Gather ’round, children, as the first chill of autumn presents itself. The Farmer’s Almanac forecasts a harsh winter. The Almanac of American Politics calls that an understatement. Rarely has a wind this ill so beset the nation’s capital. Speaking of magazines: On the cover of the Oct. 14 Time, “Majority Rule” is smudged out in red against dark…
DetailsLook it up. The symptoms of hyperventilation are dizziness, tingling in the lips and extremities, fainting, and in the most extreme circumstances, full or partial shutdown of the U.S. government. We are seeing hyperventilation’s fruits in the Republican Party’s frantic bid to talk away the Affordable Care Act. The duly authorized, duly…
DetailsDid we ever tire of it? No matter how many times Wile E. Coyote face-planted on the cliff or came up on the underside of his own boulder, we watched for his next botched plan. Wile E. is a lot like an increasingly cartoonish presence on the political scene these days. …
DetailsIn Colorado, headline writers have run out of ways to say “unprecedented.” In the span of two weeks, the state went from unheard-of “heat day” school closures — yes, in September — to the worst floods since the mountains were under the sea. This follows a fire season worse than the previous, each the costliest…
DetailsAs if what one Republican state lawmaker said wasn’t bad enough, another came along to, um, second it. The subject was fried chicken. And barbecue. And black people. We need not point out the skin color of Colorado state Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, and State Rep. Lori Sain, R-Dacono. Not at…
DetailsOne concern about having millions more Americans covered by health insurance is the relative dearth of primary-care physicians. Some have used that as a reason to say we shouldn’t insure so many Americans. You know, those who have it ought to have it, and those who can’t ought to have squat. A…
DetailsOne could imagine Louie Gohmert getting away with this back when medicine shows toured by wagon wheel and information traveled at the speed of horses’ hooves. Surely, however, not now when information travels at the speed of — the Internet, for gosh sakes. There he was, however, on multiple televised occasions, saying…
DetailsDid it really take the American Medical Association to tell us this? The AMA has pronounced childhood obesity a disease — also, that boiling water scalds and wood splinters. On a “self-evident” scale of 10, this is an 11. Just as clear in the 21st century, and backed by statistics is the…
DetailsIt’s all in the eyes. Think back to the great teachers you had. What do you recall? Eyes that bathed a classroom in attentiveness, in wisdom, and when appropriate, in mirth. Now, think of a puppet. The first thing you notice is the not-human eyes. I hate to say this, with all the…
DetailsSarah Palin spun the applause meter at the 2008 Republican National Convention when she quoted Ronald Reagan: "You and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free." One wonders what the meter would have read if…
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