Over a year ago, in mid-April 2011, a coffee acquaintance, a generation ‘south’ of me in age, asked me a question. As a second job, he’s long been a local volunteer fireman. One of his duties was to handle his units retirement investment fund. Apparently their fund was not doing well – they were getting […]
I stopped by Woodbury Heritage House on Friday to take the monthly snapshots. The sign was up announcing that today, the 2nd Sunday afternoon, the House will be open for tours, as it is every 2nd and 4th Sunday afternoon during the summer. (click to enlarge photos). These days the house looks a bit bedraggled […]
After the first week the conversation about the Affordable Health Care Act has (it seems) been politically narrowed down to this: “it’s a tax” (therefore it’s evil). It is this because geniuses with words like Frank Luntz have determined that the word “tax” resonates negatively with people. It’s a ‘dog whistle’ word. We’ve been conditioned […]
We always go to the Afton parade. It is nearby, and it is the only parade I know that you can watch twice – the units double back down the same street, and pass each other. Today I went by myself. It was just too hot. This is a major election year, and this day […]
Happy 4th of July. Most likely I’ll be walking in a parade unit in Afton MN, supporting the candidacy of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. Campaigning is tough on the best of days, but July 4, for a statewide candidate, is truly impossible. So, I’ll walk and people watch and in Afton there’s the additional benefit […]
Saturday we attended the opening of a major interpretative exhibit at the Minnesota History Museum about the War between the Dakota Indians and the United States of America. This is a very well done exhibit, and very well worth ample time to both look and reflect. The Minnesota History Center is easily accessible, on Kellogg […]
UPDATE July 1: An excellent 9 minute video summary from the Kaiser Family Foundation on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is here. This slices through the complexities. July 3: from the same source, a ten question quiz on what you know about ACA here. Many comments follow this post under UPDATES: I posted #587 before […]
UPDATE: 23 comments below. A second post on this topic, with additional comments, is accessible here. I’m publishing this a few hours before the Big Release of the Supreme Court decision on what has come to be known as “Obamacare”. I have no prediction. All I know is the reality, learned at too young an […]
Preliminary Note from Dick Bernard: At the Annual Meeting of the Minnesota Chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions June 21, 2012, Dr. David Schultz gave an important talk entitled “Wealth vs Democracy: The Battle for America’s Soul”. Rather than attempting to summarize what he had to say, I asked Dr. Schultz if he would be […]
Some months ago a cousin I’d never met in person, JoAnn (Wentz) Beale, wrote from California, suggesting that we get together when she came to an event in her home town of Grafton ND. It was a great idea. Her grandmother, Elize Collette Wentz, and my grandmother, Josephine Collette Bernard, were siblings, raised on the […]