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Posts Tagged ‘News’

No Ledge to Climb up to…

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , on October 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I live in a state that tried to kill Christa Pike twice, and still her execution failed. We were at cousin Peg’s house for dinner Saturday night when the Groom told us she was discharged from Vanderbilt. I know enough not to ask him about his patients, but I also know he’s been doing research and not attending in the MICU. Still this was public knowledge; Pike was awake and aware, and able to walk on her own after two ‘supposed’ injections of pentobarbital. Bob thinks they either missed her vein or blew a vein or both.

How is it that a veterinarian could come to my house and peacefully put my poor, old ailing dog Buddha to sleep without a hitch years ago, but the state of TN could so spectacularly botch an execution thirty years in the making?

The death penalty is nothing new. As far back as 18th Century BC, King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for twenty five different crimes. Strangely enough, murder wasn’t one of them! But the first record of a public execution was in 16th Century BC Egypt where “…the wrongdoer, a member of nobility, was accused of magic, and ordered to take his own life. During this period non-nobility was usually killed with an ax.” Our country had its own reasons for capital punishment from the very beginning, including sodomy, slave stealing, kidnapping, perjury and treason. And we all remember Salem, MA where practicing magic was a burnable offense. Mostly before the electric chair, the states chose hanging.

“Finally, in 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty (except for treason against the state), mostly because it had no long tradition of capital punishment (there had been no hanging since 1830, before statehood) and because frontier Michigan had few established religious groups to oppose it as was the case in the east. In 1852, Rhode Island abolished the death penalty led by Unitarians, Universalists, and especially Quakers. In the same year, Massachusetts limited its death penalty to first-degree murder. In 1853, Wisconsin abolished the death penalty after a gruesome execution in which the victim struggled for five minutes at the end of the rope, and a full eighteen minutes passed before his heart finally quit.” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/history-of-the-death-penalty/

The Flapper and Mr B, my step-father who was a lawyer and a judge, clashed about this very issue. My Mother was against capital punishment, and later became more Buddhist in her beliefs overall. I remember them arguing at the dinner table – please pass the macaroni and show me how the state has a right to take someone’s life! Today of course, there are subtle legal conditions to consider – was the crime premeditated, or if the perpetrator was a juvenile, or mentally handicapped, or maybe even if you are temporarily insane due to severe postpartum psychosis, insomnia, and hallucinations… Christa Pike fit none of these qualifications.

She was just 18 when she took her good ‘friend’ into the woods with her 17 year old boyfriend and killed her. Pike was afraid her friend, Colleen Slemmer, was trying to steal her ‘man.’ The man/boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison because he was a minor, younger than 18. Pike was accused of torturing Slemmer, which I chose not to read up on because the regular news is punishment enough. She spent 30 years on death row costing taxpayers over $100,000 a year and her prefrontal cortex wasn’t even finished growing. On Saturday night when I heard about Pike’s miraculous recovery, I also knew that Mr T was holding a rally in nearby Clarksville, TN…

“I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap,” he told the scant audience after Kid Rock introduced him. Well that’s true surprisingly. Then he promised 5K payments to everyone after the midterms. Literally, he was asking them to vote Republican and promising to pay them off. This came right after he dropped the sanctions on Russian oil, cozying up to the wannabe Czar, and dropping any illusion that we Americans were willing to fight with our Allies. You’re on your own Ukraine, because the GOP wants to mitigate the midterms.

My opinion on capital punishment has changed over the years. I was once on my step-father’s side, an eye for an eye. But with increased DNA evidence proving that mistakes have been made, that there is such a thing as a false confession, oh and throw systemic racism into the mix, I cannot abide by our government being in the business of executing prisoners. It’s barbaric. And Hegseth wanting to live stream the execution of a paralyzed terrorist? Shall we have ads offering deals online during the show?

To mitigate the news lately, I’ve turned to our latest Nobel Laureate, Anne Carson’s “The Glass Essay” speaking of Emily Bronte:

“She wanted liberty. Well didn’t she have it?

