One of the stories from the French Revolution is about what Queen Marie Antoinette said of the peasants’ inability to buy bread: . . . → Read More: Let Them Eat Cake
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 Comments are closed  Blog  civilization, economies, for, French, French revolution, gain the world, history, history repeats, Jesus, let them eat cake, Marie Antoinette, migration, New Testament, parable of the talents, parables, Planet B, poor, Queen Marie Antoinette, redistribution, refugees, revolution, rich, rich and poor, social welfare, tax breaks, warfare, wealthy Shakespeare’s King Lear gives a good (accurate and artistic) accounting of what happens when a powerful leader descends into madness. Lear is impressed by the flattery he receives from two of his daughters, and leaves his kingdom to them, ignoring the third daughter, who is more circumspect and honest in what she says. The play is a tragedy because it does not end well for any of the main characters. Although the play is “fiction” in that Lear was not a “real” king, the characters are based on common historical events. History shows how common it has been for those . . . → Read More: King Lear in Charge Comments are closed Blog Agincourt, battle, Battle of Hastings, civil wars, commoners, corporations, crew, Earl Landgrebe, ethnicity, golden parachute, gossip, history, King Lear, living in interesting times, madness, Magna Carta, media, news, newspapers, Nixon, Paul Simon, race, radio, reporting, royalty, self-interest, Shakespeare, Slip Slidin' Away, town crier, troops, Trump, TV, Watergate, we the people I started being aware of politics in 1950. Truman, a democrat, was president. He instituted the Marshall Plan to facilitate the rebuilding of Europe, which had suffered serious damage during WWII. A major concern at that time was the increasing strength and avarice of Russia and the Communists. The U.S. also had internal concerns about the growing popularity of Communism as a way of life, and we—politicians elected to national office—wanted to make sure that we weeded them out before they could take over in the States. A senator named Joseph McCarthy was charged with rooting them out. He . . . → Read More: Who’s Writing This Script? Comments are closed Blog Bob Dylan, bone spurs, Cherokee Indians, Civil War, Clint Watts, Cold War, Communism, decency, democrat, Europeans, flying monkeys, freedom, French, history, John McCain, justice, Marshall Plan, Masters of War, McCarthy, Messing with the Enemy, Mexico, pivotal point in history, politics, Portuguese, progress, Revolutionary War, Spanish, Tammy Duckworth, Texas, Truman, Vietnam, witch hunt, witches, Wizard of Oz “Fouling one’s nest” is an old metaphor, originally in reference to birds that excreted in their nests, and applied by extension to humans who failed to keep their environments tidy. The thought that led me here was about helium balloons used to help promote events such as weddings and open houses, cut loose after the event to come down wherever. And they will come down, and, when they come down, they cause problems for birds and other wildlife. People think about the immediate benefit of using the balloons to highlight an event without considering the after-event consequences of disposing of . . . → Read More: Fouling Our Nest Comments are closed Blog \, Al Gone, An Inconvenient Truth, ancestors, balloons, bird, black-lung, buffalo, cattle, coal, consequences, conservation, desires, Elton John, environment, exploiting resources, exploration, feast, fiction, fossil fuels, fouling, fouling our nest, grain, helium, history, humans, Jules Verne, lions, Los Angeles, movies, needs, nest, oil, planet a, planet Earth, planetary destruction, pollute, pollution, primitive people, religion, religious differences, Rocket Man, Santa Monica, science fiction, setting, wars I have borrowed the title of this blog from Shakespeare’s play, Richard III. Richard III was not a nice man, although the real Richard was probably not as evil as Shakespeare and others have made him out to be. He was the last king of England to actually lead his troops into battle and died in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Shakespeare portrays him as evil, and he may well have been. Medieval kings had a tendency to be corrupt and cruel, and someone I have quoted before, Lord Acton, famously said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts . . . → Read More: Winter of Our Discontent Comments are closed Blog Abraham Lincoln, Boston Tea Party, Chinese Revolution, democracy, economic influence, England, evil, fake news, fool all the people, Founding Fathers, French revolution, George Santayana, health care, health insurance, history, human spirit, infrastructure, King, media, met the enemy, national debt, news media, Paul Simon, plutocracy, Pogo, political influence, Republicans, resisting evil, revolution, Richard III, Russian revolution, Shakespeare, Simon and Garfunkel, Slip Slidin' Away, Social Security, tax cut, tax cuts, the man behind the curtain, the States, U.S. election, wealthy, Winston Churchill, Wizard of Oz When we’re young, time seems to creep at a petty pace, but the passage of time accelerates as it goes by. When I was young, I had the sense that a week was a long time, and summer vacations lasted for ever. Now, days and weeks gallop by, and even months pass quickly. When I first read Andrew Marvell’s plea To His Coy Mistress, I didn’t fully understand his