I didn’t know until recently that Jared Kushner’s father spent time in federal prison for a string of white-collar crimes. This was back in 2005-06, when Dubya was president. I’m sure Kushner Senior had a platoon of lawyers, but they could not convince a jury of his innocence. So my question is: If President Hillary Clinton had a son-in-law with such a family history, do you think everyone would have heard?  Read More 

I trust you watch the PBS Newshour; everyone should. You may have noticed that Judy Woodroff increasingly begins the hour by shaking her head and saying, “There’s just so much news to cover.” Most of it is generated by our wacky White House – and not just its chief occupant. Friday night’s Republican spokesman David Broder joins Judy in shaking his head in astonishment at a White House that is like nothing he’s seen during decades in the news profession. His Democratic counterpart, Mark Shields, described it best when he said of the administration’s endless turmoil: “It’s like a civil war in a leper colony.”  Read More 

Arming teachers: What about teachers, especially in religious schools, who truly believe “Thou Shalt Not Kill?”


Re the rate of evolution, which is assumed to be very slow: Have you seen a dog chase a car lately? That was common in my youth. Dogs learn and evolve, and people who assert that animals cannot reason are just wrong.  Read More 

A political button I’ve used before and wish that someone would reissue: “Support mental health or I’ll kill you.”


Our territory of Puerto Rico is begging Washington for a $300 million loan to restore electricity, while we spend hundreds of billions for endless destruction in other parts of the world. It’s a loan -- and to our own citizens. How about making this part of America great again?  Read More 

I spoke to the Micanopy Historical Society last Saturday afternoon. Hubby and I were standing in a long line for lunch at the town’s only café (good food, but seriously understaffed), when I saw someone who looked liked former Florida First Lady Adele Graham. As she came closer, I spotted the big “Gwen” button on her lapel, and we had a nice conversation. I don’t know what Adele was doing in Micanopy: a younger companion, worried that she had been gone from her table too long, interrupted us. But she looks great, is as gracious as ever, and is excited about her daughter’s campaign for governor.  Read More 

The Pentagon plans to spend $391 billion on new fighter planes. The National Parks Department has $11 billion in unmet maintenance needs, including a leaking pipeline that is the only source of water at the popular South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Anyone choose water?  Read More 

Everyone knows that the story of the month – several months, now – is sexual harassment. The story behind the story, though, is that of female judges. I hope you noticed the one who sentenced notorious abuser Dr. Larry Nassar to so many prison terms that he will die behind bars. She is Judge Rosemarie Aquilina – a woman whose father was Maltese and whose mother was German. She became a citizen at age twelve and graduated from Michigan State University (MSU), where Nassar was a sports star, in 1979. But it’s being a woman that makes all the difference.  Read More 

You have energized women in a way that hasn’t happened since the 1970s. Your vulgar language and shameless behavior has brought grandmothers back to the streets, along with their daughters, sons, and more. Last weekend’s marches brought back memories of when I was young, and Hubby joined me in Tallahassee parades organized by the National Organization for Women and other groups that aimed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. We never achieved that -- but we won every battle of the war.  Read More 

So much of life is two steps forward and one step back, all the while forgetting that we have walked this path before. This is especially true of public life, where experienced people are put out to pasture by term limits, and youngsters think they are inventing new wheels. Specifically, I speak of a Times editorial last week, “Move faster to clean up leaky tanks.” The subhead read in part: “Thousands of underground petroleum tanks are buried across Florida, endangering the drinking water supply because the state doesn’t make their cleanup a priority.”  Read More 

In America, that is. At least, the most important outside of government, a private entity funded with small donations from members. That would be the League of Women Voters, which after a century or so, continues to pull us out of our mire. You think there’s fraudulent voting now? Try looking back a century or so, when politicians openly bought a virtually all-male electorate with free drinks at saloons in exchange for their vote. Party bosses gave or withheld public employment depending on how someone voted. They picked up your garbage or didn’t, again depending on what they perceived as your political leanings. And no one thought that was wrong.  Read More