Last year, 2017, ended not with a bang, but a whimper. While how the current year, 2018, will end is still unknown, the world in general and the U.S. in particular, are not on a good trajectory. While some countries are doing reasonably well, most are not. Even in the States, the microcosm of individuals and places doing well, doesn’t change the macrocosm. I am not worried about the planet as a whole. Earth has survived mass extinctions in the past, and life has continued. The life forms, however, changed. It is as though the planet was saying, “Well that . . . → Read More: 2018 Ready or Not
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 Comments are closed  Blog  100 years war, 1960s, 2817, affirm life, asteroid, atomic warfare, children, Civil Rights, England, Europeans, France, John Lennon, New Year's Day, not with a bang but a whimper, Pete Seeger, protest music, radical activist, saber rattling, Star Trek, the Beatles, the Fugs, the States, War in Vietnam, WW II We have officially entered the “Holiday Season.” I started writing this post on Thanksgiving, which will be followed by Christmas and the start of the New Year. These are supposed to be joyous times. At this point, I have seen a lot of Thanksgivings come and go. For most of my life, it was easy to think of things for which I could truly feel grateful. This year, that’s not the case. Of course, there are things for which I am grateful, but my concerns about the state of our nation have put a damper on my gratitude. This is, . . . → Read More: Thanksgiving, 2017 Comments are closed Blog assassination, Big Enders, Buddhism, Christianity, Christmas, Civil Rights, Donald Trump, global warming, graduate school, holiday season, human history, Islam, Jonathan Swift, joyous times, Korea, Little Enders, Martin Luther King, music, my tribe, New Year, not with a bang but a whimper, political unrest, President Kennedy, range wars, religion, Richard Nixon, Shakespeare, social activism, T.S. Eliot, Thanksgiving, The Hollow Men, Vietnam, Watergate, WWII The term, loose cannon, has been around a long time. Cannons used on sailing vessels were large, typically weighing several tons. To avoid damage from the recoil when they were fired, they were mounted on rollers and secured with rope. The cannon jumped backwards when fired. If you have ever fired a weapon, you are familiar with recoil. The cannons get hot when they are used in battle, and each time a cannon is fired, it jumps higher and rolls farther. If the ropes holding the cannon secure were to break, a loose cannon would roll backwards and crush anything—or . . . → Read More: Loose Cannon on Deck Comments are closed Blog Allies, blood and soil, cannon, Civil Rights, fire and ice, fireworks, flash in the pan, Fourth of July, half-cocked, JFK, loose cannon, metaphor, muzzleloaders, Nazis, North Korea, not with a bang but a whimper, nuclear weapons, Plato, Richard Nixon, Robert Frost, sailing vessels, ship of state, shoot ones wad, T.S. Eliot, the Marshall Plan, U.S.S. Constitution, USS Constitution, Vietnam War, war, World War II T.S. Eliot ends his poem, . . . → Read More: Not with a Bang But a Whimper Comments are closed Blog 1920s. 1930s. Great Depression, Ancient Romans, Bosnians, Caesar, Civil War, Communists, dark underbelly, Dust Bowl, election, George Santayana, industrialization, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph Welch, medieval history, not with a bang but a whimper, political parties, politics, Reconstruction, remember the past, repeat it, Republican, resentment, resentments, Serbs, slavery, soldiers, States, T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men, the world ends, Viet Cong, Vietnam, WWI, WWII |
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