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 …
The first time I heard country music and actually liked it was 1971. It was a movie I had been looking forward to seeing — Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces” — and the very first thing on the soundtrack was Tammy Wynette singing “Stand By Your Man.” It wasn’t like anything I had ever …
WYNETTE ONE OF THE OVERLOOKED GREAT COUNTRY STARS Read More »
“We hear so many loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other. They spread hate. They leave the impression that, by their very words, that violence is …
CAN AN ENTIRE PARTY THRIVE ON HATE AND RESENTMENT? Read More »
I originally wrote this for another blogsite seven years ago, but with the right wing getting more and more worked up about anyone who doesn’t fit into the masculine man or feminine woman categories, I thought it was worth mentioning again. I also love the opportunity to remind everyone what an amazing person my daughter …
It was a Saturday night in September 1973 — the last one, in fact — and I was in the Crazy Horse in Georgetown. It had been the bar of choice for my friends and me since the summer of 1969, but on this particular evening I was alone and getting nowhere. I had two …
‘AMERICAN GRAFFITI’ REMEMBERED, BOTH HAPPY AND SAD Read More »
Fairfax County, Va., is renaming my high school. As news goes, it ranks somewhere below war in the Middle East, Republican antics in the House of Representatives and Big Don Trump’s latest meltdown. As renamings go, it’s sort of a “meh.” Most of us didn’t know who Wilbert Tucker Woodson was even when we were …
