Posts

Blame the Neanderthals for Autism

 You have a better chance of acquiring autism from Neanderthals than Tylenol.   Let me explain why. First, I love Gary Larson cartoons.   They will make me laugh every time.   But part of humor is making a caricature of reality.   So, let’s start by clearing our minds of the “Cavemen” depicted in Larson’s cartoons, old 1950’s movies and elementary school stereotypes.   I became fascinated with Neanderthals decades ago and am currently doing extensive research on them for a new book.   That interest was intensified when my husband and I took part in the Human Genome Project.   This massive, world-wide project began in October of 1990 and was completed in 2003 with 92% of the sequence completed (100% in 2022).   Among the many useful and important findings of this project was proof that all humans of European or Asian descent have 2%-4% Neanderthal DNA.   This residual DNA is the result of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Late-Night Commercial for Citizenship

  The United States has a program that allows aliens to buy their way into this country.   It is called the EB-5 visa.   Let’s say you are not poor or brown or worried about raising your children in a lawless nation.   [I can relate to this last one, I am fearful of my grandchildren growing up in Trump’s America.   But I digress.]   Let’s say, instead, that you are an outstandingly wealthy person from a predominantly Caucasian country.   With the EB-5 visa you can pony up around $1,000,000 in an infrastructure project or business here in the U.S.   You then create (or maintain) 10 (no, I did not forget to add a zero or two to that number) permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.   [Of course, if in the mind of the oligarch, there are no “qualified” American workers, those 10 jobs are waived.]   Done and done, you can then get on a fast track for permanent citizenship.   No muss, no fuss, just come to us. For example, i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Real Immigration Reform

  I am a child of illegal immigrants.   They all came before our post-World War I restrictions and none of them were happy at home.   If some of you are now shocked by immigrants coming to this country without being invited, I would remind you, so did all the others.                  Since we are dipping our toe into a big vat of reality let’s try a plunge into the deep end.   Most of the illegal immigrants living in this country are decent people.   They are here because America offers hope, while their native countries offered only despair.   They number around 11 million.   That is a little over 3% of the entire population.   Over 8 million have jobs, pay taxes and buy American food, clothing, appliances, furniture, housing, cars, services and energy.   They are not a drag on our economy, they stimulate it.          ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Rose Garden and Divorce

  I have a friend who went through a mean-spirited divorce.   The day before the decree was granted, her husband’s last act of anger was to tear down a barn swallow nest that had been a part of their lives for many years.   The birds had come back every spring to raise their young, making a mess of the porch, but a delightful display for her and her children.   My friend came home to find the ruined nest on the doorstep.   No reason, no sense, no graciousness, just petulant anger.   Our current President has sent in heavy machinery and destroyed the White House Rose Garden.   He has covered it with concrete, turning it into a large patio, like the one he has at Mar-a-Lago.     Since he has no knowledge of the history of this garden, let me share it with you. The Rose Garden was created by Ellen Axson Wilson, the first wife of Woodrow Wilson.   She was an artist so gifted that she received her own art show at a prestigious New York ga...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Lesson From the Past

In this column, which I wrote almost twenty years ago, I spoke of the reverenced love I feel for my country.   I will never, never, forgive our current President and the people who enable and promote his venomous agenda, for turning that love into fear.   And yet, for my parents, my children and my grandchildren I WILL keep the faith.   My favorite 4 th of July moment happened in Philadelphia.   We were visiting the Liberty Bell, which no longer hangs in the belfry of Philadelphia Hall, but is housed, across the street, in the Liberty Bell Center.   We were there on July 8 th , which is the anniversary of the date when the bell was rung in 1776 to summon citizens to the first public reading of our Declaration of Independence.   It was hot.   There was a long line.   It didn’t matter.             Two things happened that day that will make me smile my whole life long.   The first happ...
Post a Comment
Read more