November 30, 2008 I favor government-paid equal health care for all Americans. Full-tilt socialized medicine -- that's what I want -- completely free at the point of service -- and that includes all dental work and vision care. I believe that every useless bum in the country should receive health care as good as you or I get. (More)
November 25, 2008 One cannot live a serious life without enjoying a good party. I was at the Robert Sund birthday party in LaConner last night, held in LaConner's most wonderful building, the Civic Garden Club. The building is 130 years old and once held the county courthouse, and was later used as a school and library. It's very warm inside. (More)
November 14, 2008 When I heard that General Motors was going bankrupt, I immediately thought of my father's Buick. It suited him so well, a light-green four-door Roadmaster, bought new in 1956. He drove the whole family, five kids, from Chicago to Yellowstone Park, then on to San Francisco, Yosemite, Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, and back home, all the way across Oklahoma and Missouri on old Route 66. We saw America in that Buick. (More)
November 10, 2008 "Barack Obama is the first President to come from Illinois since Abraham Lincoln," as I wrote in yesterday's post. Not true. We're forgetting Ulysses Grant, also from Illinois, a two-term President. They say Grant's Presidency was notable for corruption. But I have heard different. Rod Garcia, who got his doctorate in history from UCLA, said that Grant made some notably progressive proposals and has gotten a bad rap. (More)
November 10, 2008 Barack Obama is the the first African-American President, a younger man with a handsome family. The nation rejoices, even the people I met last night at the Arts Alive show in LaConner. I sat by the stage next to a carved wooden parrot and many people greeted me with words of happiness. (More)
November 3, 2008 "What if we had an election and everyone came?" High voter turnout could swamp the system. There's a chance that Obama will make a landslide win and, in that case, the results will be in early. (More)
October 31, 2008 They finished harvesting the potatoes across the road from our house on Fir Island. It's a very big field and it took them a week, working dawn to dusk and into the night -- the harvester going slowly down the rows, running potatoes up a moving belt into a heavy truck that follows behind. An empty truck waits idling, at the edge of the field, and then pulls into place behind the harvester for the next load. (More)
