Category Archives: Uncategorized

Um…how would it work?

Here is a line of dialogue from the Netflix show The Diplomat, which I enjoyed the first time I saw it and have enjoyed more every time since. This is a conversation between Kate Wyler, Ambassador to Great Britain (Keri … Continue reading

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Self-sacrifice. Why?

I have a fantasy in which the people who make the points I like best use language that makes sense. The way I look at it, the language I use actually does make sense and if these other people would … Continue reading

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Eleanor Rigby

I know Eleanor Rigby as background music. I’ve never actually paid any attention to the words. But I belong to a singing group that is getting ready to sing a Beatles concert and we are learning some Beatles songs. Kind … Continue reading

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Celebrating a Return to “the way things used to be”

Many years ago, my ingenious niece, Lisa Hess, sent me these two pictures as a way of wishing me Happy Easter. Knowing Lisa, I am sure she had more in mind than just that, but I doubt that she had … Continue reading

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Make Northern Idaho College Great Again

When I first began taking political science seriously, it was moving rapidly to the left and demanding a much higher level of empirical support for its propositions. The Old Guard, deplored by my first political science professors, were “conservative” about … Continue reading

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Foster, by Claire Keegan

We are not cheap moviegoers, really. It is just that we do stay and watch until the last credit has appeared on the screen. That is how Bette and I found out that the movie we had just seen, The … Continue reading

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Far enough away to enjoy it

I want to share with you today my favorite line from “The New Ashmolean Marching Society and Students’ Conservatory Band.” Yesterday, the Plaza Singers–a choral group at the Senior Center where I live– sang it and some other songs from … Continue reading

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Packaging Ourselves

I liked Michelle Goldberg’s column in the February 24 New York Times. I liked it for some good reasons and some not so good. Among the not so good is that she said she had been working on the topic … Continue reading

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The ashes of Ash Wednesday

This Wednesday, a lot of Christians are going to have a mixture of ash and olive oil applied to their foreheads. I am not. There are two reasons, one of which isn’t really very respectable. It is that it seems … Continue reading

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Two Cheers for White History Month

First, my congratulations to you for having gotten beyond the title. If your political sensitivities are at all like mine, you are not at all likely to read a column with a title that means what you think that one … Continue reading

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