Who I am…
I am a lawyer, former mother of teenagers, and a quixotic seeker after and champion of factual truth.
I make the best damn brownies you have ever had that are not regulated by the federal government.
I love movies, Broadway, and intelligent conversation.
I think in song lyrics and movie and television quotes.
I believe in the use of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar even in text messages. I am willing to debate the use of the Oxford comma, if you know what the Oxford comma is. It also makes me very happy if people use the subjunctive mood when appropriate.
I have been told I intimidate people. I am really just a fluffy-centered teddy bear. Really.
- It's all my fault. No, really. The views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and in no way whatsoever represent the views of anyone else, including any past, present, or future employer.
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Words to live by ….
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.
“Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living.” Mary Harris (“Mother Jones”).
“Don’t boo. Vote.” Barack Obama.
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Reinhold Niebuhr.
“No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.” Sir Terry Pratchett.
“Damning facts are still facts.” Steven C. Holtzman.
“If you don’t stick to your values when they’re tested, they’re not values — they’re hobbies.” Jon Stewart.
“Darkness never sustains, even though it sometimes seems it will.” Doctor Who.
“Writing is a form of mischief.” Stephen Sondheim.
“An idea is not responsible for the people who believe it.” Don Marquis.
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” Joseph Campbell.
“Truth is our strongest ally, our biggest weapon, and our best defense.” Me.
“Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Stephen Colbert.
“The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” Jonathan Larson.
“We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.
We rise and fall, and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love;
Cannot be killed or swept aside.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda.“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Emma Goldman.
“No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett.
“I believe that the God who made (among other things) light, and space, and number, and time, and the spiral curve of Fibonacci numbers, must be acknowledged to understand more than I do about why there’s pain in the world.” Teresa Neilsen Hayden.
“No, it’s not fair. You’re in the wrong universe for fair.” John Scalzi.
“Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.” Lawrence O’Donnell
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.” Molly Ivins.
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Category Archives: Politics
This has gotten old.
I watched ten minutes of the Republican debates last week. That’s up from two minutes for the first one. I have heard other bits and pieces through the week. If I think about them too long, I start to feel … Continue reading
No, you’re not a martyr to your faith.
People scream about the First Amendment a lot. Usually they claim that their right to free speech is being violated, just because they are boycotted or face demands that they be fired or criticized for making offensive statements on the … Continue reading
Hope.
Ted Cruz and Chris Christie mocked Jimmy Carter the day after the former president announced he had cancer which had spread to his brain. This on top of Cruz making fun of Joe Biden earlier this year, three days after … Continue reading
F*** you, too, Brownie.
[Warning: as can be guessed by the title, this post contains strong language.] Ten years ago, I was telling my friends that people in the Gulf Coast were using “the C-word”: Camille. Growing up in Florida, the refrain you always … Continue reading
To my foremothers
The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, adopted August … Continue reading
This birthright citizenship, who needs it anyway?
A recurring motif of the race for the Republican presidential nomination has been that immigration needs to be curbed, and that birthright citizenship — citizenship obtained by birth on American soil — should be ended. (Carly Fiorna, to her credit, … Continue reading
We’ll miss you, “Comrade.”
As writers from Chaucer to Shakespeare to George Orwell and beyond can attest, words change meaning with sad regularity. Usually they change gradually over the years, but sometimes the new meaning explodes out of nowhere. And sometimes those changes come … Continue reading
Over fifty years after the fact, Pinellas County rejects Brown v. Board of Education.
Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments….it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his … Continue reading
Thank you, Jon Stewart.
Because I really do want to remember this: Bullshit is everywhere. There is very little you will encounter in life that has not been, in some way, infused with bullshit — not all of it bad. General day-t0-day organic free-range … Continue reading
Consistency, people.
I heard a msnbc commentator this evening say “Everyone is rightfully upset — and should be — by the fetal tissue sale, but Republicans should not shut down the government to defund Planned Parenthood.” My first reaction was “Yeah, those … Continue reading
Letters…
Dear Rick Santorum: How in God’s green earth did you make through your time in the Senate without learning how the Constitution worked? Either you did, and you are dissembling so that the base will like you (although, to be … Continue reading
The pitfalls of “progress.”
Harmondsword is a small, quaint village hard under the approach of planes heading into Heathrow. That would be quaint not in the Disneyland or tourist sense, but in the “good heavens, people actually live in seventeenth century houses!” sense. (Not … Continue reading
Perspective.
Bowers v. Hardwick, upholding the right of states to enact and enforce sodomy laws, 1986. Romer v. Evans, striking down Colorado’s anti-gay constitutional amendment, 1996. Lawrence v. Texas, striking down sodomy laws, 2007. United States v. Windsor, striking down part … Continue reading
A quick lesson on representative democracy.
San Jose, California, had a primary in a special election to fill an empty City Council seat. On a day-to-day basis, city councils have a greater impact on people than who is in the White House. City councils determine police and … Continue reading
Restructuring, not reform.
“Pension reform.” The words have been floating around the national zeitgeist for several years now. Politicians such as Scott Walker (or, more closer to my home, former San Jose mayor Chuck Reed) have fanned the flames of public angst over … Continue reading
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