television had a death grip on the nation’s curiosity. Democrats and Republicans alike were doing their best to get at the truth about the scandals that all fit under the umbrella known as Watergate. Nine years after the Civil Rights Act passed Congress, Sam Ervin …
WE COULD LEARN A LOT FROM THE WATERGATE HEARINGS Read More »
Originally from 2014. *** “Let us go to the banks of the ocean where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee, long ago I used to be a young man but dear Margaret remembers that for me …”— “THE DUTCHMAN,” Michael Peter Smith For the last few days, I have been listening to at least a …
I wrote this piece in 1998 in the middle of my five years as a California newspaper columnist. It will be one of the pieces in a collection I’m compiling called “Humor and Heart: 40 Years as a Columnist” that will be published later this year. I hope you enjoy it. *** I’m being stalked. …
SURVIVING A STALKING BY A DEDICATED GRAMMAR NAZI Read More »
“We are living through what feels like the end of America.” I never thought I would agree with Ginni Thomas on anything. In fact, learning I feel the same way about something with the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas is almost as bad as discovering that America’s Rodent, Dinesh D’Souza, is a distant cousin. Thankfully, …
There was never a time in my life that I met as many fascinating people as I did between 1996 and 2001, the five years I wrote a column three times a week for a California newspaper. More than 20 years later, living on the other side of the country, I wonder what happened to …
“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.” Heroes come from the strangest place, and they aren’t always universally worthy. Sam Ervin was an American hero when he chaired the Senate Watergate Committee in the summer …
I originally wrote this piece 13 years ago. Came across it today and was actually stunned at how changes since 2009 have almost made that America look like the good old days. Internet shopping is killing even the malls. *** “This used to be a hell of a good country.”— Jack Nicholson in “Easy Rider,” …
