Reading time: 64 seconds . . . A guy is walking down the sidewalk when he spots his friend Ralph standing at the corner. He notices that Ralph is snapping his fingers. “Hey, Ralph,” he says. “What’s with the finger snapping?” “I’m keeping the elephants away.” “Ralph,” the guy says, “there aren’t any elephants around… [read more]
A Modest Proposal
Reading time: 68 seconds . . . There was a time when we Americans believed in the strength, resiliency and the fortitude of each of us. We took responsibility for ourselves and didn’t look to others to solve our problems. We were proud and independent. Then things started to go awry. The Sixteenth Amendment (ratified… [read more]
The Certainty of Infallibility
Reading time: 73 seconds . . . I’m not from Louisiana and I don’t follow politics there, so the first time I knew of Gov. Bobby Jindal was when I watched the Republican response on February 24, 2009 to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress. I was powerfully impressed by Jindal’s brainless… [read more]
Stupi-geddon
When you elect politicians who focus solely on staying elected, they curry favor with rich people. When politicians curry favor with rich people, they get lots of money. When politicians get lots of money, they do really stupid stuff. When politicians do really stupid stuff, the people suffer and America becomes weaker. When the people… [read more]
How Can We Reach Them?
Just back from presenting a Money, Politics & Democracy program in downstate Illinois and the same thing became obvious once again. My program is always well received, yet most of the people who turn out for events like mine are already believers. And while their attending gives me the opportunity to provide motivation for their… [read more]
Propaganda
Editorial note: Before anyone goes hyperbolic, imagining that this is a comparison of anyone today to the Nazis, get that it isn’t. The issue is propaganda, and you need to be clear about what that means to you. ——————————- I recently visited the Field Museum in Chicago to see the exhibit, “State of Deception: The… [read more]
The Right Way to Turn Left
My drivers-ed teacher taught the standard Illinois Rules Of the Road protocol and instilled solid habits in we fledgling motorists. She even gave each of us a one-time lesson in stick-shift driving. Because the school’s cars were all automatics, she graciously – perhaps foolishly – volunteered her Ford Thunderbird. If that car were around today,… [read more]
Hollering
Caution: Contains snark! Children, as well as adults who act like children, should proceed with caution. ——————————- When Wayne LaPierre became executive vice-president of the NRA he shed his bookish ways and made himself into the out-front, out-there, inflammatory voice of the gun manufacturers’ lobby. His misleading assertions and fabrications of “facts” and his only… [read more]
Imagine . . .
Conjuring the precise and slow voice, the deliberate and accurate words, the syllables sounding as though passed through a long, reedy pipe, comes the voice of of Carl Sagan . . . “Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe with billions and billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars. Around one of those stars… [read more]
This Is For You If You’re Unemployed
On January 20, 2009, the night of President Obama’s inauguration, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and others met for a late dinner at a posh DC restaurant. They weren’t there to eat. They were there to plot their strategy following the Obama mandate and it took them just minutes to decide how… [read more]
