Columns

Rules for thee but not for me

Published on Wed, 05/13/2020 - 3:43pm

News, and then more news, about the Wuhan virus wears thin. But it is tough to ignore when every week there are more examples of hypocrisy by the ruling class.

Rep. Harley Rouda of California is the latest.

You will remember that Gov. Gavin Newson of California ordered all public beaches closed. This order came after the governor saw photos of people at the beach. It seems members of the proletariat were enjoying themselves too much so, like all great leaders, he acted.

When believing all women leads to evil

Published on Tue, 05/12/2020 - 3:06pm

The hashtag #BelieveWomen stemmed from an era when women claiming to have been sexually assaulted were broadly dismissed. That is, if you ignore the history of white women falsely accusing black men of rape. Those women were largely believed and the accused often summarily tortured and hung by the neck from a tree. 

Ida Wells, an African American journalist, exposed the racial terrorism in her 1892 book “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.” She just received a Pulitzer Prize 89 years after her death. 

Jewelry in the hen house, run boy run

Published on Mon, 05/11/2020 - 3:14pm

Ruby and topaz lace, emerald frizzle, gold bars.

His wife collects chickens like other women take to jewelry.

It isn’t a bad thing, I think. It just came on kind of suddenly.

He bought an Auricana rooster for her birthday and then splurged on their anniversary. He said the hatchery catalog has been open to a certain page in a conspicuous manner for weeks, so he started saving for a clutch of Ancona eggs.

Cruella DeVos

Published on Fri, 05/08/2020 - 5:00pm

Announcement: Spring prom has been canceled. Instead, Cruella DeVos invites you to harass or rape your would-be date off campus. Just make sure you follow her regulations when doing so.

A new and complex set of regulations was released in the middle of a pandemic that has posed a crushing burden on colleges and universities? According to Cruella DeVos, “civil rights really can’t wait.”

The civil rights in question are those of young men disciplined by their colleges and universities for sexual wrongdoing. 

They just don’t count

Published on Thu, 05/07/2020 - 4:10pm

It’s as if they quit counting.

A couple trillion here, billions there, another $500 billion over here and oh-yes, we do need to send some trillions to the states as well. And let’s not forget that the Fed is creating money that it gives to the government then turns around and buys the debt including now corporate IOUs and junk bonds.

Or something.

It’s certainly above our pay-grade to begin to fathom how all this works. And like everyone else -— including Congress — we presume there’s somebody, somewhere who understands all this and is actually keeping count.

Who doesn’t use cash? More people than ever

Published on Thu, 05/07/2020 - 4:09pm

Last year seems a lifetime ago, but even then, cash was no longer king. The greenback had already lost its premier role as Americans’ medium of exchange in dollar terms. Plastic card and digital transactions had taken over. And that’s how stores, restaurants and other businesses seemed to want it. 

COVID-19 has accelerated this process for several reasons. Cash cannot change hands at a distance of six feet, and besides, who wants to grab that dirty bill? Sheltering at home means more purchases are being done over the internet.

What are we trying to accomplish?

Published on Wed, 05/06/2020 - 4:43pm

As Americans debate how to reopen our society in the wake of COVID-19, we seem to be breaking down into three groups: first, those who believe the virus isn’t particularly serious and desperately want to reopen everything as soon as possible (a small minority of Americans, by polling data); second, those who believe the virus is extraordinarily serious and want everything to remain closed as long as possible (a significant minority of Americans); and third, those who believe the virus is extraordinarily serious, that the economic damage brought about by COVID-19 is extraordinarily serious a

Ban this! No, never mind!

Published on Wed, 05/06/2020 - 4:42pm

Recently, many politicians were in such a hurry to ban plastic bags. 

California and Hawaii banned them, then New York. Then Oregon, Connecticut, Maine and Vermont passed laws against them. More than 400 cities did, too.

Why? Because plastic bags are evil, didn’t you know?

“Look at the damage done by plastic bags! It is everywhere!” complained New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

A Washington state senator cited “videos of animals choked by plastics, tangled in garbage!”

A preview of coming distractions

Published on Mon, 05/04/2020 - 3:02pm

As you probably already knew, the next six months of 2020 presidential campaigning are going to be ugly. I do not say this happily, but I do so based upon a lifetime of watching candidates run for election and reelection. Almost invariably, politicians return to what worked successfully in previous campaigns.

Government has left nursing homes flying blind

Published on Fri, 05/01/2020 - 3:12pm

More than a fifth of the 55,000 known COVID-19 deaths in the United States have occurred at nursing homes and other elder-care facilities. Federal and state governments have largely turned a blind eye, often making no effort to test residents or staffs and leaving relatives, surrounding communities and the public in the dark.