A reasonably satisfactory homelife,

a most satisfactory dreamlife—why all this beating of wings?

What was this cage, invisible to us,

which she felt herself to be confined in?”

Well there are many ways of being held prisoner,

I am thinking as I stride over the moor.

As a rule after lunch mother has a nap

and I go out to walk.

The bare blue trees and bleached wooden sky of April

carve into me with knives of light.

The Flapper’s Buddha

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Rape Culture

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , on October 6, 2026| 2 Comments »

While I was packing to leave LA, I heard about the Cornell case. It had been the better part of a week without any news, no reading the NYTimes, not even playing Wordle. And I thought wait, isn’t this an old rape allegation; because at my age, memory and deja vu can intertwine with reality. And as it turns out two years ago Jane Doe told campus police she was absolutely sure she was raped. What happened after that is the current story.

According to a survey of students by the Association of American Universities in 2019, over a quarter – one in four – undergraduate women reported experiencing some type of nonconsensual sex, or a sexual act coerced by physical force or because they were unable to consent. At Cornell, the university found that ONE THIRD of its young women said they had “…unwanted sexual experiences.”

The most disturbing three words in the English language came to light as evidence has accumulated of the gang rape that took place at Cornell in October of 2024, “SHOP STILL OPEN?” These words, in a text chain of ChiPhi fraternity brothers in the early morning hours, were captured and are now part of the civil case Jane Doe has filed against seven men, Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity, and the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

Because after Cornell’s Title IX board investigated the case two years ago, two men were expelled and the rest were told to write an essay.

Let that sink in. Dear boy, please write us a compelling expository essay on why you felt the need to do what you did, or didn’t do, to Jane Doe on the day in question. Maybe you should have stopped what was going on? Or say, called her sorority sisters to come and get her? What exactly was your part in the gang rape, did you only hold her down? Oh how I would love to read these pieces of creative, fantastical writing, that were probably AI driven, and meant absolutely nothing to the predators.

If you are currently in the business of looking at colleges for your high school children, please take a look at their dire statistics here: https://ope.ed.gov/campussafety/#/

Greek culture on campus has got to go IMHO. Sure maybe they collect money for charities, and sometimes hazing can result in a death here and there, but mostly they are a front for alcohol and drug induced parties. I’ve been to a few in the 60s in Boston, in fact I saw the Byrds sing at one such event across the Charles River at MIT. But remember, in the olden days we had curfews and we lived in same sex dorms. If a girl was late getting back from a party, she was locked out of her building. The MTA actually stopped running after midnight! There were no cell phones to get help. Young women were disposable back then, just as they are now, and if she happened to get pregnant she left school.

I guess with the Hobbs decision things haven’t changed much. And depending on what state you’re in – in NY for example – to bring a rape charge the victim must have been unconscious!?!? This is the Catch 22 of a young woman’s life. How does one know what exactly happened if you are drugged beyond belief and cannot remember? Because if you can remember… you must have wanted it. This is patriarchy in a nutshell. Never mind the bruising, the pain, the numbness, the loss of autonomy.

Jane Doe two days later tells her “friend,” the one boy she initially liked out of the seven, that nothing illegal was going on when he professed he was sorry, before the word got out that she was a “slut.” Before she became a pariah. But isn’t that just like us, women trained to comfort the men in our lives: to continue working with Chief Justice Clarence Thomas after being ‘supposedly’ harassed for years; to keep Chief Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s secret for decades after an ‘alleged’ assault at a high school party. And for that matter, what about Carroll v Trump? E Jean was doubly abused by our Commander in Chief by his defaming lawsuit!

A fish, or a country, rots from the head down. We have got to do better, our government, in academia, and as parents. I have three granddaughters, one is in high school. My grandson is in middle school. Tell them, whisper it or shout it to them, talk about consent. And if you live in one of these 19 states where rape isn’t rape unless you were unconscious, make some good trouble: “Nineteen states have rape or sexual assault laws that consider intoxicated victims to be mentally incapacitated only if they became drunk or drugged without their knowledge or consent.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/state-laws-on-intoxication-and-consent-get-new-scrutiny-after-cornell-rape-allegations

Found this pic of my starter wedding at 19 in MA, with brother Jim on the right.

