by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 28, 2017 | General
Stephen Hopkins: “Well, in all my years I ain’t never heard, seen nor smelled an issue that was so dangerous it couldn’t be talked about. Hell yeah! I’m for debating anything. Rhode Island says yea!” 1776 Musical. This line from the musical 1776 came back to me as I’ve been reading about the uproar over the appearance of Ann Coulter at Berkley and the subsequent cancellation of her speech over outrage from some parties and security concerns on the part of the university....
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 30, 2017 | General
Or to put it another way — Women-are-just-so-alluring-that-men-can’t-control-themselves-so-the-women-have-to-be-denied-opportunites-so-men-don’t-lose-control. Which is insulting as hell to men and puts women in a symbolic burqa. Why am I writing this? Because I just read an article about how Mike Pence will not dine alone with a woman. Nor go to an event where there will be alcohol unless his wife is along. Seems quaint, right? It’s also deeply pernicious in terms...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 16, 2017 | General
“A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” Basil Caesarea. Why am I quoting a Saint? (I was going to use Galatians 6: 7-9 but that particular quote seemed more ominous than encouraging so I went with Basil.) But back to the question — why a quote about good deeds? Because they really do come back and reward you and I have a living, breathing example. Tuesday afternoon I attended George’s...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 1, 2017 | General
I hate to even link to this Tweet. The man is vile on every level, but you have to see the genesis of what came out of Trump’s mouth today. So a few days ago David Duke, former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and all around racist, anti-Semite, neo-Nazi tweeted the following. David Duke @DrDavidDuke President Trump, do you think it might be the Jews themselves making these calls to get sympathy to push their ethnic agenda? @POTUS (I removed the link. I refuse to link to this...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 2, 2017 | General
Last night the campus of Berkley was roiled with protests that turned violent, led to objects being thrown, fires being set, and ultimately the cancellation of a speech by noted alt-right gadfly and baby Nazi Milo Yiannopoulos. This is not a productive way to resist, people. Let us not fall into the trap of the anti-war protestors during Vietnam who turned a complacent middle class against them, led their, perhaps, persuadable parents to vote for and support Richard Nixon in a backlash...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 30, 2017 | General
A friend of mine just posted a long and very moving post about his father who managed to get to America out of the ashes of the Holocaust. It got me thinking about these white nationalists and the angry Trump voters who want America for the Americans and would shout out the Nazi tainted slogan “America First”. You want to measure who gets to be here. How about this? My father’s ancestors came to New York (what was then called New Amsterdam) around 1690. Dad thought that...
