Author Archives: Dan Bodine

2022 Roe-vs-Wade Cuts Abortion Rights

BlogLeave a comment

Anything to Avoid Abstinence! Our ancestors would try just about anything to prevent pregnancy, from animal poop and poisonous potions, to citrus fruits and wooden blocks. Before modern medicine gave us go-to’s like the pill, couples resorted to more unusual birth control methods. More moderns, above. (Image courtesy of webmd.com)

By Dan Bodine

Indeed, there’s much talk about women losing abortion rights with last week’s draft release (preliminary Court decision) in politico.com upending ’73’s Roe vs. Wade case – e.g., approving a Mississippi case restricting abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Formal release of the opinions usually comes at the end of court’s term in June. So, sex likely will be going undercover again. (Pun intended.) Continue reading →

Tied To Whites Supremacists, Is It End for GOP?

BlogLeave a comment

America’s 1952 Presidential Election: “Conservatism is / As Conservatism was”

By Dan Bodine

Remember well growing up in the Segregated South (Texas, aka ‘nother Buckle on Bible Belt) in the ’50s in Cleburne. Fear of a Yankee plot in the air:  ‘Em Blacks (polite word) multiplying like rabbits! Hell, soon they’ll overtake us! We gotta do sumpthin’!

Duh…Jethro, ‘ya may be too late to stop whatever it was that happened then! Census counts don’t lie, though, now. But if’n you want to act like a cultural idiot and git up on ‘ya high horse, think like a white supremacist, get outta my head! You’re in a New Reality! Latinos showing up like the newest cool! Continue reading →

If Mexico Can Boot Neoliberalism, Why Can’t U.S.?

Blog, EcotheologyLeave a comment
The first of 32 assemblies to discuss new textbooks was held this week in Veracruz.

The textbook design assembly in Veracruz, MX, this week. [Image courtesy of Mexico Daily News]

By Dan Bodine

Of course, everyone knows why! So actually this is just fluff. Mexico is a free state. In all its messiness! The United States, on the other hand, is owned by corporations in a plutocracy! Which drives neoliberalism.

Which drives both education and radical white extremism. But a plutocracy can’t boot itself! Savvy? But you wanna know what’s cutting “neoliberalism words and concepts” from school textbooks in Mexico? Continue reading →

Whiteness, Straw Man, and How Electrons Move

Blog, Ecotheology2 Comments

 

There’s often a “straw man” argument behind someone’s political opposition.

        By Dan Bodine

Hee, hee! Ain’t got a bone to pick but sure got a yarn to tell! A compassionate African American assuaged my bruised ego in the Navy once when I allowed myself to feel like the dumbest kernel of corn on the cobb! So, with migrants and minorities both now under fire, you can mix your races, yes — but you can’t segregate human lightbulbs! We all shine some! Savvy?

Me, coming up with this?  Yeah, me! Even an ol’ slow country boy from Texas has learnt a thing or two about Life. Hang on; don’t go to sleep. This is really against using straw men, or the Boogeyman, in politics! Continue reading →

Salmons “Lost Cause” Has a Sequel?

Blog, EcotheologyLeave a comment

 

Earlier ends of salmon runs in this Northwest U.S.A. area, due to decades of dam constructions, have shut down most of the fisheries here. Meaning a loss of thousands of jobs and the rich culture that transcended it, too. With the planned removal of the deteriorating dams now, decades later, is there a chance the salmons will return? Bringing back that Life?  (Current Map Image from Wild River Fishing)

 

By Dan Bodine

Yeah, it was one of those “moments you’ll never forget!” A “grown man cryin’ in his beer!” His name was Darrell. A salesman of some sort. And an obvious recent transplant to hot, ugly Texas. During the Sunbelt Era.

He was sitting on the barstool on my left at what was then the dearly revered Flagon Lounge, just off I.H. 35 in Central Texas. Heaving heavy sobs. Continue reading →

7 Polyps on Colon Wall — Cut ‘Em Down; Back on Town

Blog4 Comments

Devil be damned!    —      The World Health Organization says as many as 25 percent of cancers worldwide may be attributable to alcohol consumption.  (https://www.stopcoloncancernow.com/news/april-2018/alcohol-increases-risk-of-colon-polyps-colon-cancer)

By Dan Bodine

Doctor cut seven polyps from my colon Wednesday in what’s becoming my triannual colonoscopy exam. And I don’t know whether to celebrate with whiskey or by eating more oatmeal!

For an ol’ drunk, these tests are increasingly dreadful — They foretell the wickedness of my past ways! Continue reading →

Interrupting Dreadness in Doctor’s Waiting Room

Blog2 Comments

 

Feigned Indifference in Doctor’s Waiting Room. (Image from CC)

By Dan Bodine

When you’re in a doctor’s waiting room about to be told a date and time a camera’s gonna be shoved up your butt for a bi- or tri-annual colonoscopy, you’re not happy. Fact of Life. Even in today’s Pandemic, this forced boredom (that actually is dreadness) we pull off only through feigned indifference.

Continue reading →

Will Confessing Old Misdeeds Help Nation’s Racial Reconciliation?

Ecotheology2 Comments

MONTGOMERY, AL - APRIL 26: Markers display the names and locations of individuals killed by lynching at the National Memorial For Peace And Justice on April 26, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in America. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America's history of racial inequality. (Photo by Bob Miller/Getty Images)

MONTGOMERY, AL: Opened in April of 2018 as part of a national healing process, these suspended markers display the names and locations of individuals killed by lynching at the National Memorial For Peace And Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved African-Americans, and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in America. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America’s history of racial inequality. AP is reporting this Memorial is now open at night — for those wishing to reflect on our nation’s past.                                                         (Photo by Bob Miller/Getty Images)

By Dan Bodine

 

First, this is an off-the-wall piece from 55 years ago (2-3 years out of high school — aka stupid years). It has nothing to do with racism, but… I’m hoping thru public admittance (finally), it can be slipped in as a moral substitute for what I feel is a national call for atonement now — for past racial injustices and generally just for bad behaviors. Kapish? Continue reading →

“‘U ‘R Wat ‘U Hate” Good for Stutterers, Too

Blog2 Comments

By Dan Bodine

Rush Limbaugh always felt comfortable behind a microphone. {image from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/rip-rush-limbaugh-your-legacy-lives/]

Death of media mogul Rush Limbaugh last month reminded me of hearing my first hotdog sermon on hate back in the ’70s. I’ll tell this story again. My story! Actually has little to do with Limbaugh — he circled in a much higher orbit. But for stuttering, the hate part was a way forward for me, yes! An answer! Can’t imagine what just knowing an initial cause means! Continue reading →

African-Americans, Whites and Empire’s Big Lie

Blog, EcotheologyLeave a comment

Emmett Till, 14, was lynched by a mob in 1955, falsely accused of ‘touching‘ a white woman’s arm. Today he and his mom’s Chicago home is a designated landmark home. (Images courtesy)

Longtime California Atty. Doug Emhoff says he’s basking in his interracial role as the nation’s first Second Gentleman. His wife, Kamala Harris, is the first woman and the first African-American to be elected as U.S. Vice President! (Image link)

 

By Dan Bodine

Yeah, I’m soapy at fortune-telling, which this piece gets into! I’m a political junkie — e.g., always sensing for the next cusp! This one’s been a while in coming, yes!

But you have to be a little blind not to see a cultural reckoning happening among us now. For example: Continue reading →