I’ve lived long enough to recall when public service was an honorable occupation. Over the years, that view among many has changed.  Today, when politicians make headlines, they are being unmasked as liars, cheats and hypocrites.  Seldom do we see them praised for the good they do

To the average person, the workings of government can appear mysterious and bizarre.  That strangeness may be why taxpayers can grow suspicious of their elected officials. For example, when a county sells land to an individual for $1, some might wonder. Is something going on under th

Donald Trump has written another executive order that will come to nothing. That order instructs the IRS “…to exercise maximum enforcement discretion to alleviate the burden of the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits religious leaders from speaking about politics and candidates fro

Professor Higgins’ line from My Fair Lady asks why a woman can’t be more like a man.  He sees women as frivolous, inferior creatures no real man could  understand.  But change the emphasis of his words and the question asks something different.  Why can’t a woman be more lik

I’ve been a card-carrying member of the Labor Movement of a long, long time.  The organization, however, can be doctrinaire and retrograde in its thinking.  Unlike my brothers and sister, for example, I supported the NAFTA treaty.   Yes, I acknowledged there’d be a disruption

When I went in for my first cataract surgery, the nurse handed me a medical questionnaire.  Among the boxes to be checked was the one that often gives me pause.  Was I white or Hispanic?  I never know what to do with these labels.  (Blog 8/8/17)  In the end, I checked the “whit

Facing the second of two cataract surgeries, I feel I’ve seen enough doctors for a while.  Unfortunately, as one gets older, a person tends to see more, not less, of them. I should be happy. I have access to medical care when I need it.  In some parts of the country, particularly

As I’ve written before, gatekeepers, those whose reputations outweigh other standards of measurement, are the people who decide what is great art and what isn’t. Of course, those experts change with each succeeding generation and so, the value of art is ephemeral, something th

Daily, Donald Trump, the Tweeterer- in-chief exposes himself as a twit and commentators are loving it.  I can’t keep up with the jokes memorializing this humorless man.  Here’s a sample from the October issue of Vanity Fair.  “Trump has made Russia Great again; Trump is a che

When I was a youngster, one of my scariest memories was a scene from Snow White.  The huntsman’s shadow falling over the princess with a dagger was not it.  Nor was it the scene where the queen tempts her stepdaughter with a  poisoned apple.  What made me shiver was the old woma