Month: March 2018

I grew up in an apartment over my father’s grocery store in a small Italian immigrant community in the 1950s. The concept of women having it all had not yet reached the common consciousness. But most of the women in my life – mom, aunts, neighbors – already had it all so that idea of having it all never really crossed their minds. Or, if it did, they probably would have been willing to trade it all in for a little less.

I watched my mother get up every day and take care of us kids, clean her apartment, get Continue reading →

The POS currently sullying the White House calls Oakland’s mayor a disgrace because she warned immigrants of an upcoming raid. Really? That’s a disgrace but being publicly involved in a lawsuit with a porn star you “allegedly” cheated on your wife with isn’t possibly a bigger one?

Here’s the person who is taking America down one day at a time into the world’s laughing stock instead of the world’s leader; here’s the person whose name is being ripped off hotels all over the world because he is so unpopular; here’s the person who made fun of a differently abled individual Continue reading →

Let’s be real here. Betsy DeVos was never qualified to lead the Dept. of Education. Hell, she isn’t qualified to lead the PTA in Kaktovik. She opens her mouth and stupidity spills out so rapidly you need to put a bucket under her chin to catch all the crap. She goes before the Congress and cannot answer the simplest questions about her department and its activities. The only solution she can come up with for school shootings is arming teachers. I mean, why bother to even say that. Why not just hand out the NRA position paper with bullet points Continue reading →

The state legislature has begun what has become its never ending sessions in Juneau on the same note they ended their sessions last year after multiple extra sessions were added to their regular schedule. And what was the problem, you ask? Well, there were two different philosophies at work in Juneau. There was the philosophy that said we need government services, we’ve cut as much as we can, the people of Alaska need to start chipping in for the services they get from the government. The other side insists we can still have a free ride if we accept absolutely Continue reading →

Every time I hear another politician or gun lobbyist or the NRA suggest that we make our schools into armed camps instead of even discussing reasonable gun regulations I want to scream.  Are we really a nation so enamored of guns and violence that we would rather imprison our children for eight hours a day in what would essentially be an armed fortress with locked doors and armed guards rather than admit at assault rifles are meant for war, not hunting, not protection.

School is supposed to be a place where you are safe and can have the good times Continue reading →

So Subway Jared is in jail as a pedophile. And soon, fingers crossed, his cellmate will be Jared Kushner.

Seriously, folks. We are expected to believe that Kushner met at the White House with representatives from two major lending institutions who then turned around and gave hundreds of millions in loans to his company. The defense he’s using… excuse me while I urp in my mouth a bit here… is that he has nothing to do with his company since entering White House service.

So based on that reasoning, I’m expected to believe that never once did the thought occur Continue reading →

My mother in what I can only guess was the 1930s while she was either in high school or college. Clearly not married with kids given the unstressed look on her face. She lost that relaxed look soon after I was born.

I always dreamed about somehow waking up one day and finding myself as slim and beautiful as she was. It never happened. It’s a toss up about which one of us was more disappointed by that. Continue reading →

Here’s how my family handled working with their kids when we were growing up. They didn’t.

My Uncle Joe and my dad both had stores… one grocery, one grocery and then beer. Both had sons. Neither thought working with that son all the time was a great idea. So during our teen years, my brother got a job outside of the store and my cousin Joe came down to the shore in the summer and worked for my dad. The theory was that while my cousin Joe might give his father grief and slightly get away with it, he knew Continue reading →

So the Anchorage Assembly a few years ago passed an equal rights ordinance that extends protection to transgender people. This action, which was really nothing more than basic humanity exerting itself on behalf of people whose voice is too often drowned out by hate in the guise of religion, has apparently sent some members of the conservative “Christian” right into a tizzy. They fume and squeal over how many straight male sex offenders will now dress up as women to try and get into the ladies’ restroom to do god knows what to god knows who.

So here’s my question Continue reading →