The irony of this timing: My friend Debbie Katt, who is the Democratic nominee for Florida House District 57 (Valrico and surroundings), was in a meeting on gun safety when phones started ringing with the news about Sunday’s shooting in Jacksonville. She said it felt surreal. I’m sure it did. It probably felt helpless, too, as that’s where we seem to be with mainly thoughts and prayers from our legislative “leaders.” Debbie had been in the House gallery last spring, when lawmakers voted not to even discuss the issue – despite the fact that Parkland students had made the long trip there.  Read More 

Read this section to the end, please, where I have a question I’ve not seen addressed. The latest from the Current Occupant of the White House is that he is going to take away the security clearances of several top former officials, most of them in intelligence agencies, but also the former ambassador to the UN and a couple of deputy attorneys general he doesn’t like. He’s already revoked that of former CIA Director John Brennan. He didn’t follow statutory procedure on that, which requires that a person whose clearance is being questioned gets notice and has a legal right to respond. Instead, Brennan found out after the fact, when a friend phoned him.  Read More 

I found a book with that title in my sister’s cabin last May and just now have finished it. Someone gave it to her before she went to Cuba near the end of the Obama administration, so I was surprised that “Resurrection in El Salvador” is the only Latin American country included. That’s typical of Rick Steves, though: if you watch his television documentaries, you know he doesn’t like the restricted tours that have been pretty much mandatory in Cuba. Of course, he originally made his living by guiding European tourists, but… Read More