Dear Doctor,
I went into Village Hall yesterday to apply for a zoning variance to raise chickens so I could afford the cosmetic surgery like Sue Lowden’s I need and they just laughed. What should I do now? Do you take dandelion wine?
Signed,
Sagging Chin(s)
Welcome back.
I love stars but, unfortunately, don’t see many. This week, resting from a day of hiking, we sat listening to the gentle wash of Lake Superior’s waves against the rocks below. The sky just 12 miles from the Duluth city limits was brilliant with stars and the light brush of the Milky Way.
We live in [...]
Cumulative pay increases since 1999: 29%.
Cumulative inflation since 1999: 44%.
Cumulative increase in employment-based health care premiums: 144% 120%
Source: American Benefits Council.
Since 1999 your health care premiums have risen at a rate five more than four times times faster than your pay, leaving you sinking against inflation. And, remember, inflation has been fairly benign since 1999. [...]
We watched Walter Cronkite.
Walter’s most searing moment in history came when he directly challenged the Pentagon and the Johnson administration over Vietnam. Yet, as Glenn Greenwald writes, much of the discussion of Cronkite will miss a key and pointed criticism over the state of journalism today.
We read or hear that Cronkite called the Vietnam War [...]
A bit confused about the conservative attack on “empathy” as a desirable trait for justices? Why is empathy suddenly bad? George Lakoff, author and Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley, writes:
Empathy is at the heart of progressive thought. It is the capacity to put oneself in the shoes of others — not [...]
