The Things We Worry About. Or Not.

I just want to take a moment to say how surprised I was by the verdict for the murder of Ahmaud Arbrey. In Georgia, no less. The conviction of Travis McMichaels, his father Gregory McMichaels, and their friend Roddie Bryan was clearly warranted by their actions, but I wondered if the jury would actually render a guilty verdict on the murder charges. I won't get into a comparison of the Rittenhouse vs McMichaels & Bryan trials, but suffice it to say that the nation watched with more scrutiny this time. 

Step Surveillance Station

Thanksgiving was a quiet event at Chez Wifely, but Shabbat Thanksgiving is a traditionally raucous night. Dinner was dairy after Turkey Day, with red snapper, the fish of choice. Little Miss and Young Sir were happy to have a new victim...I mean audience member (my friend Joanie who is visiting from SoCal) to delight with their plots, and there was lots of laughter. Especially when, using my rubber Millennium Cows and small stuffed things, they created a series of surveillance stations to capture our location at every minute. Now, for someone who refuses to use Alexa et al, this was a little creepy because I keep finding surveillance stations all over the house.

Mantel Surveillance Station

Little Miss's precision in placement was pretty good. She had the sight lines all figured out. She explained that this was a safety precaution, but I wasn't buying that one. Of course, Young Sir said, "Yeah!" to everything she said. Watching them work together to set up the surveillance stations was actually kinda remarkable. She had a willing henchman, and gee, isn't that what a younger sibling is for? I know I often played the role of henchman to my big brother, although I cannot remember ever setting up surveillance stations. We were almost as creative....we hid Fizzies in toilet tanks... but we're not talking about us. Anyway, a couple of thinks struck me after the kids and kiddos left. I found myself thinking about why a 7-year old would even know what a surveillance station was. And once I was headed down that path, I was thinking about how she instinctively knew the best places to set them up for maximum coverage. 

This was a big think if you ask me. It screamed volumes about how little kids view the world. I didn't ask too many questions about why she thought we need surveillance, but I'm guessing she learned this on The Octonauts  where they're always setting up stuff to watch the ocean floor and fight off bad ecological events. The show is really terrific, and has been described as Star Trek meets Jacques Cousteau for little kids. They are all about real animals in the sea and the help they need to survive. I get it. It's great stuff.

But I ended up thinking about the peripheral messages, the ones that little imaginations glean from visuals. In olden times, this might've been called preparedness thinking. I can remember making a make-believe bomb shelter in a friend's basement. We were in first grade and we were acting out what we saw and heard in school. Are Little Miss's surveillance stations much different from that? Probably not.

I'm not so sure, just as I'm not so sure her knowing about this stuff is so bad either. Little Miss could turn my photos on my old iPod Touch into slideshows with music long before I knew how to do that. Kids are growing up with Alexa doing their bidding; I guess they have to sorta grok the idea that Alexa and others might be de facto listening to them. Savvy kiddos are not bad things. Teaching them to be savvy about technology is definitely not a bad thing. 

The big kids work hard to keep technology age appropriate for the kiddos. There are hard limits on television and other media. The premium is on reading, not watching. These are good things. Both kiddos love books and stories. They do listen, which is sometimes remarkable all on its own. I am relieved as much as thankful for that. But I still worry.

Yeah, that's what savtas (grandmothers) do. We are natural born worriers. I kinda think the things both my grandmothers worried about for us are vastly less complicated than the things I worry about for Little Miss and Young Sir. I'm also guessing the things the big kids worry about for the kiddos are somewhat different from what Ziggy and I worried about...although we were at the forefront of monitored screen time. 

None of my grandparents were born into a world where people routinely flew across continents and oceans. None of them ever saw a PC, much less a smartphone. They worried about moving pictures and vaudeville. My folks were better at technology adoption than their folks, but they worried about smutty books, "appropriate" movies, (okay, we were coming of age in the 60s) pot, and premarital sex. Ziggy and I worried about internet porn, violent video games, drugs, and safe sex. See, things changed. Parental paranoia changed with the generations. I don't even want to imagine what Mr. and Mrs. Junior Son will worry about as Little Miss and Young Sir come of age. 

And those are just the little things. The big ones, like antisemitism, racism, and gender inequality are out there in spades waiting for my beloved kinderlach to challenge them all in the name of justice. 

