The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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It's 2012 and the nuts just keep on coming.

By Ramona on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 8:00am | Politics, Humor & Satire
 

Good morning and Happy New Year!  (The exclamation point is always required after "Happy New Year", if I'm remembering my Strunk and White correctly.  Also, "Happy New Years" is incorrect.  So is "Happy New Year's.")

Topics: 
Politics
Humor & Satire
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Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. (And I mean that sincerely)

By Ramona on Fri, 12/23/2011 - 8:45am | Politics, Personal, Religion
 

On Christmas Day, 1914, only four months into the brutality of World War I, a spontaneous miracle happened on the Western Front.  On that day German and British soldiers laid down their arms and gathered together in No Man's Land to share food and cigarettes, sing Christmas carols, and play a few games of football.
 

Topics: 
Politics
Personal
Religion
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Attention: The job opening is for POTUS. Dilettantes need not apply.

By Ramona on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 8:15am | Politics
 

When I was a little girl during FDR's time, I remember people in my family talking in hushed, reverent tones about the President of the United States --  as if he were someone so special you mustn't use your normal, everyday voice.  I grew up thinking there was no one in our beloved country who could top the President when it came to being all-wise and all-caring.  I believed that there was something other-worldly, even God-like about Presidents, and I felt safe.

Topics: 
Politics
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Just because I call myself a Journo doesn't mean I are one

By Ramona on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 11:48am | Politics, Media
 

This morning blogger John Aravosis, over at AMERICAblog, wrote about blogging vs. journalism after finding an article from AP about a ruling against a Montana blogger who claimed protections as a journalist while fighting a defamation suit brought by a lawyer she called "a thug and a thief".

Topics: 
Politics
Media
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Newt to 'Really Poor Children': Buy Your Own Damn Ice Cream

By Ramona on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 5:07pm | Politics
 

Newt Gingrich is obsessed with the plight of poor kids these days. He's been all over the place talking about them, and I have to confess, the jollier he gets about his remedies for their plight, the more nervous I become.  It's an odd turn of events and one rife with suspicion.  It's Newt we're talking about.  Newt, who eats mean for breakfast and swallows the seeds.

Topics: 
Politics
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Black Friday as Myth-Buster

By Ramona on Mon, 11/28/2011 - 7:08am | Business, Humor & Satire
 

After the Thanksgiving Day gluttony is over and after our teams have either won or lost (Our biggie between the Lions and the Packers went horribly awry for my loved ones, poor dears.) and after we've taken our tryptophan-induced naps, the next fun thing to think about, talk about or plan for is Black Friday, our annual Big Huge Shopping Extravaganza.  It's the day when primitive survival skills kick in and the absolutely-must-haves traditionally

Topics: 
Business
Humor & Satire
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Feeling Guilty about Giving Thanks. It's a Liberal Thing

By Ramona on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 9:59am | Politics, Social Justice, Personal
 

This year we've decided to stay home for Thanksgiving.  Our nearest family is 350 miles away but every year but one (and now this one) we've managed to be together for this holiday.  We'll be seeing them all in three weeks or so for the Christmas holidays, but I'm missing them acutely today. 

Topics: 
Politics
Social Justice
Personal
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Eyes on the Prize, Occupiers. The 99-Percenters are counting on you.

By Ramona on Tue, 11/15/2011 - 8:29pm | Politics, Social Justice
 

 For a couple of months now, we on the left have been marking the heady, exhilarating, organic spread of the Occupy Wall Street Movement and getting it that something unstoppable seems to be happening.  Think of it: The dedication, the precision, the impossible successes coming from a movement organized by ordinary hoi polloi.  No backing by agenda-driven billionaires, no pseudo-intellectual input from think-tanks, no take-over by shady cabals.  It's the stuff of miracles.  

Topics: 
Politics
Social Justice
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A Simple Plea: Do Not Lay Hands Upon Our Children

By Ramona on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 1:47pm | Social Justice
 

Every hour of every day, children in our keep are being harmed.  Throughout the history of the world, adults have used their size and their physical and psychological power as weapons against our most precious assets--our children.

Hurting them is not accidental, it's the goal, but all it takes to muddy the waters is the argument about degree.  Is spanking abuse?  Is yelling?  Is fondling?  If there are no cuts and bruises how bad is it, really?

In the past few weeks the stories have been coming at us, fast and furious.

Topics: 
Social Justice
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FRIDAY FOLLIES: On Limousine Meals, the Crush of Wine, Absurdity, and Occupation

By Ramona on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 12:05pm | Politics, Religion, Media
 

I'm not one to laugh at the plight of others, especially at elderly ladies whose family makes a request for meals on wheels, and I'm certainly not going to do it now, but can I at least laugh at the picture in my mind of people delivering those charity meals to limousines that will then whisk them off to a millionaire's mansion?

Topics: 
Politics
Religion
Media
Series: 
Friday Follies

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Personal Information

Website
http://www.ramonasvoices.com
Favorite Quotes

 

"Leave safety behind. Put your body on the line. Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind - even if your voice shakes. When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say. Well-aimed slingshots can topple giants. And do your homework." . Maggie Kuhn

 

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.  Dorothy Parker

"Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow ... money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands" - Abraham Lincoln

 

It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.-John Steinbeck

 

The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech. -Salman Rushdie

Biography

Ramona used to write nice feature pieces for newspapers and magazines, along with columns that, yes, got testy once in a while (Ronald Reagan was president. What could she do?) but were basically and overall nice.

But then. . .

. . .then came the hanky-panky and subsequent impeachment of Bill Clinton!  Then Bush v. Gore!  Hanging Chads!  Katherine Harris!  Supreme Court busy bodies! 9/11!  War with Iraq! (Iraq??)  The right wing!  The religious right!  The TEA PARTY, for God's sake!

Whatever she is today is the fault of all of the above.  She is not to blame.

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