The Writer's Life 4/20

Bill O'Reilly's column appears in the op-ed pages of the NY Post every Friday. Today he focused on a report that detailed the charitable giving of politicians. The Obamas were generous, giving 22% of their earnings. VP Biden, on the other hand, gave only 1.46%. In 2011, Mitt Romney donated 19% of the 21 million he earned. If my math is right, that comes to about four million. The all-time miser is Al Gore, who in 1997 gave $353 on a salary of $200,000 and a trust fund worth gazillions. The Clintons were generous, despite having to pay exorbitant legal fees. One year, the supposedly evil Dick Cheney donated 77% of his earnings, almost seven million dollars.

Conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher was scheduled for a colonoscopy today. I've had two. The first was a breeze, the second was not. The worst part is fasting the day before and drinking the yucky concoction that clears out the system. Anyway, the station ran a Best of show. One segment was from 2011. I don't know how I missed the story, as several friends on my email list often send items about threats to second amendment rights. On May 8th at 4:30 AM, two masked gunmen stormed into a Walgreens in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The pharmacist was also armed and fired at the assailants, who fled, leaving a revolver behind. The pharmacist was subsequently fired, a corporate decision. He is suing. There is video available at youtube and other sites. I will not be shopping at Walgreens, even though the incident occurred hundreds of miles from Brooklyn.

The floating book shop had a variety of customers today. I thank everyone for being so charitable, especially the cutie who overpaid for Stieg Laarsen's worldwide sensation, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was passed by the man who was led away in handcuffs by plainclothesmen on Tuesday. Michael, who lives a couple of floors above me and has donated scores of books in Russian to me, believes the guy was trafficking marijuana, and that it wasn't his first offense. The war on drugs is an abysmal failure, costing billions. Even staunch conservative George Will has questioned the fight. In two recent editorials he suggested that legalization might be a saner course. It would certainly be cheaper, although abuse and addiction would no doubt increase. It's not an easy question. None of the important ones are.

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