The Family That Waves Signs Together, Helps Other Families Stay Together

Families belong together so we're going to the Park Strip on Saturday. See you there?
https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/20065/signup/?source=&s=

Democracy to Go, Going, Gone

Even as they put children in cages, suppress voting rights, destroy unions, remove access to clean water and health care and on and on, ad nauseam; I suppose we have to be nice to them in restaurants or else risk feeding their perception that they’re the ones being persecuted. Feed their bellies, not their delusions!

I Have A Dream

This morning I woke from a dream that I was dying of a neurological disease. It could have been sad and scary, but I was seeing it from the outside and in my dream, I was played by Tom Hanks.

Is One The Lonliest Number, Or The Best Number Ever?

We have a small kitchen and when we’re all in it at the same time I think, “I don’t want to live in North Korea, but, man, a Hermit Kingdom sounds amazing!”

Even Satan Can Quote The Bible

Wasn’t there a craze for elephant jokes maybe fifty years ago? Like, 

Q: “How do elephants hide?” 

A: “They paint their toenails red and climb into cherry trees.”

Q: “How did Tarzan die?”

A: “Picking cherries.”

So, WE  learned at an early age that cherry-picking is dangerous, a lesson that our attorney general seems to have missed. Because when he goes around quoting the Bible to justify putting children in camps, he’s ignoring verses like these from Matthew 25:

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 

 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

It's Father's Day, Hug 'em If You Gottem

Fathers Day is a family kind of day, so I wrote my Senators about a family values issue. You still can, too. Here's what I wrote: I wrote to you recently to ask you to do something to end the cruel practice of separating children from their parents at the border. At the time, I wasn't sure what you could do, but now there is a bill that you can support that does just that. It is disappointing, but not surprising given the events of the last few years, that not one Republican so far has supported it. The Keep Families Together Act was developed in consultation with child welfare experts to ensure the federal government is acting in the best interest of children. The bill is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Children’s Law Center, Young Center for Immigrant Rights and the Women's Refugee Commission. I am writing to you now to ask you to stand with families and the people that support family values by supporting this bill. Thank you.

It's a Hard Reign Gonna Fall

I listen to a podcast called, “In Our Time,” from the BBC. It features an eclectic, maybe even random, assortment of topics. They have had experts on to discuss protons and enzymes (two different shows) and the Civil War (both American and British.) The one I’m listening to now is called The Emancipation of the Serfs.” In 1861, Czar Alexander freed the serfs. That was two years before the USA, aka, Land of Liberty, freed the slaves. But, and it’s a but so big Sir Mix-a-Lot would date it, having freed them, he did nothing to allow them to make a living. The aristocrats continued to exploit them and in 1917 the population was desperate enough to bring their whole society crashing down. Probably, it’s a stretch to think that anything about private equity firms looting stores and throwing people out on the street could lead to a cataclysm, but when you watch the news, don’t we seem to already be, if not post, at least in a mid-apocalyptic period?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-us-bankruptcy-private-equity/561758/