I hear myself going, "Oy! Oy! Oy!" a lot. Some things, on the other hand, don't ever change. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

They tried to kill us, We won. Let's eat.
Chag Urim Same'ach to all!

BONUS TIP

Need a great Hanukkah present?

Give a great book!

Guns, Guns, and More Guns

November 22, 1963. 

I probably don't have to tell you what happened on that day. If I do, you weren't around yet, and you probably didn't pay much attention in civics, social studies, history, or whatever you called that class about these here United States. 

X marks the spot. 58 years ago, there was an open convertible driving across that X. 

And the rest, as they say, is history. Well documented history

A guy named Zapruder was filming it all with his Bell & Howell movie camera. You see the car, you see the shot, you see the Secret Service climbing into the car. 

One guy with a high powered rifle changed the world and we get to see him to do it over and over and over. 

Each frame of the Zapruder film has been intensely analyzed over and over. One shoot? Two shooters? Grassy knoll? Book depository? No one knows for sure. 

Despite the film, despite the modern forensics, despite what we think we know but really don't know. And there are still no answers to the endless questions We, the People had about the assassination. There is no satisfactory resolution to who and why. 

But it didn't stop there. 

The nation was in shock. Mourning pall stretched across the entire country. People didn't know how to respond to this horrific tragedy.

But in this scenario, Jack Ruby finds his way into the crowded basement of Dallas Police headquarters. He waits patiently for the cops to bring out Lee Harvey Oswald. And he shoots him at point blank range. 

At the time of Jack Ruby's assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, there was lots of talk about his gun (he bought it in a pawn shop in 1961 for $75.00) , how he got it into the basement of the police station (he carried it in from the street,) and how he managed to fire before anyone stopped him. And it was so neatly captured on camera. Still, there are enough conspiracy theories to make even Tucker Carlson squeal with delight.

In another, much different scenario, but also captured on many phone cameras, a 17-year old kid walks into a crowd with an automatic weapon seemingly set to fire. He tells people he's there to guard businesses, but no one ever asked him to, nor was he a security guard of any kind. He says he's there to volunteer as a medic; he has no EMT training. 

In the course of events, he shoots and kills two people, and injures a third. He claims it was self-defense, that he was in fear for his own safety. Even though he was carrying a cocked and loaded automatic weapon. 

Can someone explain to me why he went into a potential riot situation with a cocked and loaded AR-whatever but didn't intend to use it? Is this like a dick thing? Y'know the gun is inversely proportional to his size? That would make much more sense to me than hearing how he was there to protect, serve, and be a medic....not one of which he was trained to do. 

And how is it that no one stopped a guy with a loaded automatic rifle from entering the crowd? Were the cops on a donut break? If that guy with the AR-whatever was any other color, he woulda been face down on the pavement, probably dead. 

But never mind that. Take a closer look at the law.

The burden of proof in the way the Wisconsin law is written falls to the prosecution. From the NY Times:

Wisconsin’s rules for self-defense are well within the national mainstream. If people reasonably believe they are at risk of death or great bodily harm, they can use deadly force. Most states say that someone who provokes violence or is acting illegally waives the right to self-defense, but Wisconsin allows it if the person has “exhausted every other reasonable means to escape from or otherwise avoid death or great bodily harm.”

Sounds reasonable enough, but were Rittenhouse's actions reasonable?

You have to take into account that Judge Schroeder ruled prosecutors could not refer to men Kyle Rittenhouse shot as victims but allowed the defense to refer to them as looters. Were they looters? Does anyone know that for sure?

On the surface, this seems exceptionally prejudicial in favor of the defendant, but Schroeder’s ruling was based on his determination that using the word “victim” would telegraph that a crime was committed against that person, and that would be prejudicial when presenting a case where the shooter says he acted in self-defense. 

One of Rittenhouse's victims....I mean looters, Gaige Grosskreutz, told the jury: 

 I thought that the defendant was an active shooter.

This brings up an interesting scenario. Here's the chain of shooting events as published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Later, Rittenhouse walks alone to the business' third location four blocks away, and encounters Rosenbaum, who chases him before Rittenhouse fatally shoots him.

As Rittenhouse walks away, he falls to the ground. He fires at a man who tries to kick him, then kills Anthony Huber, who had hit him [with] a skateboard. Grosskreutz, who was approaching with a handgun, is wounded. 

