Columnists

Judging from the amount of political email I've been receiving, Democrats are running scared, afraid they will lose the 2022 midterm elections. Dems fear that they'll squander a historic opportunity to put America on the right course. Fortunately, it appears that Joe Biden knows what he is doing and he's determined to make job creation the centerpiece of his presidency

If you missed President Biden's April 28th joint address to Congress (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/04/28/remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-by-president-biden-address-to-a-joint-session-of-congress/ ), you probably didn't hear that he mentioned "jobs" 43 times. He began by acknowledging that his Administration has created 1.3 million jobs in his first 100 days in office. He went on to extol his "American Jobs Plan" and observe: "20 million Americans lost their jobs in the pandemic – working- and middle-class Americans. At the same time, the roughly 650 Billionaires in America saw their net worth increase by more than $1 Trillion... My fellow Americans, trickle-down economics ha never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle-out. A broad consensus of economists – left, right, center – agree that what I’m proposing will help create millions of jobs and generate historic economic growth." -more-

When members of your church or other religious affiliation dispute the existence of mental illness and advise you not to take psychiatric medication prescribed by a doctor, they're advising you to make a huge mistake. The person advising that will not suffer the consequences themselves, you will. You can be a good Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or any of the above and can still listen to the reality-based warnings and advice from a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in certain brain disorders treatable with psychiatric drugs.

On the other hand, a psychiatrist should never be advising you not to have a religious practice, albeit in my experience I have never seen that happen. Religion and science do not conflict. They are two different things that address completely different areas of human lives. -more-

Meeting the Locals

On my Sunday morning run uphill to the Berkeley Rose Garden, I had an unexpected encounter with one of the local residents. I detected a presence in the street on my right and, when I turned to look, I found myself starring at a young deer. I paused and watched as the deer's four feet passed in front of me—four feet in front of me.

The animal hoof-hopped up the front stairs of the nearest house before diving down between a couple of cars parked in the driveway and heading into the backyard where deer like to linger and munch.

As always, I extended a courteous greeting: "After you, my deer fallow." -more-