VOICES

THE DOCTOR IS IN - Planet Earth is one of both biological and social evolution (to say nothing of chemical and physical evolution that is both manmade and non-manmade, but I digress).

ENVIRONMENT WATCH - Other than basic biological needs such as breathing and excreting, all we do is learned. We copy our parents. We are taught in school. We emulate our heroes and double-dare our friends. 

REFLECTIONS 2021 - There’s no getting around it: 2021 has been a tough year. As with 2020, many of us are glad to see its back end. Do let the door hit you on the way out.

REMEMBERING - In his absorbing profile of the writer Alex Haley (author of “Roots” and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”) in the New York Times Book Review, Michael Patrick Hearn made a familiar mistake.

VOICES - Some of my friends who were Californians and writers didn’t approve of Joan Didion’s essays about California, but they didn’t say so publicly.

A VIEW FROM HERE - On May 13, 2021, Biden capitulated to Nancy Pelosi and the Wokers, touching off the Delta Variant which in turn lay the basis for the Omi Variant (What nimrod chose “omicron” for a name?) 

COMMENTARY - At a time of year when people would normally be getting together with friends and family and exchanging gifts, this holiday season can seem overwhelming and empty.

PLANNING WATCH - Most readers assume that the dangers presented by the climate crisis are so compelling that local governments have moved into high gear to eliminate the primary culprit: Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

HEALTH CARE - When COVID-19 started sweeping across America in the spring of 2020, Irene Bosch knew she was in a unique position to help.

WOMEN’S CHOICE - Abortion was illegal, dangerous, expensive, and commonplace in New York in the fifties.

MEDIA WAR CRIES - The news and editorial pages have forgotten the failed wars of the recent past, and are already pursuing new confrontations for the United States. 

TRUMPLICANS - Fellow US-Americans, do you have the strange sensation of still being in the fascistic Donald Trump era during the neoliberal Joe Biden administration?

WEST VERSUS EAST - There is a hypocrisy at the heart of the West’s attitude to China: although we’re constantly warned about the threat from Beijing, our political and corporate elites seem intent on making this century a Chinese one.

THE DC DANCE - New federal disclosures reveal that major corporations poured donations into West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's political action committee in the weeks leading up to his pivotal announcement Sunday that he would oppose the Build Back Better Act, a stance that progressives argue is motivated by the senator's deference to special interests.

DC DIVIDED - Come on, Senators. First you haggle endlessly over a “human infrastructure” bill (Build Back Better Act) that would fund actual needs of real people—too expensive, not enough money for those “Democrats’ wish list” items.

LEGISLATIVE WATCH - “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” Mr. Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday, “I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there. This is a no.”

THE COUP - The first time many Americans learned that a large pro-Donald Trump protest in Washington was planned for January 6 was 18 days earlier when the 45th president tweeted about it—"Will be wild!"

EXTREME POLITICS - The late Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical in 1996 condemning Western societies for creating and maintaining a “culture of death.”

 POETIC INJUSTICE - ’Twas the night before Christmas

TWO PERCENT FACTOR - Wherever and whenever obscenely rich people existed, they always protected their wealth and the privileges that come with it from the majority of non-wealthy people working for them and around them.

POLITICAL WATCH - I work hard to make ends meet for my family. But as an educator in West Virginia, that’s hard sometimes — especially with child care to pay for.