My car insurance is due. Though I am driving less, I expect the premium will go up.  Nothing goes down these days except my bank account.  I don’t feel particularly misused. The pendulum seems to swing in the same direction for everyone’s clock.  Greater cost and lower service.

For me, one of the greatest hurdles I faced as a candidate for public office was getting through election night.  Take the last time I ran.  The counting machines broke down and supporters who’d joined me in the musicians’ labor hall milled around, clutching cups of cold cof

As the political season heats up, several candidates are vowing to end economic disparity by taxing the rich and giving the spillover to the poor.  So, now seems a good time to refresh our memories about the ways the superrich hide their assets. Today we review free ports.  Free por

The daughter of a friend came down with strep throat, recently, and her temperature rose to 104 degrees.  Naturally, her parents were worried, so they scooped her off to the doctor.  There, she received a dose of antibiotics and a prescription before returning home.  Happily, she c

I have no idea what generation would claim me. I’m not a baby boomer and the alphabet soup that follows – Xers, Ys, Zs, — are far too young.  Egads!  Some of these youth have never seen a landline.  Never mind, I don’t know the difference between emails and text mes

     Alex Trebek, longtime host for the popular television game show Jeopardy, after having been told he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer, announced, recently, his chemotherapy treatments have brought him near to remission.  More and more, people like him, are fighting their

Politics on the local and national spheres share one value in common. Voters expect their representatives to serve their constituents without seeking personal gain.  In Oregon, the feeling is so strong, that when I served in public office, I rejected a free lunch if it was offered. 

When she signed Alabama’s near total ban on abortion, recently, governor Kay Ivey, noted the law testified to the state’s “deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.” Again, another religious zealot with the power of the gavel

Rebecca Solnit, the author of Men Explain Things to Me, tickles my funny bone.  She has a sharp wit and a sharp pen which she exhibits regularly as a columnist for Harper’s. In addition, she is well-versed in a number of subjects, having written about the environment, landscapes, p