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Meds by Mail

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2026| 2 Comments »

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds

Isn’t it interesting that I can get on an internet site, fill in a questionnaire, and get drugs delivered to my door in a matter of hours? I can get weight loss injectable GLP-1 syringes, I can get gummies that promise to grow my hair, and if I were a man, well you know about what that little blue pill will do… Have you seen the Amazon ad? The one where a guy falls down and hurts his back, while lying on the floor he dials up a ‘provider’ on his cell who ships his drugs straight away to his door! That sounds like pain meds right? Narcotics-Are-Us.

America is a wonderland of instant gratification.

Except when it comes to women. Once SCOTUS decided to eliminate a woman’s right to control her own body in 2022, our nationwide right to abortion fell to the discretion of the states. We all know what happened in RED states; clinics closed and poor women seeking reproductive healthcare had to travel to bordering states. Because let me say it again, wealthy women will always and forever be able to afford healthcare. They will fly to Switzerland for their depression. They will fly to South Korea for a facelift – have you seen the latest black comedy BEEF on Netflix?

Well did you know that about a third of abortions in this country are performed by the patient simply taking a pill in a timely fashion? It’s simple and easy, no clinic visit, no procedure, no dilation and curettage. No cramping, bleeding, or fear of sepsis in a back alley. But those old white men in RED states still didn’t want women to have access to this wonder drug mifepristone! And they certainly didn’t want doctors, or providers, to prescribe mifepristone by telemedicine from another state to women in their state!

But yesterday, some semblance of intelligence emerged from the Court; ALL women for a brief period of time will be able to obtain mifepristone BY MAIL! Imagine that.

“In a brief order, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. paused a lower-court ruling from Friday that had prevented abortion providers from prescribing the pills by telemedicine and shipping them to patients, causing confusion for providers and patients. The one-sentence order imposes a pause until at least May 11. He requested that the parties file briefs by Thursday, and then the full court will determine how to proceed.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/us/politics/supreme-court-abortion-pill.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gFA.iAGK.L0ZU7ZryabYn&smid=url-share

I would advise all the moms out there with pre-teen daughters to get online NOW and order their supply! This administrative stay might only last a week after all. I mean don’t we pack condoms into our sons’ luggage when they move away to college? Didn’t we get our children vaccinated against HPV?

Meanwhile, I read a headline this morning about RFK, Jr trying to wean Americans off antidepressants. Seems counterintuitive doesn’t it? Maybe enough women will show up at the polls to slow our descent into this gloomy, Christian nationalist night. Meanwhile, we’re moving my sister into a new southern sensibility, slowly.

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Matzoh Meetzah

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 31, 2026| Leave a Comment »

It’s Passover time again. Once we were slaves in Egypt, and once my ancestors were indentured servants to the British Empire. Now my Grands love watching the Great British Baking Show, while Jewish women and maybe some men everywhere sweep all the bread crumbs out of their kitchens while making matzoh ball soup.

Coming on the heels of #NoKings, this holiday feels heady. Handmaidens dripping in red led the march in Nashville holding the names of every single man in the Epstein files. Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were first in line.

Today I will chop up butternut squash to make my famous casserole. I realize that most of the people who loved this particular dish will not be here. I had to send all the leftovers home with Aunt Sue over the many years of Grandma Ada’s seders. Eventually newer, more modern recipes will take its place. We don’t keep carp in our bathtubs anymore to make gefilte fish. But matzoh ball soup has stood the test of time. Like a birthright.

