Woman Who Weaves

 “Their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. We can’t even begin to address 30,000 gun deaths that are actually, in reality, happening in this country every year — because a few of us must remain vigilant against the rise of Imaginary Hitler.” Jon Stewart "The Daily Show" Comedian Chris Rock, when asked about gun violence said:  “I believe you should have to have a mortgage to buy a gun. Nobody with a mortgage has ever gone on a killing spree. Because a mortgage is a real background check; and you know if you go to jail for 30 years you still have to pay your f–king mortgage.”  My comment on Rock:  If we are trying to do what the founders wished, this is certainly in line with their sentiments that property owners were the true citizens.  But I wish to caution against using the founders as our absolute measuring stick.   It was a very different time and place, one to which I as ...

I drove home to Northern New England from the Mid-Atlantic in December of 2012.  I got hung up in traffic on Route 84 during the day on a Saturday.  I called my sister, not sure why, wondering if there was some holiday or natural disaster I was unaware of.  Then I saw cops on motorcycles.  I knew before I saw the hearse and before I saw the sign to Sandy Hook/Newtown.         To my own surprise I burst into convulsive sobs.  I'm not much of a crier.  I later looked online and figured out that I was watching the funeral procession of Josephine Gay. Above my desk I now have a sweet picture of her on a swing with a slightly older someone who might be a sibling.  Its going to stay there for awhile.  It inspired me to write this list, with the intention of sending it to my congresspeople and governor.  Haven't done it yet, but here you go.   I support requiring all guns to be sold by dealers licensed in the st...

Without ever realizing it, I had lumped my three favorite NPR hosts into the category of gay New York Jews.  This is a prejudice, but it is a category of people I am generally fond of, so it is a relatively benign prejudice.  After finding out that Ira Glass was married, I checked on the other two.  Married to women with children.  While that is not necessarily make them not gay, it doesn't seem very likely.  So, none of them are gay.  Whoops. So now I have to wonder, where are they from?  Ira is from Baltimore, and Michael Feldman, with his wife and two daughters, born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin.  Which leaves me with Peter Sagal, resident of Chicago and married father of three.  He was born in New Jersey.  30 miles from New York.  At this point, I'll take it.  Thankfully (?)  they are in fact, all Jewish.  I am reminded of that awful woman on the West Wing who equated New York with being Jewish.  Piss...

I expect the Supreme Court to pronounce that states may explicitly allow or fail to explicitly allow same sex marriage, but they may not ban it, and they must recognize it when performed in another polity.  So, Arkansas doesn't have to allow gays to marry, but they cannot forbid them and must recognize it when they get married in Kansas.  (States selected at random.)

Moonstruck  Princess Bride Nobody's Fool The first two are well known.  The third is Paul Newman and Jessica Tandy.  And a nice little surprise.