I got into a Twitter exchange with an ultra-right-wing person (@PolitiBunny) about the recent “nuclear option” invoked by Harry Reid to finally put an end to Republican obstruction of President Obama’s judicial nominees and executive appointments. Like most right-wingers on the Internet, she was very intolerant of viewpoints other than her own, and she displayed […]
Elizabeth Warren said “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.” You’re not going to see that quote on Fox News, even though the Fox News audience really needs an education on this issue. But it’s the truth. Unless you snapped your fingers and summoned one hundred pounds of […]
Governor Rick Perry, newly declared candidate for President of the United States, has trotted out an old, dependable, and predictable villain, one familiar to science fiction fans and Luddites alike: Scientists. Scientists — and there’s a nice blanket term for you, by the way — are manipulating data related to climate change, and they’re doing […]
When did being smart go out of fashion? When did it become OK to make fun of the people who knew things and praise the idiots? When did brawn win out over brains? George W. Bush. Yes, I know, the folks on the left tend to blame poor old W for almost everything — two […]
“How are you?” It’s not usually a loaded question. Normally, in a sane world, you are expected to say something like “Fine. How are you?” and get some standard response, like “Oh, not bad,” or maybe “Can’t complain!” or even my old stand-by, “So far, so good.” Normally. In a sane world. But that’s not […]
He was sitting all alone on the bench, not reading anything, not doing anything. Just sitting there, looking down at the ground. I needed to catch my breath, needed to regroup, so I sat down on the far end. It was one of those autumn days where the air was crisp and the leaves had […]
This is how things happen in the real world. Just like that. Not bit by bit, not slowly over time, but just like that. One minute you’re walking in the sunshine and the next it’s a deluge of biblical proportions. One minute you’re filthy rich and the next you’re trying to figure out how to […]
This is my day: I’m minding my business one minute, and someone is screaming into my ear the next. I’ve learned to live with it. Really, it’s pretty much like parenting a teenager — you’re going to get called some names. Bob was on the other end of the line, and he wasn’t a happy […]
I was old once, for a minute, but I got over it. I took a look in the mirror and then forgot all about it. I looked at my hands and decided to look somewhere else. I smelled something, something in the air, something from long ago, and then I remembered. Everything. Her hair, her […]
Starbucks is not normally the place for fraternization. You go in, you get on line, you order your drink, you get on another line and wait for your drink. Once you get your drink, you either add things to it or not, get a napkin or not, sit down or not, stay or leave. One […]