Slipstream
Writing the Backwash with R. H. Sheldon
Political & Social
Senseless Sensibility: How To Survive in the Age of Unreason
Saturday, November 24th, 2012
Yesterday, the manager of my apartment building sent us, the tenants, a group email about the passage of Initiative 502 and the changing legal status of marijuana in Washington. “While it will be legal to smoke pot in our fine state,” he wrote, “please be aware that the Belford remains a nonsmoking building. This applies [...]
Tags: community, culture, elections, Initiative 502, marijuana, marijuana legalization, Mike Magnuson, Referendum 74, Salon, same-sex marriage, Washington state
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Good Fences, Good Neighbors, Good Grief
Saturday, October 27th, 2012
The other day, I met a friend for breakfast at a local café here in Seattle. Outside was wet, cool, overcast—a typical fall day in the Northwest. But inside the restaurant was cozy and warm and invited a long, lingering conversation. We jumped around from topic to topic, until we landed on the laundry facilities [...]
Tags: beloved community, civil rights, community, culture, Dalai Lama, environment, global community, Grace Lee Bogs, health care, Martin Luther King
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Wearing Your Heart on Your Ballot
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
You open the envelope you received in the mail. You read the instructions that tell you how to vote. You unfold the ballot and tear off the stub, exactly as instructed. You’ve known since the beginning how you’re going to vote, at least for partisan offices. You plan to follow party lines because you believe [...]
Tags: ballots, candidates, congress, culture, elections, politicians, presidential election, voting, white house
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Bank of America: Coming Up Short
Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
I’m trying to sell my house, but my house is worth less than what I paid for it 12 years ago. It’s also worth less than what I owe on my mortgage. According to real estate lingo, my house is underwater. But I don’t think of it as underwater. I think of it as under [...]
Tags: Bank of America, Bank of America short sales, foreclosures, real estate market, REDC, short sales, underwater, underwater mortgages
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Weary of the Chase
Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
Earlier this month, I received a promotional email from Chase Bank related to my Marriott Rewards Visa. The email includes a large, poster-like graphic that advertises “two separate opportunities” to enjoy tennis with John McEnroe and Martina Hingis. Tennis Package (A), as the ad refers to it, offers group court time at the John McEnroe [...]
Tags: Chase, Chase Bank, Chase business practices, credit card cancellation, credit cards, John McEnroe, JPMorgan Chase, Marriott Rewards Visa, Martina Hingis, Slate Visa
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Recent Posts
- Two, Four, Six, Eight, Now’s the Time to Litigate
- Coyote Blues
- Senseless Sensibility: How To Survive in the Age of Unreason
- What Would Buddha Do? Coping with America’s Not-So-Great Divide
- Good Fences, Good Neighbors, Good Grief
- Wearing Your Heart on Your Ballot
- One Moment, Please…
- What Would I Be Willing to Give Up?
- Aging Makes Buddhists Out of Us All
- What ‘No Child Left Behind’ Really Means
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