POST 1073 First Watch Ken Burns’ 21 minute commencement address at Brandeis University. Then Pass this post along to at least 3 people, directing them to Burns’ brilliant and moving message. Today is a good day to be the light _____________________________ Our governance and electoral corruption and dysfunction and our ongoing mass murders are all… [read more]
Memorial Day
POST 1072 This essay was originally posted on Memorial Day, 2012, with wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan and is offered today (with some updating) as a reminder of what this holiday is about. You can also have a look at another Memorial Day post here. Our War Dead It was originally called Decoration Day… [read more]
It’s Complicated
POST 1071 It’s All So Complicated Three religions each claim sole right to own the same little chunk of dirt.* Worse, there are few things as dangerous as a religious zealot, so conflict and violence are baked in. The 3-headed religious zealotry monster is actually a subset of the human need to feel right and… [read more]
Duty
POST 1070 First: The Prediction – Drum Roll, Please The tarnished gold con artist drama is all but over. Donald J. Trump’s pick for Vice President will be his son, Donald J. Trump, Jr. The rest of the bootlickers can pack it up and slink back to their standard positions of general sucking up. Nothing… [read more]
Finding Optimism
POST 1069 Third in a series (see Ignorance and Lies and The Underlying Disease) Stand Up From Steve Schmidt, May 6: I asked [my friend] what we would do if 150 crazy people — a mix of deranged narcissists, political extremists, weirdos, conspiracy theorists and other assorted friends of theirs — showed up suddenly on… [read more]
The Underlying Disease
POST 1068 Second in a series (see Ignorance and Lies). The Diagnosis The slavish devotion of so many to worshiping ignorance and lies is baffling and the translation of that into violence is fraught with grave danger. It has been easy to criticize, saying those people are voting against their own interests, which is a… [read more]
Mom First – Then Ignorance And Lies
POST 1067 Mom Today is the official day we celebrate mothers. I had one and it’s likely you did, too. So, today, in addition to all the “Happy Mothers Day” wishes, give Mom a special thanks for raising you to think critically and to have integrity. As we’ll see, those can be in short supply…. [read more]
May You Not Live In Interesting Times
POST 1066 Read all the way to the bottom for some good stuff. About Those Interesting Times Of course, that expression, often claimed to be a Chinese curse (but without verified attribution), didn’t include the word “not” in the original. Decide for yourself if it was intended to hope for something other than bland life… [read more]
Not That Giuliani
POST 1065 Giuliani Can Wait. First Crime, Anti-Social Behavior and Cookies All the statistics tell us that our rate of crime is decreasing. Nevertheless, we rage at one another as though it’s a holy exercise against crime, as some may well feel that it is. What could better demonstrate our goodness and integrity than frothing… [read more]
Misplaced Referendum
POST 1064 First, A Solution to Campus Protest Violence It’s simply intolerable that what we’re seeing on college campuses now looks just like the conflicts we faced in the 1960s. We should have learned something in all this time, like that when we send in people who only know force that violence is what we… [read more]
