Imperfect Vision How many stories will be written about the implications of entering 2020? I suspect they will be many and they will carry on throughout the coming year. I will even anticipate a whole spate of stories about leaving 2020 behind symbolically. I just wish all the analogies and metaphors were justified. Any implication that the future is clear and readable in this messy world we live in is naive. The stock market is…
Bye-Bye Bernie I want to write a piece about the resurgence of Bernie Sanders in the latest polls. I want it to be a well-balanced discussion about the man, the politics and supporters that stalwartly stand behind the guy. I was torn between this title and the more obvious Weekend at Bernie’s. Since I’m publishing this piece on Sunday, the alternate title seemed initially more appropriate, but it was just too easy so I chose…
Evangelical Epiphany We are in Oklahoma City tonight. We’ve just driven 864 miles from Knoxville, Tennessee, across the length of that state, across the Mississippi and then across the girth of Arkansas and into Oklahoma to the midpoint of that state. One of the first things I saw this morning was a 300 foot cross outside a evangelical church in Tennessee. Along the way on Rt. 40, the thing I saw the most (other than…
Ridge Running At 6am we flew our of the City through the Holland Tunnel. After cutting across New Jersey on Rt. 78. That takes us over the Delaware Water Gap into the business part of Eastern Pennsylvania, past the old mill towns of Allentown and Harrisburg. It is there that we connect with Rt. 81 for our ride south. I know Rt. 81, but I usually use it from Scranton to Binghamton for my rides…
Taking a Break Due to needing to drive forty-two hours and 2,818 miles in the next four days, I have gotten out ahead of my normal writing tasks by writing five stories and loading them into the blog system for times release daily over the next five days (I am taking the added precaution of loading in one for next Sunday in case I need a recovery day). This is a nice feature of the…
Global Exit It seems that my Global Entry status is up for renewal. I went through the rigmarole of filling out my application online for a renewal and then went through a two-week wait for preliminary approval. I will assume that it did not take two weeks due to any difficulty in clearing me (I am as pure as the driven snow…at least in terms of being a national security risk), but rather because this…
Shock and Yawn I stayed up to watch the Judiciary Committee hearing on Impeachment, which was into its fourteenth hour. It had all become a yawn on both sides of the aisle with Democrats, one-after-another, feeling the need to outline the efforts of Donald Trump to undermine democracy, while the Republicans made their arguments about how there was no evidence of any crime. The one side says the evidence is overwhelming while the other says…
Leaving the Party I’ve never been a big party-goer. I’m not sure why that is. I consider myself a reasonably social person. I don’t drink much, if at all, but I think it would be wrong to attribute this to that. It certainly reinforces my preference to avoid parties, but I felt this way about parties long before I decided I didn’t care for alcohol. I am a morning person, which means late-night is not…
Do the Right Thing It has been 76 days since Nancy Pelosi announced the House of Representatives’ investigation into an impeachment inquiry. We have had 76 days of action that basically has taken the form of Democrats unearthing countless facts that support the claims that Trump abused his authority, that he coerced and bribed President Zelinsky of Ukraine, and that he has continuously obstructed Congress in its efforts to get to the bottom of what…
Whose Father Do You Think Would Be Madder? Back in the days before political correctness was the necessity it is today, I heard my redneck Chairman (RIP) comment about a married couple who worked for us that came from different ethnic backgrounds. It is one of the funnier yet most biting comments I have ever heard that effectively denigrated two ethnicities all at once. I am hesitant these days to repeat the comment except in…