“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Gray, on the outset of World War I History tells us that democracies are rare and fragile and that periods of enlightenment are sparks, not torches, for showing us a way forward. In the long span…
“As democracy is perfected, the office (of president) represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move towards a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” H.L. Mencken, 1920 “We rip…
Satirical humor columnist Dave Barry would sometimes find unimaginable situations or events to put in his column but to keep his readers from assuming they were fabricated, he would write, “I am not making this up.” Yes, I am not making this up. One of the most reprehensible and dishonorable characters in our nation’s political history now holds its highest…
Traveling through the Anchorage airport, I had a chance to visit with Ted Stevens. Ted is dead now 14 years. Maybe many of the passengers passing by his statue on their way to the baggage claim already have no idea about the bronze man on the park bench, his hand extended. I sat down there next to our favorite U.S.…
August’s warm and sunny weather led to some late summer reverie but the season’s long shadows didn’t lie. The crimson blaze of fireweed turned to gray, seedy fluff. Soon enough clouds shrouded Ripinsky. Soon enough they’ll lift to show us snow. Like squirrels we’ll scurry into our burrows. Until then we will gather up the blueberries and raspberries that grew…
Volunteerism was down at our state fair this year. Two teachers hired last spring haven’t shown up at the Haines School. Word is our runners are quitting the cross-country team, one of the town’s most popular and successful sports programs in recent years. Folks are having a hard time committing. Is it any wonder? The fate of the nation hangs…
My anti-immigration friends are always telling me that the new immigrants aren’t like the “good old” immigrants who assimilated to life in the USA. So I’m thinking about my granddad, who we called Pop Pop, a tough little Polack who arrived at Ellis Island from a farm near Warsaw in 1905. He was 17 years old and he found his…
A political tide turned against liberalism in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan and the rise of the New Right. Funded by ultra-rich ideologues, the New Right made a sharp turn away from moderate conservatism – which for a decade or more had supported reasonable advances like abortion rights and environmental protection – and embraced issues it could use…
The kooks are now talking about civil war. Even the kooks at the coffee shop next to our city hall. War is coming in July, they say, because they read that on the Internet, the world’s largest bathroom stall, an endless wall of shadowy claims, allegations and innuendo to which the feeble-minded have no immunity. We had home-grown kooks stopping…
Before this year, I didn’t think much about drag shows. If I thought of them at all, I regarded them perhaps like jai alai: Fun and exotic for folks who are into that but nothing I couldn’t live without. Men dressing up as women for laughs or because they like silk undies. It’s a free country. Knock yourselves out. So…