Rittenhouse then walks toward several police tactical vehicles at the nearby intersection, his arms raised in an apparent surrender. The police vehicles drive past him toward the shooting victims. Rittenhouse meets back up with Black, who drives him home.

Think about this. Rittenhouse has an automatic weapon and fires at Rosenbaum, just released from the hospital, heavily armed with a plastic bag containing a toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, deodorant and some papers. From NPR:

According to Rittenhouse's lawyers, Rosenbaum approached Rittenhouse and attempted to "engage" him. Afraid, Rittenhouse took off running and Rosenbaum gave chase. Videos of the incident show that Rosenbaum eventually threw the plastic bag he was carrying at Rittenhouse, who responded by firing four shots at the man.

The defense said Rosenbaum was a felon, therefore Rittenhouse decided his life was in danger. How did he know Rosenbaum was a felon? Was he wearing a sign, "Hi, I'm a felon armed with a bag of socks, shoot me?" He was unarmed. Rosenbaum may have been chasing him, so you shoot him? That's okay, according to the state of Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explains the timing of the second and third shooting

Just as Rittenhouse shot Huber, Grosskreutz was walking up to Rittenhouse. He briefly stopped and raised his hands after Huber was shot, holding a handgun in his right hand. Rittenhouse, still seated on the pavement, looked up and shot Grosskreutz in the right bicep. Prosecutors charged attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

What part of hands in the air, even with a gun held upwards, would telegraph to the shooter that he was in immediate danger? Last time I looked, hands-in-the-air was a posture of surrender. Seems to me Rittenhouse was shooting to kill and Grosskreutz got lucky. If Grosskreutz fired at a man pointing an automatic rifle at him, thereby killing Rittenhouse, would that have been self-defense? One would naturally conclude that. According to Judge Schroeder's way of thinking, that would make Rittenhouse the looter, not Grosskreutz. 

Here are the pictures. It almost looks like a scene from West Side Story...but it's not. It's real.

So, if Rittenhouse thought he was "helping" and Grosskreutz thought he was "helping," was anyone really helping? Or was this a caught-in-the-crossfire kinda moment? Perhaps the biggest elephant in this particular room, however, is why he was not stopped by a cop even after shots were fired. How is it Kyle Rittenhouse got to go home after killing two people and injuring a third without once being stopped by a cop? (You think the color of his skin might have had something to do with that?) Despite how the law is written, why doesn't the choice to come locked and loaded mean something...anything...in assessing responsibility for his actions?. He came armed. He came ready to kill. Doesn't that count? He didn't just think about it...Rittenhouse took steps to insure something did happen

Which then begs the bigger question: what are the extended ramifications of this decision? Is this carte blanche to conceal, carry, and fire at will? "Oh, officer, he looked at me funny and he has a bulge in his pocket. I decided it was a gun and my life was in danger so I fired my AR-15 point blank at his chest." 

Despite yards and yards of phone and security footage showing teen-ager Kyle Rittenhouse at various points in his progression through Kenosha, he walks away with no ramification for his action. He leaves two corpses on the sidewalk and is assigned no responsibility for their deaths. He just wipes his hands clean while the families of Rosenbaum and Huber bury their dead children. 

I am anxious to see what happens to Ahmaud Arbery's case in Georgia. It scares the shit outta me because if they acquit, it will mean lots of people will think vigilante justice is just fine. 

Is it? You decide. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Something to consider: at the time of the Aurora, Colorado movie massacre, Ziggy was particularly distressed by gun enthusiasts who believed that had people been permitted concealed carry in that state, someone would've taken the shooter out. 

Perhaps, but how many more people would've been caught in the crossfire of "helpful citizens" trying to stop a live shooter? Seems that this is pretty much what happened in Kenosha.

B.O.G.C.A.A.T.J.

The Pomegranate reading

So, I survived the live stream book reading for THE POMEGRANATE. The cocktail before I went didn't hurt. Actually, it was pretty much a success. There was a good house, we sold lots of books...even a few of Dream Dancer and Lingua Galactica..., and I didn't drop dead from nerves. You can watch it if you want for yourself. The festivities start at about minute 11. Come on; has a synagogue event ever started on time? No.

