Posted inCurrent affairs

Wall of Moms founder hits wall of political correctness

As a progressive, it deeply bothers me when progressives turn on each other rather than on the real current enemy, Donald Trump and his Republican enablers. All too often progressive groups fall prey to extreme political correctness, where the slightest deviation from left-wing political purity is met with extreme vilification.  This has befallen the founder of the Wall of Moms movement, Bev Barnum. Barnum is a Mexican-American mother who wanted to do something to protect Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland from the aggressive tactics of federal agents sent by Trump to supposedly guard the federal courthouse, while the real…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Violence should never be part of a Black Lives Matter protest

I doubt they read blogs like mine, but if some of the jerks who have been aiming fireworks at the federal courthouse in Portland every night, trying to dismantle the temporary fence that surrounds the building, and otherwise provoking a violent end to the otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protests do come across this post, let's have a debate. My position is: Violence should never be part of a Black Lives Matter protest. Not ever. Repeat, never.  Now, let me give reasons for why I think I'm correct about this. The first reason is much less important than the second,…
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Posted inHome life

Read these bad Peppermint Berri reviews before buying from them

I have nothing good to say about Peppermint Berri, an online store based in Singapore. Below I've copied in 35 reviews from Trustpilot, one of which is mine, which are equally critical of this company. It sure seems like they are scammers. On May 14 I ordered a standup weed removal tool from Peppermint Berri that I'd seen advertised on Facebook. At $89.98 it seemed unduly expensive, but I figured that if it didn't work I could return it. What I didn't know is that nine weeks later, not only haven't I gotten the weed remover, there's no sign it…
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Posted inCoronavirus

Three high-quality COVID protective masks I’ve ordered

A few months ago, when the COVID virus was really taking off in the United States, like a lot of people I spent quite a bit of time searching for N95-quality masks. My wife, Laurel, and I are 71. Laurel has asthma. So we're in a high-risk category when it comes to COVID. The more we can lower our risk by physical distancing, hand washing, and wearing a mask, the better. Back in 2011, when some Fukushima nuclear plant radiation was making its way across the Pacific, my wife and I had gotten a box of medical N95 masks. We…
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Posted inEntertainment Home life

What two old people say while watching Hamilton on Disney+

It took my wife, Laurel, and I three nights to finish watching Hamilton on Disney+. One reason is that the show is long. Another is that when two 71-year-old people watch Hamilton at home, there's a lot of pressing the stop/start button. Thankfully, we weren't watching on Broadway. If we talked through a live performance like we did through the streaming version, we would have been thrown out of the theatre pretty damn quickly.  Here's some of what you would have heard if you could have been a fly on the wall of our TV watching area. Laurel: Stop the…
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Posted inCoronavirus

Trump wants schools to reopen physically. Is this wise?

When I was young, I was really eager to have school start in September. I wanted to see my classmates. I was bored with summer vacation. I looked forward to being in a class one year farther along. Even though I'm far past my school days, I do have a granddaughter about to start eighth grade. Evelyn, like most students, had to do her learning online in the spring after the Covid crisis hit the United States.  That must have been difficult. So even though I disagree with Trump on almost everything, his call for elementary and high schools to…
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Posted inCoronavirus

To gather or not to gather, that is the Covid question

I don't want to die. I do want to see friends in person, not just on a Zoom screen. That's my basic dilemma, finding the right balance between safety and socializing. Being 71, rather than 17, makes the question of To gather or not to gather more consequential, since I'm in a high risk Covid group because of my age.  And my wife is in the same situation, with the added complication of having asthma. Still, both of us have been edging into the To gather side of the question. After honing our Covid prevention skills by going to grocery stores and…
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Posted inSalem

Salem Reporter editor wants ideas about how to end divisiveness. Here’s mine.

I give Les Zaitz, the editor of Salem's online-only news outlet, the Salem Reporter, a lot of credit for raising good questions in a commentary today, "Salem has to find a way to restore civility, to turn aside the meanness." After talking about some of the issues that foment divisiveness in our city -- Black Lives Matter protests, student activism with the Salem-Keizer school board, COVID pandemic -- Zaitz asks for ideas. Nothing in my decades of journalism has prepared me to manage so many crosscurrents at once. I feel like I’m in a row boat trying to cross the…
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