Less than two months after the devastating January 12 earthquake, Haiti has become old news. Dr. Joia Mukherjee, native of Bengal and graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and for 11 of her 17 years as a physician part of Partners in Health, brought Haiti back in sharp focus before a large audience […]
Happy Easter. Some years ago I convinced my Uncle to loan me his collection of old postcards, sent to the rural North Dakota farm where he and my mother and many others grew up. The cards were mostly from the early 1900s, and in the end I scanned over 150 of them, and wrote a […]
Today is Census Day. A week ago today I had the privilege of listening to the Second and Fourth Graders at South St. Paul’s Lincoln Center Elementary present their music programs to their fellow students and people like me. These kinds of events are always highlights for me. On stage were two of my grandkids, […]
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” Voltaire Earlier today, my spouse asked me what I thought of President Obamas just-announced approach to energy policy. His administration is apparently open to new, but limited, off-shore drilling for oil, including it in a package of other (in my reading) more important initiatives. This is a […]
Alan King-Hamilton died in suburban London on March 23. He was 105. I learned of his death in a phone call from his daughter, Mary. She suggested that the Telegraph had a good obituary of her Dad. The obit catches him well. It was, to greatly overstate the case, unlikely that I would ever have […]
Much of the problem we face today in the US is the lack of understanding of a necessary and proper role for government, and, in particular, of our Congress. They appear incompetent in almost every area they tackle. Put succinctly, they appear incompetent because they are! And no one should expect otherwise. All successful enterprises […]
State Senator Tarryl Clark received the endorsement of the Minnesota 6th Congressional District Delegates today, besting Dr. Maureen Reed for DFL Party support to compete against incumbent Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in November. Normally, this would be end of story. It is only the end of Chapter One. I attended todays DFL (Democratic Party) Convention in […]
One year ago today, March 25, 2009, I clicked on “publish”, and blog entry #1 on this blog was officially posted. What a year it has been. I have averaged a post every other day on diverse topics. I’m glad I started the project, and I don’t have any plans to discontinue it. There have […]
Today, in the wake of the Health Care Reform legislation, came reports of rocks through windows, telephoned death threats. The most vicious seemed directed towards Cong. Bart Stupak of Michigan. And we call ourselves a civilized society? Unfortunately, out of this encouraged incitement of the anger in the body politic may well come some deranged […]
Strictly by coincidence, our appointment with the tax preparer today was at the same time President Obama was signing the Health Care Reform Act passed by Congress on Sunday evening. Preparing for the tax preparer the last few days gave me the annual up close and personal look at my own economic facts, as opposed […]