Understand, I have never watched the recording and have no intention of ever doing so. One look at the first still and I thought I looked like Jabba the Hut with grey hair. However, the crowd laughed at appropriate times, and that's all I really cared about.  Now that I've done this once, book clubs will be a breeze. The first one is always the toughest.

And now, the reviews are starting to filter in on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble. All 5-stars at this time, and hoping that will continue. Reviews, folks, are extremely important. Good, bad, or indifferent, the numbers help move the book.

There were some additional surprises worth mentioning. Steve Bannon was taken in custody for Contempt of Congress. Now if people were regularly arrested for Contempt of Congress, a whole lotta citizens of this country would be in jail. Come on, do you know anyone who does not have contempt for congress? Oh, maybe contempt OF is different from contempt FOR. Whatever. Congress is as ridiculous now as it has ever been. Folks, the lunatics have taken over the asylum and no one is running this country.

I listened to a whole lotta Kyle Rittenhouse today. I heard him weeping about how he felt his life was in danger so he fired off his automatic weapon. I heard his defense team rail on about how people were randomly attacking this helpful, civic-minded child who just happened to be roaming the streets of Kenosha armed with an AR-15, specifically Smith & Wesson M&P15. If Kyle Rittenhouse was any other color besides white, he would've been dead in the street. I understand everyone is entitled to the best possible defense, but really people; does all of America look that naïve?

Apparently so.

And speaking of POC and the lack of understanding about the other in this country, if you want a real eye opener, spend some of your podcast time listening to THIS LAND. Start with Episode 1: Solomon's Sword. If you have a strong stomach and can keep from screaming, listen to all the episodes. Keep in mind, this is happening now. Not a hundred years ago. Now. I promise, you will hear stuff you never knew existed. 

Right now, President Biden is fighting an uphill battle with Congress and We, the People. Did you know 49% of Americans think he's doing a bad job managing the pandemic? Really? Is it because he's telling people to wear masks, socially distance, and be wary of crowds? Or because some people like to think their actions have no bearing on other air-breathers? As a nation of sloths, this should be no surprise. 

And those same mouth-breathing-don't-tread-on-me-you-can't-tell-me-what-to-do-with-my-body goodly folks are the same ones who demand control over other people's bodies. Somehow, those troglodytic cretins don't seem to see a correlation between refusing to get vaccinated and forcing women to carry all pregnancies to term. Both are okay IF you're a right-wing Republican. So if you were entertaining the misbegotten notion that "pro-life" (and I use the term loosely) advocates were standing on some sort of moral high ground, you wanna stand down from that putrid hill. This is about controlling other people, specifically women. I keep asking myself how they have come to hate women that much? They don't love women, if they did, there would be stronger anti-rape legislation. There would be gun control. There would be a real effort to preserve life, not destroy it. But what they are really about is destruction according to their whims. They are nothing more than totalitarians-in-waiting. And if that doesn't scare you, well.... maybe it should.

What really makes me sad this week, however, is that it's my dad's 6th yahrzeit. He died on Thanksgiving night, 2015, but the Hebrew date is the one that marks the observance. So this year, it starts on Wednesday night and runs through Thursday day. I truly wish he could've been here to see the novels get published. He was around for Little Miss, but missed Young Sir by several years. There isn't a comma that goes by without my thinking of him. And this year, it's even more bittersweet than usual: the front row at Beth David is now complete. When I say kaddish for him on Thursday at minyan, I will really be saying kaddish for them all.

The Wifely Person's Dad's Tip of the Week

B.O.G.C.A.A.T.J.

Be of good cheer and all that jazz!

Catching Up and Still Breathing

This is a big week for the WP. Tomorrow night, Tuesday, is the launch for THE POMEGRANATE. Come if you're in the Twin Cities, or you can watch the live stream at 7:00 pm Central Time. To say I am totally stressed out having to get up and read my own stuff is an understatement. I am not an onstage person; I'm a director, dammit; I tell people what to do. Yeah, I can act, but I hate it. Not my thing. Yeah, I can write lines and did for about a zillion years, but other than working with an actor to help them say it, forget about it. I am my own worst critic. 

There. Now you know my best kept secret. So if you want to see me freakin' out, by all means, come or tune in. It should be amusing at best. Painful at worst. 