On Wednesday, erev Passover, SCOTUS’ “… nine justices will hear arguments over whether to allow the Trump administration to end that promise of birthright citizenship. The landmark case will test whether the Constitution guarantees citizenship to all babies born on U.S. soil, including the children of undocumented immigrants. It could potentially redefine what it means to be an American for generations to come.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/politics/supreme-court-birthright-family-histories.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XVA.1MWs.26nTC7VU3rcO&smid=url-share

I just read that Chief Justice Roberts’ Great Great Grandfather Albert Podrasky, was born in PA coal country to parents who arrived here from Slovakia. He was born before his parents were naturalized, and yet tradition had it that the baby was born on American soil and was therefore a citizen. It was not just tradition, it was the Law of the Land! It seemed sacrosanct. I wonder when, IF, my foster mother Nell’s parents were naturalized after immigrating from Czechoslovakia to Scranton, PA? 

Or what about my Great Great Grandfather who arrived here, in the same coal country as Roberts’ ancestors, from Ireland in 1854? Was he a citizen when my Grandfather was born six years later? This administration may try to rewind time, to ban books, to erase history, and yet we were all immigrants – we are a country of immigrants. And immigrants belong here.

I’m willing to bet if we all dug a little deeper, many of us would find a tiny blip, like our Chief Justice. I cannot imagine birthright citizenship would be overturned, and yet I couldn’t imagine that Mr T would win a second term. I couldn’t imagine that Roe would be challenged. I take nothing for granted these days.

When we pray on Wednesday night, over brisket and matzoh, I will ask God (if you’re listening) to stop this war that was started on a whim. To help ALL our citizens get out and vote in November, because I believe even the die hard MAGA supporters are beginning to question Mr T’s motives. And to forgive us for no longer making P’tcha, an Ashkenazi meat aspic dish made from jellied calf or chicken feet.

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World Repair

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 3, 2026| 2 Comments »

I was going to write about darning. You know, the process of fixing or repairing holes or worn-out areas in fabric, woven or knitting goods using just your hands with a needle and thread. It’s something our grandmothers all learned to do at an early age, but somehow it’s become a lost art. During the pandemic I learned a Japanese technique called Sashiko to repair an old pair of corduroy pants. I wore them recently and noticed the other knee was getting rather thin. My knees have the same ‘use by’ date, so why wouldn’t my pants? Of course, I could just let my knee poke out, but I’ve resisted that fashion transgression so far.

And then over the weekend we went to war.

In the middle of diplomatic talks with Iran, Mr T and Mr N of Israel decided to bomb Tehran. And depending on your news source, your point of view, our country is slowly waking up to a new reality. There was no Pearl Harbor, no supposed weapons of mass destruction, no reasoning behind this decision, albeit whispers of ‘regime change.’ The spin from White House sources makes me dizzy, now they are hoping to sell the story of stopping their nuclear program. Period. Instead, France is boosting its nuclear arsenal.

The death toll in Iran is 747, so far.

Let’s not forget, during Trump 1.0, back in 2018, we withdrew from President Obama’s multi-nation Iran nuclear deal. Mr T ripped it up and spit it out because he’s a vengeful man. Abandoning this Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) left our allies holding the bag and imposed economic hardship on the Gulf. Now we have an unchecked, unbalanced president willing to put American lives at risk.

The death toll of American service members is 6, so far.

I opened my editor Lisa’s blog this morning. She was planning a trip to Israel to see her grandchildren for Purim, but her airline cancelled her flight. She had baked hamantaschen to bring along for this fun, festive Jewish holiday. Instead she got to video chat with her family sheltering in a bunker. Her grandson asked her if we have sirens here. https://lisakwinkler.wordpress.com/2026/03/02/flight-to-israel-cancelled-again/

The death toll in Israel of civilians and soldiers is 12, so far.

And yesterday, yesterday Melania Trump spoke to the United Nations Security Council in NYC, where she actually lives, advocating “peace through education,” saying: “… that nations should promote the values of tolerance and “empathy for others, transcending geography, religion, race, gender” and denounced “rigid thinkers who embrace prejudice and shun human dignity… When a nation restricts thought, it restricts its own future.” No, I am NOT making this up. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/melania-trump-un-peace-education.html

The death toll of an Iranian elementary school for girls is 165.

