Ignorance is not bliss
When did it start? When did the idea that being smart, educated and/or sophisticated become a bad thing? When did voters decide that no experience, no expertise and no skills were what made someone qualified to run our government?
I’m pretty sure that if these same voters went to the emergency room with arterial bleeding, they would want someone who actually went to school to learn how to stop it for their doctor. If they needed open-heart surgery they wouldn’t just tap the janitor on the shoulder as they went into the operatory and ask him to perform the surgery Continue reading →
Free speech
] I think it goes without saying that I agree with almost nothing Ann Coulter says. But I will march shoulder to shoulder with her in defending her right to say it. We currently have an administration in Washington that seems determined to undermine so much of what most Americans hold valuable, be it the separation of powers or the distaste for nepotism. If we lose our right to free speech, we will truly lose ourselves as a nation and deserve to be relegated to the trash heap of history.
Free speech is the cornerstone of all we stand for. Continue reading →
Ah dogs…
Woke up this morning to find Snowy sleeping on top of Carm and Carm snoring peacefully underneath Snowy’s not inconsiderable bulk. Tried to get a picture but the minute I moved, they separated like two married lovers caught in flagrante delecto… or whatever that phrase is. I took almost six years of Latin but that was back in my misspent youth when I thought reading Cicero in the original was cool. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Continue reading →
Wavering forever
As each winter goes on seemingly endlessly here, I think more and more often of perhaps someday leaving Alaska because it’s just too hard. Then days like today happen where the sky is endless and blue, the breeze is gentle, it’s not too hot or too cold and almost all the snow is gone from my yard. And I wonder how I could have ever thought of leaving. Then I see the moose poop all over my now exposed lawn and know I can never leave a place where moose come to my yard for the pause that refreshes. Continue reading →
The difference between youth and old age
When you’re young and get a twinge somewhere, you barely think about it. When you’re old and you get a twinge, you immediately wonder if this is the big one. Continue reading →
The miseries of flying
The last time I traveled by plane was just a day after the incident on a United Airlines flight where a customer was dragged off the plane with a bloodied face, missing teeth and a concussion. As I deplaned from my Alaska Airlines flight in Anchorage, I turned to the attendants and pilots waiting at the front of the plane to say goodbye and thanked them for not beating up their customers. This was met by a moment of confused (stunned?) silence. As I continued out the door, I heard a delayed whoop of laughter.
I fly Alaska Airlines almost Continue reading →
This must be why I love Alaska
Woke up this morning, after weeks of sunshine, to clouds and rain. And it made me smile. True Alaskans, apparently, can only take so much sunshine and then their mood starts to sour. We need clouds and precipitation more often than most. Continue reading →
Why is anyone surprised
Why is anyone surprised about the incidents recently captured on video showing altercations between flight staff and passengers. The industry has made flying one of the worse experiences in life. Plane seats have shrunk to Lilliputian size while people have grown larger and larger. You have less leg room than you did in your mother’s womb. You are always on a full flight with no space to stretch or be comfortable. Restrooms are so small you can barely turn around in them. You are herded around like cattle. Everyone’s nerves are ready to snap by the time the plane takes Continue reading →
How you know you’ve possibly gone a little overboard with your dogs
I left the grocery store today with a bag that contained the ingredients for my meals for the next few days and treats for my dogs. The treats for the dogs cost more than all the other groceries combined. That should probably tell me something I don’t want to know. Continue reading →