But having this other life as author with a brand new fancy-schmancy website does not absolve me from writing The Wifely Person Speaks. It's like being schizophrenic: I have two very distinct voices - the one youse guys read every week, and the author's voice. And I must confess, I'm still struggling with that new voice. It'll happen. Eventually. I hope. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I am pleased to report that the three sane school board candidates were elected, sending more nutty versions back into the ether. Truth be told, I was seriously worried about this. Schools are our last defense against ignorance.  

Long, long ago, in a
galaxy far far away...

A million years ago, we were toying with the idea of moving to Nashua, New Hampshire, and made a trip to see if we could find a house. One nearby town with gorgeous houses had rock bottom prices. That was a flag for Ziggy and me. What we found out was that the school board in that town had been taken over by raging creationists and they were trying to ban the teaching of evolution in the district. Since there was no open enrollment in the area, people were relocating in droves. Seriously. And they could not give the houses away because no one wanted their kids in that district. This wasn't just over a school board election, this had been going on for several years and the board's balance had turned. I would've put my house up for sale, too. Needless to say, I stayed in Minnesota, Ziggy took a flat in Nashua, and he ultimately telecommuted for several years. 

Now, the lunatic fringe running for school board here did not seem to be advocates for creationism, but their refusal to acknowledge the importance of science when dealing with a pandemic left me with a whole lotta other questions about other positions we might not have been privy to in the run-up to the election. Which may or may not beg a bigger question: 

Are we asking the right questions?

Possibly not because We, the People rarely ask questions of our elected officials. This is not something we're good at. And it's really not okay. 

As We, the People, head into the midyear elections, we had better start asking the right questions, the ones that provide sane answers to the needs of our self-interest. Like health insurance. Like parental leave. Like creating tax revenue streams based on taxation of those who can most afford it. There is a large segment of this nation that doesn't know how to frame those questions, much less how to determine elitist bull-hockey from boot-on-the-ground reality. That mindset elected a GOP governor in Virginia who pledged to ban critical race theory from the public school curriculum on day one....except critical race theory isn't a part of the Virginia public school curriculum. Well, I guess he solved that problem.

That kinda stuck with me for all the wrong reasons. It reminded me of the woman who was touting the great benefits she got from TrumpCare because ObamaCare was terrible and she never could get what she needed from her doctor but under Feckless Leader's plan her health insurance covered everything. "No other insurance needed!" she told the reporter. "I get everything I need from President Trump. He was right to take ObamaCare away." She had no clue that her health insurance plan was part of the Affordable Care Act. I can't help but wonder what she would've done had Feckkless Leader actually repealed the ACA leaving her without any insurance at all. This is just one more part about voting against self-interest that I just don't get. 

Meanwhile, back at the other ranch....

Our little town is getting ready for animal control season. Being we're on the river and have lots of ponds and woods, we also have an exploding deer population. You really can't trap and move a herd deer; it doesn't work that way. So every year or so, the city hired bow hunters to cull the herd. Yesterday, our amazing police chief posted the following on the community Facebook page:

While I am not a fan of bow hunting or any other type of hunting, having lived on the edge of a pond for some 27 years, and having hosted many, many deer families, I know the herd has to be culled periodically so that the majority can survive. Invariably, someone's knickers will get knotted over this, but they need to stand down. 

I think we all appreciate the humor and humanity that Chief Kelly McCarthy brings to our community. I mean, who else would post a picture of a harmonica write this? 

Help Needed!

On Monday 9/20/2021, a resident reported personal belongings were laying in the street. An officer located the belongings and while most of the items were miscellaneous toss-away house goods…

One item didn’t look like it was something the owner chose to depart with.

The officer opened a small instrument case, which housed multiple professional grade harmonicas. The case was personalized with some stickers.

Please share and ask around if anyone they know had their harmonicas stolen.

She's seriously good at her job, and we are lucky to have her. Next month, she will celebrate 5 years as our police chief, and I hope she's here for at least another 25. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

I'd really like to say "go buy my book," but enough already.

Instead, I'll say if you're reading the book 

and notice something weird with words requiring a capital V,

not to worry. We already know. 

It's getting fixed. 

