Is Medicare for All affordable? I have no idea. Apparently, neither do Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose argument in favor appears to be based on their misreading of a medical study. Nonetheless, the goal is important and Obamacare has been a step in the right dir
Our President, Donald Trump, wants to close our southern border. According to him. our country is full. Tell that to the Dakotas, to the emptied towns in mid-America, and to the plains of Wyoming. With an aging population approaching twice that of the younger one, the country is
FINDING YOUR ROOTS AND GETTING TANGLED IN THEM Today, so many ways exist to invade our privacy without our knowledge, it’s almost comic to think how freely we volunteer these intimate details ourselves. Without batting an eye, we do it to find romance or search our family history.
The poet, Alexander Pope once wrote, “To err is human,” and I’ve never known anyone to dispute him. That we rely on electronic devices to store our information and keep our calendars is understandable, except we forget they are designed by humans. To presume they are perfect
In the 1960s, Peter Weiss stunned the world with his play, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. The story depicts a French asylum in 1808 in which the inmates re-enact
I know a Latin woman who works as a cleaning lady in a healthcare facility. She has two children and a working husband. Her goal is to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN), and she is a student at a private college. When she told me she was in her final year of study and that s
In an earlier blog I complained my doctor thought I was too old for anymore fecal tests. I was stunned. But on the day I returned from my mammogram, I received a second email from her. I am also too old for mammograms, as well. No more fecal tests or mammograms? Why mourn? I n
The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, has reinstituted Shira law in his largely Muslim country. Now, the likelihood a child could lose a hand for stealing an apple is real. Sex without a marriage license will carry the death penalty as will homosexual behavior. The weight of t
The challenge in writing a daily blog is to stay balanced: to choose topics close to centers of interest my readers recognize, while providing enough novelty to prevent them from becoming bored. All writers face this delicate balance. Harry Potter put J. K. Rowling on the map. But w
Virtue isn’t always a blessing, no matter what the devout might think. Take humility, for example. That got me into trouble last week. I wrote a blog, tongue-in-cheek, about an email from my web designer. She was seeking information about the site. As she’d provided the de