Questions that must be asked… why are we the world’s police? If there is trouble in the world, why is the US expected to respond? And, quite frankly, have we now become nothing more than a country of mercenaries, soldiers for hire to any hot spot around? Is that how we plan to keep our economy pumping, by feeding the bloated military industrial complex? How sad.
It’s official
I’ve latched my windows shut and turned my furnace back up to 64. Summer is now officially over. Let winter commence.
Thoughts I think when I wake up in the middle of the night
Am I the only one who thinks that the reason some fundamentalist Christian ministers get so bent out of shape about gays and claim that acknowledging the legitimacy of gay marriage will hurt all marriages is because they are afraid that if gay love is legitimate, they will leave their wives and finally find their true loves?
Adios, Pepe’s
It’s hard to explain to people who have never lived in a small village in the Alaska Bush how you can mourn the loss of a restaurant almost as intensely as you would mourn the loss of a friend. But I’m going to try because Pepe’s was more than just a Mexican restaurant in Barrow.
When I first moved to Barrow, there were two restaurants in town. One was Al’s Eskimo Café. It was open year round. The other was Brower’s Café. It opened only during tourist season when it served reindeer soup and an Eskimo donut in an atmosphere
Underwhelmed
As the campaign season ramps up in Alaska, am I the only one totally UNDERWHELMED by the choices I am being offered?
Notes on the State Fair
1. Taking an active four year old boy to the state fair is like taking a herd of cats and trying to keep them contained.
2. Buy that same four year old a ninja stick bat (appropriately soft and not really harmful) and it’s like walking through the fair with a herd of angry cats who are attempting to claw everything that walks by.
3. To whoever that young man was who saw me standing in line as he exited and gave me his extra fair ticket, thank you. You probably have no idea how that simple act of kindness
Even given Sarah’s presence, I’ll take America
The weird little man who runs North Korea decided that a couple of entertainers crossed some line in his mind about propriety. The entertainers included a women he once dated. Two weeks after he decided this, they were all executed.
Yep, give me America, any time, any place. I can’t even imagine living someplace where you never know when your weird little leader will decide you should die and then boom, you’re dead.
RIP Pepe’s North of the Border
Pepe’s, the Mexican restaurant dear to the heart of any resident of the North Slope over the past 30 some years, burned to the ground yesterday. A true iconic building is gone. Thank god no one was hurt. More in my column this week as I go back over my 30 years in Barrow and remember all the wonderful times with Fran Tate and Pepe’s.
Watching Joey grow
Watched little Joe Stuermer on his scooter outside of his aaka’s house yesterday. If there is any joy in aging, it’s watching the children of children you once watched growing up being able to also grow up happy, secure and full of enthusiasm for each day. All children should have that. Sadly they don’t. But they should. So “Go, Joey, go! Peddle that scooter as fast as your little feet will push you. All too soon you’ll discover that the world is not always full of people who live to keep you safe, secure and happy. But until then, ride
Ah Sarah
I’m so glad to hear the Palins have signed on to a grassroots effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. Nothing like waiting until three months before it takes full effect to jump on the bandwagon. Sarah is a true leader… she waits to see where her people are going, then runs like hell to get in the front of the line so it looks like she’s leading them.