Benjamin Franklin is often given credit for the saying, “Honesty is the best policy,” but the saying is actually older than Ben. The original language was, “Our grosse conceipts, who think honestie the best policie,” and the originator of that phrase was an English politician named Sir Edwin Sandys. I suspect, however, that the actual origins are even older than that, as the desire and need for honesty in relationships are as old as humanity. It has long been believed that the Devil (Satan) is the Father of lies, and it’s easy to see why that’s so. No one likes . . . → Read More: Honesty Really Is the Best Policy
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 Comments are closed  Blog  1968, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, coal, communist, deceive, Democrats, fooling people, honesty, hydro-electric, intimidation, lesser of two evils, Lord Acton, oil, policy, politicians, politics, Republicans, Robert Burns, Robert Ringer, solar, tangled web, technology, the Fugs, two steps forward, vested interests, War in Vietnam, wind, winning I borrow my title from Shakespeare’s Richard III, a play about what happens when a corrupt and power-hungry individual becomes king. Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, ending in multiple deaths. As I write this, it is winter in the States, and it is increasingly looking as though we are heading into a national tragedy. The book, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, provides important background details about the last election for President in the States. The details are indeed scary, not only because it shows the connections between . . . → Read More: Winter of Our Discontent Comments are closed Blog Abraham Lincoln, cyber security, cyber threats, democracy, Democrats, dystopian, George Washington, Lord Acton, politics, power corrupts, profit motive, Putin, Republicans, Richard III, Shakespeare, the Fugs, The Second Coming, tragedy, Trump, U.S. Constitution, utopian, Wide Wide River, winter This is Reality? I am old enough to remember when the U.S. government was being run by adults. That was also true for most of the governments in the so-called civilized world—we had International differences of opinion about forms of government and territorial concerns. Most of us agreed with some of them and disagreed with others, but we were fairly certain that most countries were making decisions about government by relatively rational means, with military conflict being a last resort. Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, describes an alternative universe in which nothing is what it seems. Alice had . . . → Read More: Down the Rabbit Hole (Redux) Comments are closed Blog China, climate, climate change, corruption, Democrats, dinosaurs, Eisenhower, elections, enemy, environment, gerrymandering, government, humans, insects, Lewis Carrol, lions, Lord Acton, make the rich richer, mammals, monarchy, North Korea, oceans, plastic, Pogo, politics, power corrupts, rabbit hole, Republican Party, Russia, the few and the many, vote, voting, Walt Kelly I take my title from Shakespear’s play, Richard III. The main character, Richard, who is about to become king of England. is not a nice person. It is no surprise that he becomes a terrible king. The play is a tragedy (everybody dies). Although the time the play was written (1593) and the time depicted in the play were very different from our political situation today, the politics of power were similar. A few centuries later, another English writer, Lord Acton, said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Although the current political situation in the States is . . . → Read More: Winter of Our Discontent Comments are closed Blog Abraham Lincoln, character, conservative, corrupt, corruption, democracy, Democrats, discontent, fact, fiction, gerrymandering, King, King Richard III, land, learning curve, legislators, Lincoln, Lord Acton, met the enemy, morality, Pogo, political office, politics, power, power corrupts, Republicans, resources, Richard III, Shakespeare, States, term limits, tragedy, Walt Kelly, winter, WWII Democracy isn’t easy. That may be the reason monarchies have been much more common, starting with primitive, tribal chieftains back in the days of “pre-history.” The reason we don’t have more and better democracies in the world, is, as gerrymandering came about. The party in charge changes the rules to ensure that it will remain in charge. One of the ways the Ku Klux Klan gained political power, for example, was gerrymandering. That wasn’t their only way, of course, as intimidation also played a significant role. It is hard for individuals to resist a popular national movement. The . . . → Read More: Democracy Comments are closed Blog Abraham Lincoln, battle, battle strategy, daddy, democracy, elections, fool all the people, forces of darkness, forest