Here we go again. Spring.   And while I appreciate the good weather, the green shoots that announce the coming of flowers and the budding trees, I don’t appreciate the chemical sprays …

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that you’ve heard from the media that the birth rate in developed countries is going down. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that “Deaths are projected …

One of the joys of living in the country is that we always have some kind of job to do. Spring, summer, autumn, winter—there’s always some chore to keep us busy. And I never work alone, so chores …

Happy New Year, one and all, and, hooray! we’ll soon mark off the first of four interminable years. Let’s begin by thinking about Artificial Intelligence, which is the companion of …

As the holidays descend, it’s a good time to think about our goals for 2025 and how we’ve managed to (choose one) (a) achieve them, (b) fail miserably, (c) forget or evade them.   As …

Poor Mr. Hegseth. Burdened with trying to make sense of a leader who is (a) inarticulate and (b) has no plan. We can imagine the call that arrived in Pete’s office in late September: …

I had just come home from the radio station where my co-host and I had played a few clips from our road trip to the governor’s ham breakfast at the Missouri State Fair....

Rural Economies Are Frail

A day or two after the bombing of Iran a meme went out with POTUS 45/47 standing in front of one of those “Mission Accomplished” banners popularized by POTUS 43—you remember the …

In my last column, I suggested that the world will experience a financial depression, of the 1930s style, as our fearless leader waddles around his own private fantasy land. I am deeply sorry for …

We’re reading a great deal on the follies of our president and how he dangles a shiny object in front of us—like the promise to cut egg prices—then when he can’t get it done he immediately …

It’s time for “good riddance” to year ‘24 We can’t wait to see it depart through the door. COVID’s been tamed but bird flu appears And climate calamity rapidly nears. I …

Well, friends, it’s time to think about New Year’s resolutions. And I, for one, am ready for some positive activism to encourage our best natures and our best progressive populist efforts. …

Days after the election, a sweet meme came to my attention. Mother and daughter, with daughter asking, “But what if they lose?” and mother answering, “Then we keep fighting for the rights of …

Done! And aren’t we all glad to be shut of it? nnWe’ve been sitting on the couch but now we can start having conversations again. Talk about the things we can control instead of the things we …

I have been smitten lately with the idea of voting strategically, which I first read in an essay by Andrew Marantz in The New Yorker. He quoted Mark Rudd, who was a member of the Weathermen, a group …

Here we are. Crunch time. And the fun never stops. Even after a fairly civil debate from the VP candidates, we suffer through lots of media-driven drama and a smidgeon of issues. Instead of leading …

Well, here we are—Crunch Time! It’s become a drag to think about/listen to/research/opine on the distance between Rs and Ds, and how massive the differences have become. If I have to read …