Columns 2015

Have you seen the idiots running for the other party? What choice would I have? 

Happy Mother’s Day, especially to all my friends who take in rescue breeds and mother them to contentment, security and safety. You are my heroes.

Since this coming Sunday is Mother’s Day, I thought I should write a column about that and take a break from writing about our incompetent, pathetic legislature. But it’s not easy. No matter how hard I try, they keep handing me ammunition that is impossible to ignore. Let’s take, for instance, the two-week break that Republican legislators felt they owed themselves for the backbreaking labor they’ve been doing for the past three months.

A lot of people who work very hard to make ends meet don’t get any vacation time at all no matter how long they work. Many of

From Bird TLC… this is about the mallard found with the dart in his neck.

We will be releasing the Mallard at Westchester Lagoon tomorrow (May 7) at 10:30am weather permitting. It is a public release and if you are available, we’d love to have you join us. What a lucky duck! The dart was easily removed, wounds have healed great, he received a partial bath to ensure waterproofing on his neck and he is good to go! Hope to see you all there!

Congratulations to our newly elected city mayor Ethan Berkowitz. In my heart I kinda knew he couldn’t lose but… as that great man once said, never underestimate the stupidity of the American voting public. So until the votes were counted and I was sure Amy wasn’t going to win, my stomach was in great upheaval. But now I know I don’t have to leave the state. There are enough people here who feel as I do about education and equality and health care to make Alaska the great state it should always be and to make Anchorage the great city

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen something as pathetic as our esteemed leaders in Juneau begging the press corps to carry their message to Alaskans that there just isn’t enough money in the budget for frivolities like education or health care. There is obviously enough money for the really important things like Knik Arms Bridge but not to expand Medicaid to those people so silly as to have been born poor.

I have restrained myself from advocating for any specific program threatened with cuts because I believe that if these programs are important enough to Alaskans, then Alaskans

Once again Alaskans are being treated to the spectacle of a legislature unable to finish its business in the time allotted. This gives further credence to my theory that the reason Republicans are so hard on government employees is because they know that they themselves are some of the worse government employees imaginable.

Every year our legislators troop down to Juneau, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for the challenge of creating the needed laws and budgets to keep the state going another 12 months. And every year we are treated to the sight of three months of a

I have generally been impressed with Governor Walker. He seems to take a clean line down the middle of the ideological spectrum, which is where most of us live. He’s taking a pragmatic approach to the budget, doesn’t seem inclined to generating headlines for outlandish behavior and appears to usually have the interests of all Alaskans at heart. But now that he’s taken such a hands off approach to his administration’s joining a lawsuit seeking to reduce some of our citizens to second-class status, I find myself much less impressed.

He declined to interfere when his attorney general joined a

Kleb’s Mechanical.

Like many people reading this column, I was raised by parents survived the Great Depression. Their view of money was always going to be skewed by that experience. My father didn’t get a credit card until he was in his sixties. In his world, you didn’t buy something you couldn’t pay for.

All through my childhood my godmother sent my mom money to buy me a new outfit each Easter and Christmas. In fact, when I was all grown up and making more money in a year than she’d ever imagined possible, my godmother still sent me money out of