How can we fix this? Can our elected legislators even begin to mend the damage this administration has done? Our journalists need to step up and keep covering the Epstein files. He was allowed to continue his network of influence, bribery, corruption and sex trafficking because seemingly good people stood by and did nothing. Silence and indifference fueled the Holocaust and continue to haunt us to this day. One brave reporter will not let it go, and I recommend following Anand Giridharadas’ “The Ink” on Substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/anandwrites/p/epsteins-network-of-bystanders?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

I had to stop on my way to the Farmers Market on Saturday. Our newly blooming cherry tree was humming with bees. Tikkun olam.

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Sun Melts ICE

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Our little Nashville cottage has warmed up. The Pumpkin helped me make vegetable soup. My friend Les delivered a loaf of bread, and we walked across the street to see her majestic ash tree covering her pool; it just missed her porch by a few feet. Another neighbor helped Bob chop up an evergreen that fell on our HVAC. Guess we’ll see if the air conditioning works in a couple of months. We cleaned out the refrigerator/freezer, and replaced whatever food survived their exile to the garage – the free-standing garage we finally got permitted to turn into a DADU (detached, auxiliary, dwelling, unit).

It will have its own address, but we had to sign and swear we would never AirBnB it – those are the new Metro rules. Only for family, friends and climate refugees, we said.

Yesterday with the ice melting, I dug out my trusty hiking sticks and set off for a walk in the neighborhood. It was a beautiful, 45 degree, sunny day. We talked to a new friend with a 10 week old rescue puppy named Harrington. An adorable black lab mix with white socks, he’s named after a Stranger Things character. Since the Pumpkin (who knows all things about Stranger Things) is back in school, I had to look up Steve Harrington. It seems the pup’s avatar plays the stereotypical, lovable jock who was supposed to be killed off in the first season, but won the hearts of his audience. So the writers had to give him a “redemption arc.” And it struck me that with the release of more Epstein files, some very powerful men are seeking the same sort of salvation. 

Let’s not forget that Marjorie Taylor Green warned us about Mr T’s furor over releasing the Epstein files. He didn’t want all his buddies getting into trouble. But the “Epstein Class,” composed of high-ranking government, academic, legal, corporate and even royal people, is just beginning to feel the consequences of their association with a known pedophile and sex trafficker. Like Andrew formerly known as Prince, tomorrow Lord Mandelson will step down from the House of Lords. Some are even calling for his removal from peerage, whatever that means. The British have no appetite for a redemption story. We, OTOH, are always willing to buy into salvation.

After all, Epstein reinvented himself after his conviction in 2008, pleading guilty to prostitution charges. Remember there was a major recession at the time the FL pimp to billionaires got his sweetheart deal. What will happen to Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Bill Clinton, Peter Thiel, Deepak Chopra and Noam Chomsky? The ex-President of Harvard, Larry Summers, married father of six, emails Epstein for romantic advice about a young woman he was ‘mentoring.’ At least he stepped down from his many Board postions. But it wasn’t until they were caught, it wasn’t until the evidence of their fawning association with Epstein became apparent, that we are hearing their excuses. And as every child learns in school, ignorance of the law (if we believe they were ignorant) is NO defense!

Dr Peter Attia, a billionaire longevity guru, is now ashamed of his old friend Epstein. Sorry he joked with him about female body parts. Let’s stop calling Epstein a financier, he was a pimp. The language we use helps to shape our understanding of the world, so I’m re-naming things, like ICE is really our very own secret police. Detention camps are concentration camps where we ship brown people without due process – where we hold five year old children without their mothers. Remember Mr T coming down the gold escalator calling undocumented people rapists and murderers? If we allow the Republican party to call Mr Pretti a terrorist, well then it becomes easier to kidnap and murder people in American cities.

I’m not looking for a redemption arc. I’m looking for sunshine laws to reveal this corrupt class for who they really are. Only the sun can melt the historic ice storm we experienced in Nashville, only the sun can break us out of this chrysalis of apathy. And if you want to help fight our country’s slide into authoritarianism, you can start by attending a virtual meet-up on Thursday of like-minded souls, “Eyes on ICE” https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/892452/

 

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Charge d’Affaire

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , on January 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

It’s not everyday that we wake to the news that our country is at war.

