Posts

Criminality: The Pathway to Success?

The time has come, America, to rethink our misguided stance on convicted felons. For too long, we've kept these misunderstood souls out of our neighborhoods, denied them access to public housing, barred them from employment, and discouraged them from pursuing their full potential. But if we're prepared to place a man with 34 felonies, some of them financial, plus a little matter of a sex crime, into the ultimate "public housing" of the White House, isn't it time to reconsider our standards for everyone else? Honesty, that quaint little virtue we've all clung to, is clearly holding us back. What has being upright and decent done for any of us, really? Maybe a stable job, an honest living, and a good night's sleep, but who needs that when deceit, cunning, and shameless maneuvering can lead you straight to the highest office in the land? Surely if criminal genius is good enough for the Oval Office, it's good enough for the rest of us. It's time to aba...
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Coffee Scoops & Sweater Weather

All the discussion about inflation has me stuck in 1977. Jimmy Carter asked us to conserve energy by turning our heat down to 65 during the day & 55 at night. He suggested we put on a sweater when we felt chilly. Earlier that fall, my mom moved us to a small town on the western edge of the UP.  By February, the temperature barely rose above freezing and dropped more than 10 degrees below zero at least twice—even before factoring in wind chill. The Oil Crisis had only recently passed, the steel industry was in decline, and a failed coffee harvest in Brazil, along with grain and soybean issues due to weather, market, and agricultural policy changes, drove prices up. I would come down for breakfast wearing a flannel nightgown and thick socks, because the hardwood floors of the 100-year-old house were cold against bare feet. My mom would be standing at the stove, stirring oatmeal. My stepfather had already put a few thin pieces of wood in the stove’s side compartment, where a small...
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