Columns

Kamala Harris’ response to a protest illustrates an attitude

A few years ago, when the U.S. Senate was considering the nomination of Jeff Sessions as attorney general under Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren started reading into the record some comments that impugned the character of the nominee.

Serve your country then get ‘swift boated?’

Well here they go again. Political extremists who work behind the scenes in both national political parties have dusted off their old playbook by attacking the military record of both vice presidential candidates. Such attacks even have a name. It’s called “Swift boating.”

Survivor of a baby boomer childhood

Editor’s Note: This column is an except from Tom Purcell’s book, “Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood.” The MSNBC.com article said that kids raised in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s are survivors.

Effort for little Cajun saint moves slowly forward

The Vatican last week formally accepted the case for sainthood for Charlene Richard, just a week before the 65th anniversary of her death on Aug. 11, 1959. For thousands of people a formal declaration isn’t necessary. They know that Charlene, is certainly “the little Cajun saint.”

Is everyone always in your way?

Maybe I have two left feet when it comes to zigging and zagging. But it sure seems the entire world is determined to get in my way. (“Nations must reverse declining birth rates! What if we drop below 8 billion people available to antagonize Tyree?”) I am most keenly aware of the phenomenon at home.

A defense of JD Vance from a childless woman

I am what JD Vance would have called a single cat lady. Actually, I don’t have, nor do I particularly like, cats. I am more along the lines of a single black Lab lady, or a single bearded dragon lady. But the label still matches my civil status.

College football now is all about the money

Football for the college ranks is a matter of a few weeks away. Are you fired up? Can you hardly wait? (Yawn….). So what will we soon have?

Forgetting our Olympic woes

Bowling didn’t make the cut again. Neither will baseball and softball, ballroom dancing, pole dancing and a host of other sports be featured in the 2024 Summer Olympics games in Paris. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is picky about the sports it chooses.

Be patient, be courteous, speak distinctly

Back in the days when telephone service was in its infancy, a lot of folks were just as confused about how to use the new-fangled things as lots of us are about apps, mis-apps, and other such things these days.

Where were you when Nixon resigned?

“Sock it to meee?” That awkward query by presidential candidate Richard Milhous Nixon (on the Sept. 16, 1968 episode of “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”) was probably haunting my mind on Aug. 8, 1974.