At Sunday dinner, I told my family this is the first time I’ve felt the way I did after 9/11. It’s a loosening of the joints, the ground feels sandy. There is a loss of trust in our country’s standing in the world, my sense of balance was off. Granted, there was no terrorist attack; Russia didn’t take over Alaska, or Florida as far as we know. We were the aggressor this time.

Naturally, I ordered a Smart Solar Pro Bird Feeder! Because when chaos happens, we humans need to zero in on the little things. I was hesitant to order a feeder with a camera attached because I knew it would call me to pick up my cell phone whenever a bird landed. I would become addicted. But I’ve missed feeding the birds of Nashville. Yesterday I walked out my front door and heard three distinct woodpeckers drumming their trees from the west, east and south!

Today Bob is walking around our backyard with a Google guy checking our WiFi signal. I want to hang the feeder far enough away from the house so our patio furniture stays relatively clean. I have memories of twenty doves taking up residence on our Germantown porch. This is how we become enmeshed in our hobbies, incrementally, over time. Hoarding doesn’t happen overnight. Like Mr T saying and doing things unbecoming to an American president…

One day we are blowing up supposed drug traffickers off the coast of Venezuela, and the next, America abducts its president and his wife? Today the “Coalition of the Willing” is meeting in Paris with Ukraine’s president, and Europe is betting on whether or not POTUS will invade GREENLAND! The KIngdom of Denmark, which includes Greenland, is part of NATO so what in God’s name is happening?

We know that MR T’s abduction (was he captured, arrested, or kidnapped?) of Maduro was not about spreading democracy, it’s all about the money and power that OIL has to offer:

“Venezuela has the largest estimated oil reserves in the world—accounting for about 17 percent of global reserves, or more than 300 billion barrels, according to Oil & Gas Journal. But Venezuela produces only 1 million barrels of oil a day. Its potential is largely unrealized because of poor infrastructure, mismanagement, limited resources, and U.S. sanctions.”  https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/01/trump-nicolas-maduro-venezuela/685493/

Would Greenland even put up a fight? What would happen to NATO? Is the point to destabilize the world order, or is Mr T just going after rare-earth minerals and uranium mining in the Arctic? Please call your Congressman or woman today. Let them know that all of this is illegal. Some one has to stand up for the rule of law. Some one has to actually read all 125,575 pages of the Epstein files and demand that the rest, about TWO MILLION documents, be released as per the agreement with the DOJ.

And we have to put up our new bird feeder. This is a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron who spent his days perched in a palm tree outside our vacation house. He watched the pelicans and the iguanas very closely! Luckily, we returned home before Caribbean airspace was closed.

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“Not a Fan”

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 16, 2025| 2 Comments »

Happy Hanukkah! I’m a big fan of the holiday season. I love FaceTiming with the Twins and watching their little hands crinkle the wrapping paper of the toys we sent them. Singing the blessing as the Pumpkin lights the menorah and then devouring the Bride’s potato latkes. Setting up my horseshoe Christmas tree brings me joy.

The Groom returned Sunday night from a working trip to Australia and New Zealand. He was flying home when we heard about the massacre on Bondi Beach. Another incident of antisemitism was not surprising, but in Australia? The video however was instructive, showing the pair of father/son killers shooting methodically with what looked like long-barreled hunting rifles – because assault-style guns are banned there. And then out of nowhere, a HERO tackles one of the gunmen – 43 year old Ahmed al Ahmed, a father-of-two, grabs the gun out of the killer’s hands.

And I really don’t care if this man is an atheist, a Lebanese Christian, or Muslim.

