occasional posts by risa aratyr
Risa Aratyr Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood career – spanning decades and marked by more than 50 films – was on the down-slide by the time I came into the world. For me, he was simply the host of Death Valley Days. And a pretty bland host he was, too. Two years after DVD went off the air, Reagan … Read more Seeing is Believing
It’s not the time the Despicable D (hereinafter referred to as “45”) has been in office. It’s how much has happened in that time – how many appointments, hearings, nominations, confirmations, executive orders, policy changes, tweets, phone calls, purged government web-pages, firings, hirings, leaks, lawsuits, demonstrations, bills, interviews, judicial decisions, and altercations with the press … Read more Under Fire
In this time of extreme polarization, it’s no surprise to find two diametrically opposed views duking it out on news and social media. Over the airwaves, in Tweets and memes, in articles, editorials, and blogs like this, two camps are facing off and having at it. One exhorts us to keep it civil, the other … Read more Day 2
With the exception of Santa, nothing says “December” like end-of-year lists. Ten Best of 2016. Ten Worst of 2016. Favorite books, films, interviews, ads, music, episodes, goals. Most epic blunders, disasters, tragedies, deaths, breakups. The good-est do-gooders, the bad-est badasses. Triumphs and failures, ups and downs, highlights and low points – all summarized, categorized, and itemized … Read more In Defense of 2016
With a Kremlin puppet poised to move into the White House, with our beleaguered social and environmental protections already falling to the incipient Fourth Reich, with an empowered extreme-Right attacking vulnerable populations in Congress and state legislatures, and with white supremacists celebrating the demise of the only values that gave America a legitimate claim to greatness … Read more On a Personal Note