Like you, I’ve been getting older for a long time. In fact, since my day of birth in 1950. Lord, am I getting older.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that I’m getting older and I hope I get older for many years to come. But, every now and then I think about what’s changed in my life over the years.

For example, yesterday I had my Annual Medicare Wellness Visit.

Annual. Medicare. Wellness. Visit.

(And I hope that appointment is on my calendar for many annuals to come.)

Talking about that appointment, without getting into many details…

Who is responsible for the riot/protest/insurrection/coup that occurred January 6th at the U.S. Capitol? I don’t know, though I can name many who have some responsibility.

That’s why we need an objective commission to investigate the facts. It didn’t happen on its own — I’d say spontaneous combustion was responsible but then what about those folks who wore combat gear, carried radios to communicate with each other, moved in military fashion, stole shields from police officers to beat them, and more?

Honestly, I’m not sure former President Trump is organized or smart enough to know how to pull off a…

Right-wing media/pundits are beginning to change their tune.

Maybe it’s because now it’s primarily the unvaccinated who are dying from COVID. Maybe it’s because it finally hit them that the more they tell people not to get vaccinated, the more of their own voters and supporters are getting sick and dying (Okay, that’s a bit gratuitous. But it’s also true.) Maybe it’s because some developed a conscience (unlikely as that seems) and decided making this just another of their us-versus-them issues is a deadly mistake.

I don’t know which, or if any of that is true. But the tracking I…

We scheduled June 20, at first not knowing it was Father’s Day, for the re-gathering of my kids, grandkids and me post-pandemic. The day offered extra joy because, for the first time, I’d be meeting my great-granddaughter, Ophelia, who was born in December.

We drove the two hours to my daughter’s house and upon reaching the deck of her home, I immediately saw my great-granddaughter playing with her father at the picnic table. She was, at first glance, even more beautiful than the pictures I’d been collecting of her from her birth. …

Most of us go through life and when someone asks, “what’s your name?” and you tell them, immediate reaction is to say “nice to meet you.”

My name leads to other issues. When folks ask my name I typically respond, “B. Jay Cooper.” Now that is easier to pronounce, say, than Georgeanne Pauladunkus, but it’s what happens after that gets more complicated.

For decades some folks call me “Jay” because, I guess, when they hear or see “B. Jay” they immediately think the “B” is silent and I become “Jay.” (“Jay” actually is a name I do not like on…

Both parties, understandably, seek partisan advantage in the debate over voting laws.

Republicans are trying to restrict voting to decrease the number of votes turned out among constituencies they consider more favorable to Democrats.

Democrats seek to stop the Republican efforts to restrict voting in areas that hurt them and to expand programs used during the pandemic (to lessen voters risks to the virus), such as expanding the time to submit and count absentee ballots and Sunday voting. Democrats believe the more voters vote in those areas, the better their changes of winning.

What no one in either party says…

Things are not back to “normal” in this not-quite-post pandemic moment.

While many of us are fully vaccinated, many are not. While new cases are down (thanks to the vaccine), there sill are new cases. While deaths, thankfully, are down, there still are deaths.

That’s why, when I walked into the grocery store the other day, I wore my mask. As I headed to the deli counter, half a big-box store away, I all of a sudden saw people wearing masks — and NOT wearing masks. This was not the normal I’ve been living the past year. When I got…

(The Screaming Moderate occasionally hands out awards for Yos! and Oys!, celebrating those individuals who do good deeds (Yo!) and bad ones (Oy!). The Committee on Yos! and Oys! meets when it feels like it.)

A gigantic Yo! to all those students (grammar, high school, and college) for adjusting and succeeding at distance learning the past year and to those graduates who endured/enjoyed their senior years without the traditional markers (proms, graduations) most of us had. It couldn’t have been easy and it had to take dedication and focus to ignore all the more fun things that surely distracted many…