It’s not the ones who take firearms seriously, it’s the others Just so we’re clear, I do not have a problem with responsible, legal gun…
Disasters, death, curmudgeons and a little ghoul
An air crash, a nightclub fire, Mike Royko and me “Mom, what’s a curmudgeon?” asked 11-year-old me. I’m pretty sure I pronounced it “CARmudgeon” and…
They’re right — it’s a moral issue
Conservatives say mass shootings are a moral issue and they’re correct In a darkly perverse way, it’s appropriate this one happened at a church. No,…
The lie of the good-guy-with-a-gun
I got mugged one night. It was nearing 3 a.m. and I was walking from my office to my apartment, a distance of probably 15…
A picture worth a thousand rounds
Sometimes, the story lies in what the photograph doesn’t show This innocuous photograph could tell any of a thousand stories. A young woman seems to…
A moral failure
When reports emerge of a teenager doing something reckless, careless or just stupid, my Republican friends are often the first to demand accountability from lazy…
Battle flags
When I was in high school, I took a political science class. The teacher was a proud Democrat who made no secret of his leanings…
“You have to learn not to get caught.”
It’s about time. Prior to COVID, the U.S. was experiencing notable mass shootings at the rate of about one a week. Other than certain war-torn,…
A disarming proposition
Dueling news items catch my attention in ways just one of them wouldn’t. It happened today with news posts about teachers. In Oregon, where Democrats…
“I’m a fucking teacher! … Fuck all of you!”
Yesterday, I watched the increasingly popular way adults teach children how to solve disagreements with others. I don’t care what your political persuasion is, your…