Today’s paper clarifies my reporting about the district court judge who ordered the cancer victim to remove her knitted cap in his court room. She left the court room in tears because she did not want to be embarrassed by removing the cap she was wearing to cover the fact she had lost her hair from chemotherapy treatment. It turns out the judge did know she had cancer when he nevertheless insisted she remove it. In an after the fact…
Did you read about the Washington state court District judge in Richland who ordered a woman to remove her knitted hat she wore to cover the fact she has no hair due to cancer treatment? She was too embarrassed to do it and left the court room. The judge said "I ask everybody to remove hats" and went to say the only exception he makes is for religious reasons. After saying he was sensitive to cancer victims because his own…
Arianna Huffington in her blog raises an issue that I have wondered about which is why the candidates are ignoring Iraq? Here’s what she says and I think she is right: "…ignoring Iraq would be a disaster for the Democrats — whoever their nominee turns out to be. Pushing Iraq aside and ceding national security to the GOP while focusing on domestic and economic concerns is the exact game plan the party power-brokers convinced John Kerry to follow in 2004….
I am a great admirer of the ability of writers to turn a phrase, capture in a headline a story and to find the right metaphor to fit the situation. Newspaper writers generally have that skill and especially gifted sports writers. Today’s Seattle PI entertained me in that way. Columnist Joel Connelly, in writing about the New Hampshire primary, talked about Fox News getting the facts wrong and referred to it as the "We distort, You decide" network. He spoke…
One of my favorite Shakespeare writings is Shakespeare’s Saint Crispen’s Day speech from his play Henry V. The last part of the speech reads: This day is call’d the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say ‘To-morrow is…
I went to Sunday Mass in Tacoma today. My penance for being distracted during the service is to confess it to you. To start with, a young woman of about twenty five came in before the services started to the Choir section. She had with her a Down’s Syndrome youngster in his early teens who looked like he was probably her brother. She helped him get off his coat and sat him in the chair behind her. He had a…
Glen Allen’s poem The Woman I am speaks to me about how many people have a secret inner world hidden by a facade for the world: The woman I am hides deep in me Beneath the woman I seem to be.She hides away from the stranger’s eye – she is not known to the passers-by. She goes her way, the woman I seem, but the woman I am withdraws to dream.The woman I seem goes carelessly- when love goes by…
We see so much discrimination against women in religions around the world . We read about the strict enforcement of the Islamic dress code and the burqa the dress code police enforce in Muslim countries, but we also find all of the major religions of the world putting women in a status below men. This includes major Christian religions. On the other hand, in the Book of Judges we read about Jewish hero’s which includes aN extraordinary woman, Deborah. Here…
The new laws against drunk driving in Arizona are very severe which is one reason we’ve decided to stay home New Year’s Eve. This state has one of the most severe laws in the nation regarding driving while drinking. In June the state passed a new law that requires ignition-interlock devices for first time offenders, increased fines and a minimum of 45 days in jail for DUI convictions where the blood alcohol is .20 or higher. (See chart to calculate…
In December of 1914, Reginald Hobbs, a 24 year old British soldier, wrote a five page mud spattered letter in pencil to his wife on a frosty moon lit night. It was December 24th 1914 and on this Christmas eve he was in a waterlogged trench on the Western Front in the region of Ypres, Belgium. Fifty yards away was the German trench. In his famous letter he told her that the guns had fallen silent along the Western front…
