The barriers to truth are many. People’s perceptions vary. They have biases. They ignore evidence, leave out facts, lie to themselves or diminish the importance of facts that give offense.    A writer complimented Kamala Harris on her fashion sense, recently.  By focusing on her

Lately, I’ve wondered if the human brain is capable of living up to its democratic ideals. What raised this question was an article I’d read about bone development in a child’s hand.  At the age of three, a youngster is unable to hold a pen because he or she lacks sufficient bo

Recently, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, called Nancy Pelosi to express his objection to the many tech anti-trust bills making their way through the U. S. House. If he hadn’t been serious when he made his comments, it would have been funny: Apple is concerned the current proposals would ha

A large book agency has asked to see the first 50 pages of my memoir, “Getting Lost to Find Home.”  I’m not turning cartwheels.  Most agents ask for sample pages as part of the query.  This one required a query before deciding to see more. Call it a baby step forward.  A req

The 2020 election is probably one of the most strange in American history.  We have a president whom some experts believe is mentally ill and who is so desperate to win reelection, he refuses to disavow support from QAnon,  a cult-like group that believes “deep state” officials

The Democrats in Congress are proposing several bills to curb presidential powers and to strengthen the system of checks and balances the Constitution provides. The changes offer increased protection for whistleblowers and agency watchdogs, prohibits a president from receiving payment

Call me a masochist, but every morning I open my computer to trawl for news.  Reliably, the headlines capture the worst of times: Joe Biden’s campaign files have been hacked; rattlesnakes bite two Yosemite hikers; west coast fires make the air unbreathable… One columnist expresse

A friend sent me an email this morning to say that in honor of the times in which we live, she was writing a new version of the Jabberwock.  I replied to her post as follows: “I woke up today with a new first stanza of the poem tumbling in my head.” For those who have yet to meet

Recently, I wrote a review of John Updike’s Bech at Bay, a book  I didn’t want to read but did.  Now I’ll turn to two books I have yet to read but hope to do so. The first is The Hunting of Hillary, by Pulitzer prize-winning biographer Michael D’Antonio. The second is Pelosi

Don’t get me wrong. I admire House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She knows how to crack a whip over her Democratic caucus to lead the country forward. The job, I imagine, invites plenty of frown line, but she appears to have gone a tad too far with the Botox in her effort to appear perpetua