I’m a fan of finding the light at our darkest hour. Ahmed deserves to be celebrated! The Aussies have started a Go Fund Me for his medical bills and they’ve raised over a million dollars. The PM is dedicated to reviewing their gun laws. And all that’s great, but what about the two other Australians killed trying to stop the gunmen with bricks? What about the 15 families affected by the murder of their loved ones – the 10 year old girl, the two rabbis, the Holocaust survivor? My heart breaks for their families.

Bob was wondering if the attack over the weekend at Brown University was motivated by antisemitism. He said it’s known to attract progressive thinkers and may have a higher number of Jewish students, so I looked it up. And when compared to other Ivies he’s right – around 24%! “Today, Brown has the highest percentage of Jewish students of any Ivy League university and has the 10th most Jewish students at any private university in America.” https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025/11/canfield-28-130-years-after-browns-first-jewish-students-graduated-jewish-life-on-college-hill-is-thriving

The killer of two students, who wounded many more, is still at large so we don’t know his motivation. We do know our president is determined not to do anything to address gun violence in this country, and the Director of the FBI is incompetent. I am not a fan of Kash Patel.

And when Mr T rambled on X about the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner, how he’s not a fan of Reiner and disparages his work in Hollywood, and turns this most tragic, horrific event into a soliloquy about himself, I was not surprised. Mr T’s stream of evil consciousness should be apparent now to everyone, to both parties, all religions and the world at large. What kind of monster does this? The kind who called John McCain a “f-ing loser,” yet another person our idiotic president is not a fan of…

I AM NOT A FAN OF YOU MR T. Do you think you’re still on the Apprentice looking for ratings? You’re committing war crimes off the coast of Venezuela. And it’s not about drug dealers, it’s about the OIL. You’re itching to start a war to take the pressure off your involvement with a known pedophile. What did you say to Epstein to make him double over laughing? Why were you photographed surrounded by young women on his island? What are you hiding?

On this third night of Hanukkah, my wish is for sunshine laws to pry open the Epstein files. That’s all I want from Santa too. BIG Santa fan here! Amen.

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“A Very Radical Person”

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Today’s the day!

Because TN’s Representative R-Mark Green decided to run for office and then promptly give up his seat, our extremely gerrymandered Nashville district is holding a special election. Yes, last year at this time a scandal broke out about Green and he decided not to run, but Mr T called the former Army surgeon and convinced him to run again. After all, what’s a little womanizing between friends?

“Camilla Green, the wife of Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green, texted a group of Congress members to warn them against the evils of politics, accusing Green of being corrupted by D.C. and having an affair with a woman 27 years younger than him. The scandal, which comes less than a month after Green filed for divorce, raises questions about the Tennessee representative’s brand as a pro-family conservative, including from his own daughter.” https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/mark-green-affair-daughter/article_6a06fb0c-7440-11ef-9875-670dc401c023.html

And naturally, he won! Then he quit.

Like most politicians, he had more money to make in the private sector and also, he’d have to pay for a messy divorce right? So now, in the middle of a rainy cold snap and holiday shopping, Nashvillians are being asked to vote again – for the Democratic candidate, Aftyn Behn, who is being called a “very radical person” all over the media, or the Republican West Point graduate and combat veteran, Matt Van Epps who would like to keep the GOP’s majority in the House. He was hobnobbing with Marcia Blackburn out in Franklin yesterday.

“The crowd milling around the sleek multimillion-dollar barn full of gleaming vintage cars was already a snapshot of the Republican elite in Tennessee. There were donors, state representatives, five members of Congress, the governor and the candidate for the state’s House special election on Tuesday, Matt Van Epps. Then Speaker Mike Johnson, who flew in from Washington early Monday, called President Trump and put his phone on speaker…“They like to talk about affordability,” Trump said in the Monday evening tele-rally for Van Epps. “To them it’s just a con job, it’s just a word.”

“The whole world is watching Tennessee right now, and they’re watching your district,” Mr. Trump said,…” NYTimes

Well Lordy! Seems our president has nothing better to do than to call a candidate in the state of Tennessee in a district he won by over 20 points! More than $1.6 million from the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. super PAC has been poured into this race in the last few weeks. They must be running scared about this particular radical person!

