I think of the new health care reform bill as a chocolate covered snail.  Yes, there’s a lot I’d change, but there is the chocolate… So, while Alan Grayson and Bernie Sanders soldier on drumming up support for the best solution – Medicare for all – let’s just focus on the chocolate for a moment.  [...]

Don’t know what it is, but the orange flowers are just making my eyes happy lately.  Here’s another one!

    Call it an exercise.  Call it a meditation.  Whatever you want to call it, the art and science of transcribing Sarah Palin is a fascinating thing.  I remember the first time I tried.  I thought I’d never do it again.  I had to listen to her voice over and over – the same phrases, [...]

Good morning, America! Funny, I don’t feel like a communist today…  But it does feel strange.  Maybe that’s because Democrats have done something.  They sort of acted a little smidgen like liberals.   Here’s one of my favorite passages about liberals. Republicans have tried to turn “liberal” into a bad word. Well, liberals ended slavery in [...]

You’ve heard about the arctic tern that migrates thousands of miles, from pole to pole every year. Alright maybe you haven’t. But it happens. It’s the longest migration of any animal on the planet. But we may just have something that tops it – in speed, anyway. You’ll recall that our hearty blog mascot Brian [...]

I’m sitting here riveted to C-Span. Use this open thread to talk about health care.  Things are going to be happening fast, so have at it in the comments if you want somewhere to rant! So far the GOP buzzwords are: Flawed and Arrogant I’d suggest those, if you need something for a drinking game. Now [...]

  ~Photo taken at first Tea Party Protest in Anchorage right before Mayor Sullivan was elected. Many thanks to Mel Green, who has become a self-educated master of all things “Sullygate.” Her outstanding research and exhaustive detail-oriented posts are a fantastic resource.  And now she’ posted an excellent “Sullygate Timeline.” Mel has already blown the [...]

HISTORY OF THE RED LANTERN by LoveMyDogs During the days of Alaska sled dog freighting and mail carrying, dog drivers relied on a series of roadhouses between their village destinations. Since these mushers ventured out in all types of weather they decided to use a “flight plan.” Word was relayed ahead that a musher and [...]

The final musher has reached Nome, drawing to an end Iditarod XXXVIII.  It really was a great race. And as a tribute to the mushers and dogs who gave it their all, and as a salute to the final musher, rookie Celeste Davis, I have turned of the Mudflats “red lantern” and returned us to [...]

As  the nation gears up for the most important vote of the Obama administration, tensions are high, and the “Tea Party” Movement has been kind enough to remove the mask.   Reworking a phrase – “Better to remain silent and be thought a bigot, than to speak and remove all doubt.”  Today the Tea Party spoke [...]

Thanks to Dennis Zaki, Brian the Mudflats moose had one heck of an adventure.  He got a ride with the Coast Guard all the way up to Alaska’s north shore, and the remote and starkly beautiful community of Barrow. With a population of about 4000 (ten times the number that lived there in 1940), Barrow lies [...]

The days are getting longer, and we’ve had some great sunsets lately.  This was last night…

Contrary to the opinion of my ex-governor, all progressive bloggers do not live with their parents, and eat cheetos while wearing pajamas in the basement. This blogger, for fifteen years, owned two businesses in bustling downtown Anchorage.  After a decade and a half in retail, you learn the cycles.  There’s early fall and back-to-school shoppers, [...]

Well boys and girls, it looks like we’ve got ourselves a bidding war. A&E and The Discovery Channel are both after the former almost-one-term governor, turned failed VP candidate, turned reality TV star wannabe.  Pick me! Pick me! Sarah Palin is following a trajectory more Kardashian than Politician, demanding a big paycheck in her quest [...]

It’s March. Everything around here has been white, and grey and brown, and dark green for a long long time. My rods and cones needed a stretch. This was taken in my mother-in-law’s garden. Mine never turns out very well, so I get to enjoy her green thumb (or in this case, orange thumb) every [...]