11 Oct, 2022
Dictatorship? Raise hands
Show of hands: Who wants the US to be a dictatorship? Ah, no one? Well, almost no one. We see your hand, Mr. Trump.
5 Oct, 2022
My zero-sum hummers
I adore "my" hummingbirds, arguably the best in-close flyers in the world, with reaction times so fast they zip in next to angry defensive bees to score a sip of sugar water despite the bees coming at them in a bee fury that would dissuade virtually any other critter, including me.
25 Sep, 2022
Taking aim at the Second Amendment
Taking aim at the Second Amendment by Tom H. Hastings 614 words It is long past time to repeal the...
25 Aug, 2022
Sanctions or bombs? Rubles or rubble?
When Hitler invaded Poland, 1 September 1939, the US...did nothing. But the UK and France declared war on Germany.
30 Jul, 2022
Language!
The 14-year-old girl fumes at the dinner table. She got a D in math on her report card and notice of that was sent directly to her mother's phone.
18 Jul, 2022
Practicing safe protest: Just Say No to violence
"Get the f__k out of here!" screamed the young woman. I understood. She was enraged, yelling at a small group of evangelicals with their powerful loudspeaker, at the end of the Pride parade last month.
27 Jun, 2022
Vow of silence (but now quite yet)
Time to let women speak their minds about the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v Wade. Men have spoken, made rules, passed laws...
7 Jun, 2022
An ounce upstream
I tapped the drunken man on the shoulder. "David," I said, "we need your two dollars cover charge." ...
14 May, 2022
Calling in virtue
I am an academic, with publications in peer-reviewed journals and a terminal degree.
8 May, 2022
Mothers arise!
It's Mother’s Day. Roses, dinner out so Mom doesn't have to cook. A nice Hallmark card. And that sentimental gift that oozes romance, a new Hamilton Beach Innovative Alexa Enabled Coffee Maker. Gosh.
29 Apr, 2022
May Day!
It's May Day, a day loved and hated by many. It's ancient, a pagan celebration of what was regarded as the first day of summer, focusing on flowers, Aphrodite, and Dionysus. In other words, a balling good time for all. Who wouldn't love such a day, even if the Puritans hated it?
18 Apr, 2022
Happy Tax Day
Yes, it's That Day. Show of hands--who loves paying their federal taxes? No one? OK, let's hear why not. Warning: I'm going to fact-check you.
3 Apr, 2022
MIC v Earth
Imagine a tank, a massively tough, nearly impenetrable machine designed to roll over most anything, take almost any gunfire, but it’s lost control on El Capitan in Yosemite and plunges over the cliff edge going fast enough to clear a freefall 3,000 feet to the valley below, a crash that snaps the machine, destroying it and tragically killing all four crew members and any wildlife at the impact site.
22 Mar, 2022
Freedom, our brains on social media, disinformation, WMD, Nazis
Each human on Earth seems to have a social media identity as unique as a fingerprint, so we all see what the cybergods algorithmically feed us.
7 Mar, 2022
Saving Ukraine, saving lives, saving ourselves
I teach nonviolence. Students ask, so, okay, and just how could Ukraine possibly resist Putin and a brutal invasion using nothing but nonviolence?