I mean Behn is talking about affordability and bringing health care costs down while VanEpp is being funded by hedge fund billionaires and special interest groups to insure they get their tax cuts. You can’t fool all the people all the time Mr T, your credibility is starting to crumble with your base. Killing people on boats off Venezuela may be your kryptonite. You are running the biggest con ever on the American people. Whether we win or lose by a few percentage points here in TN, you Mr President are a lame duck.

If Behn’s radical left agenda supports voting rights, reproductive freedom, clean air and water, equality and education I’m all in. When an administration changes the name of the DOD to the Department of War and closes the Department of Education, I believe we can all see through their extremist ideology.

I’ll be teaching the twins a new take on an old song this Hanukkah (which starts early this year on December 14) when we sing, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.” We’ll be singing “If you’re radical and you know it clap your hands.” Here’s a pic from the Thanksgiving table, set with Grandma Ada’s china, as we were sitting down with the Groom’s parents. The Bride really knows how to throw a party!

Now get out and VOTE Nashville!

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Ideological Opposites

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , on September 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

When I heard about the shooting of Charlie Kirk, I was appalled, but in truth, I’d never heard of him. Bob somehow knew about his activism in conservative circles, knew about Turning Point USA, but not me. I was blissfully unaware of his influence; I am, however, becoming more and more aware of my environment because of the increase in gun-related violence of all stripes. The other day while strolling through the mall, I turned to Bob and confessed I didn’t feel safe.

And that’s the point of terrorism, isn’t it – to instill fear.

It was the anniversary of 9/11; it was the recent school shooting in a MN church, and then the high school in CO on the day Kirk was shot; it was the local road rage incident that happened in the parking lot of Nashville’s Rescue Mission. It was the woman from Ukraine who came here to escape war, only to have her throat slashed on the subway. It was the bomb scare during the Grands’ first week at school. It was everything everywhere all at once.

But here’s the thing. If you want to distract Americans from the vote that stopped the Epstein files from seeing the light of day, OK. And if you think it’s “too soon” to talk about gun control, OK. Let’s send all our thoughts and prayers all over the country to all those affected by gun/knife/car violence. But Republicans cannot, in good conscience, talk about how we all love free speech, while simultaneously trying to curtail it! Just listen to AG Bondi talking about ‘hate speech.’ Freedom to speak our mind Is so important it’s right there in the FIRST Amendment:

I abhor allowing hateful, religious fanatics to demonstrate near the funerals of our veterans, for instance. I was horrified when neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville. And I still can’t believe that Mr T let the insurrectionists of Jan 6th out of jail…. that attempted coup wasn’t quite “peaceful” was it? But guess what? In this country, free speech is our birth right.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So when someone like Kirk is murdered with a military-style weapon, and the GOP shifts the dialogue from the SECOND amendment to the FIRST, it smacks of hypocrisy. When an Australian student who wrote about the demonstrations at Columbia University can be deported, or a grandmother can be arrested for stating that undocumented children have a right to attend school in TN, then we have to ask WHOSE speech is being protected here?

I was even a little worried about writing about this topic. But I believe that Kirk had a right to speak his mind, just as much as I don’t agree with his ideology. That’s what the ACLU is all about. It’s not just about trans justice, or immigrants’ rights or reproductive freedom; it’s about all Americans feeling free to say anything. So long as we don’t shout “FIRE” in a theater.

Or tell a crowd to take over the Capitol.

“But I have seen a lot of people simply talk about Charlie Kirk from a technical aspect, as someone who was incredibly skilled and even someone who valued free speech. When in fact the administration that he associated with and its policies that he was defending and supporting are definitely not pro free speech. Whether it be the college campus lists, the professor watch list that he had put together to even scare professors that he considered to be radical, that he considered to be ideologically opposed to his worldview.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/style/hasan-piker-charlie-kirk.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lk8.7ofo.OWBPkor_DD5q&smid=url-share

Last Saturday: First time seeing police at the Farmers Market

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