Posts

Bombs Away

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Editorial cartoon: Nick Anderson       First off, this post has nothing to do with war, regardless of how you're feeling about the high price of gas and how we're dangerously low on advanced weapons , even pulling them from South Korea and stopping further shipments to Ukraine.  A nd makeup artist, Pete Hegseth, not only caused another top military commander to resign , but brought his wife in to help with the new Department of War ...good choice of name because Hegseth has also ordered any soldier over the age of 30 to have a mandatory testosterone count check , but generously also offering free testosterone shots to those who may want them -- not women, of course, whom he is trying to diminish in numbers in the military (not "manly" enough).   And who's to blame when elderly Congress folk simply fail to show up, some even being discovered living in an assisted living facilty .  No worries since the Trumpster himself would simply pardon them, adding...

Past Tense

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     There's a tee shirt that says "of course I live in the past -- have you seen the present lately?"  With an unpopular war in the Middle East, high fuel prices, rising inflation, and corruption of all sorts from those high in government, you'd think I was talking about the present.  But as the  NY Times  noted, it was nearly the same 20 years ago as midterms neared:  Back then, congressional Republicans faced the voters at the midpoint of President George W. Bush’s second term, with the public roiled by the war in Iraq, high fuel prices and a series of ugly accusations against members of the G.O.P. majority on Capitol Hill.   The dissatisfaction was large enough for voters to change the GOP control of Congress.  But don't worry, because even if I never pictured our country allowing an 80-year old child to revive the Klu Klux Klan side of our nation, as well as send shivers through so many members of Congress, this post wi...

Pay Attention

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     Who among us doesn't remember that sharp rebuke from a school teacher as your young mind drifted off into some unknown place, any place, for at those times it seemed as if anything was more interesting that what the teacher was rambling on about (not the Norman conquest again!).  Besides, that cute guy or gal was the one drawing your attention.  You know, that alpha-guy or that alpha-gal.  Hmm, turns out that the stronger of the two turned out to be the alpha-gal, the one that can not only get you to stop eating red meat, but may actually kill you.  Doesn't that tick you off?  But those ticks are real, and so is the killing part, especially if you don't have the alpha-gal gene and then bite into a burger, something which you've done for years.  Wait, what the heck am I talking about?  And can you make out that image on the right?  Do you see it (big clue, there)?  Do I have your attention now?  But first... Photo:...

Her Story/History

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     As mentioned over and over, history is one of my weakest subjects, which is ironic because I do enjoy both reading and hearing about it.  But I am little more than a tourist listening to a guide when learning history.  For while it is fascinating to hear about the past, even to take copious notes, if you give me a quiz the following week or month, little of it remains.  And within a year, only a tiny detail or two is there, the entirety of the scope of the person or place or culture somehow as lost as a solo part of a 1000-piece puzzle.  What were the main ruling empires in 200 BCE?  The Assyrians ruled for how long, and where?  Did the Persians, Roman's, or Greeks come first?  Good grief...where's that white board to graph it all out?  And yet, somehow I keep reading history.    Photo: Zhengze Xu of China      Quick quiz: which Cleopatra married Marc Antony?  Wait, there was more than one Cleopatr...