Pissed Off....For A Change

SCOTUS, which is acting more and more like SCROTUM, is hearing 2 challenges to the ridiculously unconstitutional Texas abortion law. The Washington Post distills the hearing this way:

The challengers say the court must intervene to stop an unconstitutional law designed to avoid judicial scrutiny. The Texas law is enforced by private citizens, who are empowered to sue anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. 

The law has effectively halted access to abortion in the second largest state and sent Texas patients across state lines to terminate their pregnancies. 

The cases on Monday center on legal procedural questions. Next month, the justices will review a separate Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. In that case, abortion opponents are seeking to overturn Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the right to abortion in 1992. 

A dozen states have passed laws similar to the six-week ban in Texas, which prohibits the procedure after cardiac activity is detected in the embryo. Federal judges preemptively blocked state officials from enforcing the other laws.

There is a level of absurdity in these laws. They are supposed to STOP abortion, something they will never do. All they are going to do in send women back to illicit practitioners, coat hangers, and homemade poisons. This is not about protecting women, it is about killing them. 

Yes, I said killing women. 

Before Roe v. Wade, women died in back-alley abortions every day. They killed themselves with coat hangers and homemade supposed abortifacients. Others carried dead babies to term, or babies with such severe deformities that they could not live much past birth. Pre-teen victims of rape and incest were forced to carry those babies to term. Yes, and some women terminated pregnancies as a desperate move to not have a baby. 

These new attempts to control women are nothing more than attempts to turn back the clock to a time when women were chattel. And men controlled women. And our uteruses were not our own, but belonged to a husband. I used to think we were beyond this. We are not. 

The day I see those same righteous folks picked to control men's penises is the day I begin to think this is about saving children. When I see the same folks rallying for a safety net for mothers and children after birth, I'll begin to think they are pro-life. When I see those same righteous folk out there rallying for boys and men to keep their dicks in their pants, I'll consider the possibility that they are serious about preventing unwanted pregnancy.  And the day they put restrictions of Viagra as a recreational drug, I might believe they are serious about sex for procreation only.

Would that it really was all about uterus control. But wait...it's not.

On October 8th, Bill Maher described what is happening in our country as a slow-moving coup. How is it our crack journalists haven't been talking about this as directly as Maher was that night? Do yourself a favor: watch this all the way through. Even if you saw it the first time, watch it again. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cR4fXcsu9w)

I happen to think he is pretty close to spot on. The right-wing of the GOP is already is motion if you can judge the emails going out. 

Thankfully, not everyone is rolling over. After Maher's show,  Liz Cheney, daughter of the Dark Lord Dick, tweeted:

Millions of Americans have been sold a fraud that the election was stolen. Republicans have a duty to tell the American people that this is not true. Perpetuating the Big Lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic.

This is not news to me...nor should it be to you if you're a regular reader of this blog. I've been saying it for a long time. 

But here's the thing. The abortion hearings are a test case for setting up SCOTUS to allow the overturn of an election. If the conservative majority can revoke women's rights in the nominative form of access to health care, they can continue with permitting the restriction of voter rights, support of gerrymandering, and repeal of civil rights for the LGBTQ community. Don't say I'm being alarmist here; we know the cases are moving through the courts for those issues. And once the court begins to act on those cases, the election is not far off. As Bill Maher said in that monologue,

Here are the easiest 3 predictions in the world:

• Trump will run in 2024 

• He will get the Republican nomination 

•  And whatever happens on election night, the next day he will announce he won.

It almost worked the first time. There were flaws in the plan. His team is working to fix those flaws as I type. If you need a reminder....click here: The Eastman Memorandums.

It's time to pay attention to the men behind the curtain.

Meanwhile...

Tomorrow is election day. Here in our little village, the only voting taking place is for the school board and the education referendum extension. And if you think that's a no brainer, guess again. Several of the candidates are anti-COVID protection measures of any kind, one sends his kids to private school and has no contact with our public schools, and one has put up Reese's Peanut Butter Cup look-a-like signs because his name is Reese. Judging by the debate, he has the intellect of a peanut butter cup. There are, however, enough sane candidates for which to vote and I will be voting for them and the extension.  

Educating our kids has to be a priority. I can only hope our school board believes our kids are worth educating in a way that teaches them the value of living in a democracy with justice for all. Yeah, I know. It's a stretch.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Vote. 

Whatever election you have going at the polls on Tuesday,

Vote.

It's your town, your state, your country. 

Vote.