Current Affairs
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It's humiliating for me to confess that until a few weeks ago I had never heard of the Piacenza Liver, which is a life-size bronze Etruscan replica of the liver of a sheep, and unquestionably European civilization's most heralded metal liver. How could I not have known? The PL was unearthed in 1877 and dates…
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"Hereditary meritocracy" is a phrase, and a concept, that hits home. Reluctantly, I must concede that these words characterize my small corner of the American experience (at least in part). "Hereditary meritocracy" is a pointed irony. It's obviously an oxymoron — a contradiction — in which an adjective that goes one way is sutured to…
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We were sitting on a metal bench in front of the Boulder Public Library, resting up for the half mile walk home. It was unusually peaceful; families in and out, borrowing or returning their bags of books. Once in a while, there's a discordant note: a homeless, drugged, or deranged person, muttering or sometimes shouting…
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Texas Representative Trey Moody (R-Flower Mound) introduced a bill in the lower house that would require all public school teachers, administrators, and other personnel to bear weapons during the entire school day. Weapons must be "carried publicly, in a visible manner" such as in a hip holster. Moody stated that "not only would firearms discourage…
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Representative Clay Hawkins of Eagle Hollow has filed a bill in the Idaho legislature that would regulate the travel of women of child-bearing age. Hawkins' bill would prohibit fertile women (14 to 54) from leaving Idaho unless they could present evidence that they were not pregnant. "How else," said Hawkins, "can we prevent them from…
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Although I regularly walk our many nearby scenic mountain trails, I'm not a genuinely "outdoorsy" person. I don't ski, or snowboard, and I certainly don't rock climb. No climbing at all if I can help it. At this time, I have no plans to "summit" anything, not even my step stool. My camping days are…
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Am I just plain nuts to think that I live in a safe and secure world? All the evidence says "perpetual vigilance" and "it can happen here" and "keep a close watch? Let's look at the situation. Our state has a violent history. In the far past: at Sand Creek in 1864, several hundred Cheyenne…
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We stayed at an inn in Lyme, New Hampshire called "Breakfast on the Connecticut." Good location, decent accommodations — but they don't serve breakfast. Which reminded me of the famous sign in front of the Fairlee Diner on Route 5 in Fairlee, Vermont: "Open Seven Days a Week. Closed Tuesday."
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Ukraine has been invaded and whole cities have been obliterated by the Putin dictatorship. It's tragic. Once again, I'm overwhelmingly grateful that my grandparents chose to pack up and leave the blighted Ukraine. It's a decision that has looked better and better with each passing year. My father's family came from a Ukrainian "shtetl" called…