Hunting for Healthcare

  

October 20, 2025

 

 

The government shutdown has apparently impeded hunting. For real.

 

 

There’s a government program that provides incentives for landowners to allow hunting, fishing, and hiking on their land. With the shutdown, grant funding is currently unavailable, so some landowners have pulled out of the program.

 

 

Since the ostensible reason for the shutdown is an argument over affordable health care, maybe hunters, hikers and fishers should call their representatives and tell them to vote for keeping the affordable health care. 

 

 

Some of the consequences of the shutdown may seem distant—airline snarls, unpaid government employees, reduced services—but taking away hunting is hitting some people where it hurts. Maybe lawmakers who count on the rural vote will take notice if they start calling.

 

 

 

 

Forget the Posturing, Get the Candidate

 

October 20, 2025

 

When I read that Governor Pritzker and Governor Newsom were both thinking of running for president, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be swell if they’d get together early on, see what their differences are, and figure out a way to structure the ideal candidate and campaign? Then, instead of a debate where people call each other names and impugn each other’s integrity and political know-how, they could present a united front and jump-start the REAL campaign for a Democratic contender for the White House.”

 

I mean, how much more could the Democratic Party get done as far as campaigning goes, if they didn’t piddle around trying to find a candidate? Mold the one most likely to win the office, and take it from there.

 

Note to all contenders, and the DNC: As we’ve seen, “I am not Donald Trump” is not an effective campaign strategy.

 

Note to same: Don’t count on reversing tariffs as your only line.

 

Note: Even civil rights won’t win the day.

 

Have a sound fiscal and economic policy ready to go, add much-needed foreign affairs expertise, and put the other things on top of it. Have a structure, not one cause, to build the campaign on.

 

 

 

 

But Will They Keep Printing the Good Stuff?

 

October 5, 2025

 

The Post-Dispatch will no longer be printing papers on Mondays. We’ll have to get the news online. (I guess I was right to be concerned in my earlier post, asking if it was worth their while to deliver 4 papers to the neighborhood.)

 

They’ve been taking holidays off for several months now, but they’ve been including puzzles and comics in the previous day’s paper.

 

So, the important question here is, Will they keep doing that?

 

 

 

 

 

I Could Tell Them, but Why Bother?

 

October 6, 2025

 

I got an ad addressed to me from a fence company. I thought it was pretty nervy, considering that when I called them for an estimate a few years ago, the person who answered the phone assured me that someone would call me back. After a few days I made a follow-up call—because they really are supposed to be very good—but nobody got back to me.

 

So, I was tempted to mail the ad back and say, “You didn’t have time for me before, don’t bother me now.”

 

But why waste the stamp?