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The Similarities Between COVID-19 In Us, CWD In Deer

Why doesn’t the Game Commission put facemasks onto Pennsylvania’s deer? People are wearing facemasks to lessen the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Shouldn’t deer wear facemasks to lessen the spread of chronic wasting disease? Well, no. I made that “face masks for deer” suggestion as a joke. I just chuckle at the mental image. The serious reality is that chronic wasting disease is showing up in deer disturbingly close to hunting grounds in west-central Pennsylvania, including Clearfield and Jefferson counties. The Game Commission is asking for comments, according to ...

Man Worries As His Partner’s Mood Sours For An Extended Period Of Time

I had just finished lunch at my desk and had time for a short siesta. I leaned back in my chair and placed my feet on the desk. Yes, I put my feet up on the coffee table sans shoes at home. I closed my eyes and then I heard a voice yell out “Hello, anyone here? Hello!” So much for the rest. Occasionally, salespeople walk in to market a product. I was tempted to reply no one’s home. The words never got out of my mouth. A man stood in the office doorway and peered at me. “Hello, sorry if I’m bothering you, sir. Are you the counselor?” Yes, I am. How do you do? “I was on a ...

After Years, Who Are We Now?

A week after Donald Trump was elected president, writer and scholar Sarah Kendzior, who had predicted in 2015 that he would win, wrote a public letter to the American public. “My fellow Americans,” it began. “I have a favor to ask you. ... I want you to write about who you are, what you have experienced, and what you have endured.” She saw dark days coming, and, in the remaining time before Trump’s inauguration, she wanted Americans to take stock of themselves and document it for future reference. What and who did they believe in? What were their values and their beliefs, ...

Let’s Not Waste A Crisis

Former Barack Obama adviser Rahm Emanuel, during a recent interview, reminded us of his 2008 financial crisis quotation, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste.” The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a wonderful opportunity for those of us who want greater control over our lives. Sadly, too many Americans have already taken the bait. We’ve allowed politicians and bureaucrats to dictate to us what’s an essential business and what isn’t, who has access to hospitals and who hasn’t, and a host of minor and major dictates. Leftist politicians who want to get into our pocketbooks are ...

Many Republicans Do Have A Sense Of Humor

An American politician can help herself politically by being able to believably use self-deprecating humor, which sends a clear message: “I am not pompously self-important or thin-skinned; I do not take myself completely seriously.” No one was better at self-deprecation than former President Ronald Reagan, whose robust sense of self-confidence enabled him to confound his political opponents by laughing at himself. Washington, sadly, can be a city where, because we do not grow corn or build cars, we sometimes measure input rather than output. I may not be able to tell you exactly ...

Believing All Women Can Lead To Evil

The hashtag #BelieveWomen stemmed from an era when women claiming to have been sexually assaulted were broadly dismissed. That is, if you ignore the history of white women falsely accusing black men of rape. Those women were largely believed and the accused often summarily tortured and hung by the neck from a tree. Ida Wells, an African American journalist, exposed the racial terrorism in her 1892 book “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.” She just received a Pulitzer Prize 89 years after her death. Between 1881 and 1968, 3,446 black men were killed by lynching, a ...