impatience. At this point, even without a mistress, I can hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near. When I was young, I wanted time to pass quickly so that I could grow . . . → Read More: March of Time Comments are closed Blog after death, afterlife, birth and death, calendars, deal with the devil, Einstein, Faust, Goethe, hardest words of tongue or pen, history, it might have been, knowing and believing, life after death, march of time, Martin Luther, petty pace, prelife, reincarnation, rise and fall of the tide, saddest words of tongue or pen, science, scientists, seasons, Sigmund Freud, sin boldly, stopping time, the Devil, the less you fear, the more you know, time, time and tide, time flies, tomorrow All major human conflicts are essentially what Jonathan Swift called the war between the “Big Endians” and the “Little Endians” in Gulliver’s Travels. In Swift’s novel, Lilliput and Blefuscu are island nations ruled by emperors. Those from Lilliput broke boiled eggs on the larger end, while those from Blefuscu broke their’s on the smaller end. Swift’s readers at the time would have recognized that his metaphor suggested that the British political parties at the time, the Whigs and Torys, were fighting a war based on minuscule and inconsequential differences. That appears to be a common theme in human history: Most . . . → Read More: The Faces of Humanity Comments are closed Blog animals, Ark, begats, Buddhists, Catholics, city-states, climate change, Denisovans, evolution, global warming, Gulliver's Travels, history, human conflicts, humanity, humans, In Memoriam A.H.H., Jonathan Swift, last straw, life force, metaphor, Neanderthals, Noah, oral transmission, original face, political parties, pollution, Protestants, record keeping, red in tooth and claw, religious war, Tennyson, tribes, war, written records, Zen Koan You may know the old saying, the darkest hour is just before dawn. While the saying isn’t literally true, it serves metaphorical purpose. First Light precedes astronomical dawn and provides the first proof that night is coming to an end. “Political night” has descended in the States, leading many to wonder whether “first light” is right around the corner. Many are hopeful. I’m not so sure. I think we (all of us) need to gain some perspective based on history. The history of humanity has been primarily wars and exploitation. War, of course, is not new. Tribes went . . . → Read More: Gaining Perspective Comments are closed Blog Africa, Bob Dylan, Charles Darwin, Communist Block, Communist Revolution, darkest hour, dawn, Europe, evolution, first light, follow the money, health care, history, humanity, Indo-china, Korean War, Masters of War, Medieval times, natural resources, perspective, Pete Seeger, politics, redistribution of wealth, slavery, stay woke, tribal warfare, tribes, uberwealthy, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, War in Vietnam, WWII Although all presidential elections in the US are “historic,” our most recent election will probably go down in history as the most historic of all. As most of you already know, the election featured the first woman candidate to be nominated by a major political party, and the first major oligarch who pretended to be the candidate of the people. It also featured more—a lot more—of the usual yelling and screaming—and sometimes punching and shoving—than most US presidential contests. One of the influencing factors was, of course, accomplishments of President Obama, many resented him because he was the first . . . → Read More: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coronation Comments are closed Blog 1984, Aliens, Blacks, buggy whips, cancer, Christ, Clinton, coal, coastal states, Divergent, dystopian, election, fear, female, flyover states, gas, global climate change, global warming, hate, Hispanics, history, Hitler, holocaust, Hunger Games, Indians, Interesting Times, manufacturing, Maze Runner, Mexicans, Mideast, Native Americans, oil, Old Testament, oligarch, presidential, race-based hate, Rapture, Second Coming, slavery, surgery, technologies, Trump, war, woman, WWI, WWII My last blog post was about the so-called ancient Chinese curse of “living in interesting times.” All the problems I cited in that post are not only still with us, but also have been amplified. Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the US. Although the nominee for the Democrats has not been finally decided yet, Hilary Clinton is the likely candidate. Although I am still paying attention to US politics, I am doing so with an increasingly heavy heart. Even so, some other things have caught my attention, including website advertising, LGBT concerns and legislation, . . . → Read More: Paying Attention Comments are closed Blog ad blockers, advertising, Agent Orange, antibiotics, atmosphere, auto-start video, bathrooms, Big Ag, Big Pharma, carbon dioxide, Chinese Curse, Crusades, Democrats, Donald Trump, Dr. Sherry Tenpenny, English, fatal events, follow the money, French, George Santayana, history, Interesting Times, invasion, Jesus, LGBT, loss of vision or hearing, Mid-East, Old Testament, opioid epidemic, opioids, plastic in oceans, politics, Portuguese, prescriptions, profit, Republicans, sexual expression, sexual orientation, Sharia Law, Sixth Extinction, Spanish, the good Samaritan, transgender rights, vaccines, Vilfredo Pareto, white and colored, World War II |
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