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Scammers target the elderly

Dear Annie: My 81-year-old mom and I live together. I work 52 hours a week, so she is home alone a lot. She does get picked up by friends a few times a week to play bingo. But something serious has happened. A guy started an online chat with her on a “Words with Friends” game. She chatted back, and by the fourth chat he had asked for her for personal information such as her email address and phone number. Now they text every day, and she thinks she’s in love with him. He’s supposed to be a military peacekeeper in Baghdad, who has a suitcase he found with $5 million in it. He ...

Terminate abortion, please

WASHINGTON — The abortion issue is more divisive than ever, thanks to extreme anti-abortion legislation recently passed in some states and, lately, to Democratic presidential candidates seemingly vying to be the most pro-choicest. The newest controversy swirls around the 1976 Hyde Amendment, named after the late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., which forbids the use of federal funds for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk. The provision has long enjoyed a degree of bipartisan support in a nod to the millions of conscientious objectors to abortion. ...

Taming fearful thoughts

Dear Annie: My wife and I have three perfect grandchildren, ages 1, 5 and 7. We love watching them at least one day a week. Their parents are caring and careful. But occasionally when I am just about to fall asleep, I have “waking dreams” that the most horrible things happen to the kids. Why? I am able to push these disturbing thoughts out of my brain in a few seconds. I don’t want to pay a psychiatrist for the answer. — Worried in Kentucky Dear Worried in Kentucky: While I admire your ability to push those disturbing thoughts out of your mind, nonetheless, that which we ...

Uncomfortable for all passengers

Dear Annie: When did airplane seats become so small? I hadn’t flown in six years until this past spring, when I booked a flight to attend a family wedding. I reserved a window seat so that I could relax in comfort. But the experience was anything but comfortable. For starters, the man next to me in the middle seat must have been 6’2” tall and weighed at least 250 pounds, and he could not possibly sit in the middle seat without taking up room from the window and aisle seats. We almost had to pull up the middle seat armrests so that he could sit down. The whole time, I kept trying ...

Wants to support independence

Dear Annie: My youngest is set to move out of the family home in the next month or two. We don’t mind her living at home, but she needs to move out for her own peace of mind, so she can have her own space and start to live independently. She’s 22. In the past — and still — she has often asked for money so that she can make important payments (for example, college tuition, car insurance). But more often than not, she uses the money I give her to buy frivolous, in-the-moment wants. She has two jobs, so I know she’ll be able to afford rent — if she keeps up the hard work and ...

Democrats, don’t try to impeach Trump. Please

Many pundits have this unfortunate habit of framing what they want as what the American people want. I’ve been guilty of this at times. After all, what is more gratifying than the idea that the American masses are marching behind your band? Similarly, some left-leaning writers are insisting that the great majority of Democrats wants President Donald Trump impeached. And they have inconclusive polls to back their position. Thus, we have Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times saying that, on the basis of a CNN poll, 76 percent of Democratic voters back impeachment. As she herself ...