Mitch McConnell knows a lot about the United States Supreme Court. As well he should. The former Senate Republican majority leader brought us today’s conservative majority court, working in lockstep with the judge-vetting Federalist Society’s indefatigable Leonard Leo. That the taciturn McConnell recently troubled himself to defend the court in print confirms how serious the […]
Hello?
Hello? – Smoke gets in much more than your eyes
June 7, 2023, may be remembered as the moment we realized that there’s no escape anywhere from one of the most wretched manifestations of climate craziness. This month the skies above New York’s skyscrapers turned “dystopian tangerine” from wildfire smoke. The Statue of Liberty and Washington Monument all but vanished from view during this remarkable […]
Hello? – Who’s a publisher? In cyberspace, nobody
“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” — Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Don Nelson is owner and publisher of the Methow Valley News. This means he’s legally responsible for what’s printed in […]
Hello?- From fistfights to gunfights
We’ve made a mess of our right to own guns. Most American states — excluding ours — now allow residents to carry concealed weapons in public without a permit. Thirty-eight states — including ours — also have “stand your ground” laws that no longer impose a legal “duty to retreat” from danger in public spaces. […]
Hello? – The Earth will fall quiet
One day soon, I’m betting, the Earth will fall quiet. I did not fully grasp this until a friend invited me to take his Tesla for a spin. “Floorboard it!” he commanded. I did and instantly understood that — despite Big Oil — life as we hear it is being transformed. We leapt from zero […]
Hello? – Good news on climate change
On the morning of Jan. 10, 1862, the celebrated robber baron Leland Stanford was to be sworn in as governor of California. But there was a little hitch. Forced to abandon his dream of a stately arrival at the capitol by horse-drawn carriage, Stanford instead made the five-block journey along the streets of Sacramento by […]
Hello? – Survival of the friendliest?
With “Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men” still elusive, let’s reflect on the latest news about the dog and the wolf. Why do dogs want to pal around with humans but wolves don’t? Princeton University geneticist Bridgett vonHoldt thinks she’s found the answer. On chromosome six in the dog genome, she’s found a mutation that […]
Hello? – Let’s be thankful for this
In a world where so much human energy is expended tearing things down, let’s celebrate that we live in a community where people expend their energy building things up. This time, I’m not talking about software but civic hardware: Winthrop’s new fire station and public library, and the Twisp Civic Building. Remarkably, all these improbable, […]
Hello – A perilous mid-term election
As our ship of state tosses in seas roiled by unprecedented dangers, voters are taking the helm. Time for all hands on deck. This mid-term election is perilous. It could put people who falsely claim that the last election was stolen in charge of depriving citizens of their legitimate votes in the next one. A […]
Hello? – Ready for ‘one religion under god’?
Let’s check on unfolding events in our democratic republic’s everlasting antidemocracy movement. Here’s Michael Flynn, a central figure in that movement, speaking at a rally in Texas. He’s the retired three-star U.S. Army lieutenant general who was President Trump’s national security adviser: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, […]
