September 30, 2023 New York has made Lunar New Year a state school holiday. In case you’re from Mars — or, in fact, from most of America or Planet Earth — it’s something celebrated in many Asian cultures. But now we’re supposed to celebrate not only our own holidays, but…

September 26, 2023 Matthew Desmond previously wrote about our housing crisis in Evicted. His 2023 book, Poverty By America, is a broader examination of socio-economic dysfunction. Life for the poor is harder than it needs to be. …

September 23, 2023 Most days I run to the post office for my mail; about a mile; ten minutes. Music helps. Not long ago I happened to run a similar distance but found it puzzlingly hard going. Then I realized I’d done it musicless — which really made a difference. …

September 20, 2023 My humanist group hosted J. Anderson Thomson, a psychiatrist, speaking about his book, Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith. Everyone knows religion reflects trying to explain what we don’t understand; to gain a moral touchstone; to combat fears of death…

September 17, 2023 Ken Paxton is the Republican Texas Attorney General. Flaunting his blizzard of litigation against the Biden administration. He’d also spearheaded the legally absurd lawsuit after the 2020 election, challenging other states’ voting procedures. All (which was the real aim) endearing Paxton to the Trump cult. …

September 14, 2023 House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has announced a presidential impeachment process, as the “next logical step,” based on “serious and credible allegations” of Biden’s “culture of corruption.” Those are lies. No evidence supports such allegations. In fact they’ve been disproven. After eight months of “investigating,” finding zilch, Republicans…

September 11, 2023 Child porn cases are often in the news. It creeps me out that anyone could get their jollies from that. But human sexuality is very varied. Even if only 1% of men (it’s virtually all males) partake, that’s still a lot of people. One of those news…

September 8, 2023 Heard a radio report about California’s Shasta County switching from automated to hand counting of election ballots. Ditching their Dominion equipment. The estimated cost is $1.6 million or more. Which cash-strapped Shasta County can ill-afford. To count 70,000 votes. That’s over $21 per ballot.

September 4, 2023 At the last Albany Book Festival, I stopped at a local writers organization table, being manned by poet Mary Panza, a powerful personality. She ordered me to take a free book. I picked Harvey Havel’s The Wild Gypsy of Arbor Hill. Harvey too is an acquaintance (now…