and trees, gerrymandering, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, leadership, Lord Acton, monarchies, monarchy, nation state, Nazis, power, resistance, strategies We seem to have been voting for the “lesser of two evils” for a long time. Back in the days of the Vietnam War and the associated political unrest, a musical group calling themselves The Fugs wrote and performed a song entitled “Wide, Wide River.” The song focused on the concept of voting for the lesser of two evils: Two of the musical questions in the song were, “Why must we always be voting for the lesser of two evils?” and “Was George Washington the lesser of two evils.” The person with the best answer to those . . . → Read More: Lesser of Two Evils Comments are closed Blog Chinese Revolution, corruption, Democracy in Chains, democratic society, end game, French revolution, House, Lord Acton, lust for power, medieval, Nancy MacLean, nobles, oligarchy, political systems, politicians, politics, representatives, rich and poor, Russian revolution, self-aggrandizement, Senate, senators, serfs, tax breaks, the Fugs, vested interests, we the people, Wide Wide River A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” When it came to the Second Amendment, those who wrote the Constitution had this in mind: Given their concerns at the time, it’s easy to see their reasons for including the Second Amendment in the Constitution. They were not sufficiently prescient to envision the AR-15. It’s cousin, the M-16, was the weapon U.S. soldiers carried in Vietnam. The M-16 is fully automatic (pull the trigger, and it fires several rounds), whereas . . . → Read More: Second Amendment Blues Comments are closed Blog Australia, automatic weapons, big cats, Canada, Constitution, coyotes, deer, England, Facebook, Florida, foxes, France, fruitarian, gun mania, gun safety, gun violence, guns, hamburger, Hollywood Hills, hunting, hunting season, Las Vegas, locked and loaded, Lord Acton, militia, muzzleloaders, NRA, Parkland, politics, power corrupts, Second Amendment, semi-automatics, States, U.S., US, vegetarian, wolves You can tell a lot about people based on their musical preferences. I borrow my title from a radical group from the ’60s, the Fugs, and one of their old songs: It would be pretty hard to know me well without knowing when and where I grew up and how I had been influenced by the music of my youth. I assume that the same is true for everyone. The concept has been most fully explored by Morris Massey, who wrote about the three main periods in a person’s maturation process: The Imprint Period. From birth . . . → Read More: When the Mode of the Music Changes Comments are closed Blog 4 on the floor, adolescence, African-Amerrican, almost-Democrat, automatic transmissions, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Bill Haley and the Comets, blues, classical music, communication technologies, congress, Count Basie, country music, crystal blue persuasion, curry favor, divide between rich and poor, Duke Ellington, Eisenhower, Elvis Presley, everything changes, folk music, Golden Age of Jazz, I like Ike, Imprint Period, Janis Joplin, jazz, Jefferson Airplane, Lord Acton, mode of the music, Modeling Period, Morris Massey, music, Music from Big Pink, musicians, peace and good brotherhood, politicians, poor people, popular music, power corrupts, rap and hip hop, Republican politics, revolution, Richard Nixon, rock & roll, Rock Around the Clock, self-aggrandizement, sense of community, shared values, Shondells, Socialization Period, stick shift, The Band, the Fugs, Tommy James, tribe, twentieth century, Vietnam War, What You Are Is Where You Were When, WW II With apologies to the Beatles and “A Day in the Life”: One of my daily habits is reading through the major online news sources to get a sense of what is happening here in the U.S. and in the world. I often find it fascinating to see what subjects are drawing the most media attention—and the kind of attention they are attracting. Here’s a brief round-up of recent “stuff”: Placebos are in the news (again): One of the things I find most interesting about placebos is that articles about them written by medical doctors studiously avoid the word . . . → Read More: I Read the News Today (Oh, Boy) Comments are closed Blog A Day in the Life, advertising, Beatles, belief, Chicago, corrupts, debt, deficit, Detroit, economy, evidence, experience, fiscal, history, hotel maid, hypnosis, IMF, Internet, John Edwards, Korzybski, lamestream, leaders, Lord Acton, map, media, men, metamodel, news, NLP, placebos, platitudes, political, politicians, politics, power, primaries, pundits, question, reality, Republican, Sarah Palin, scandal, Schwartzeneger, talking points, tax rates, taxation, taxes, territory, TV, Twitter, U.S., unemployment, Weiner |
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