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 Ignorance is bliss is a common saying for good reason: We have to think about things to worry about them, and most of the time we are preoccupied with our day-to-day activities while we remain ignorant about major problems that may be just around the corner. A related saying, The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, suggests that we can adjust to an uncomfortable familiar, whereas a new situation might cause worse problems. One of the things about democracies is that people get to elect those in charge of governance with regularity. With every election, the . . . → Read More: Ignorance and Bliss Comments are closed Blog Animal Farm, Democrats, education, elections, French revolution, George Orwell, groupthink, honest reporting, horses and pigs, inequality, knowing more, lesser of two evils, level playing field, medieval, moats and beams, Pogo, political party, politicians, politics, Republicans, royalty, Russian revolution, sea change, serfs, social class, throw the bums out, vote We (humans) are doing all sorts of damage to Planet Earth. Humans have always been careless about their garbage. In primitive times, when a tribe accumulated a lot of waste in one location, the tribe simply relocated to a new place. We have, however, run out of new habitable places. We believed, of course, that we had been told to “be fruitful and multiply.” That probably made sense at the time it was originally said, as in those days there was a lot more space than there were people, and life was short and brutal for most people. The best . . . → Read More: No Planet B Comments are closed Blog Ancient Egyptians, be fruitful and multiply, build a wall, China, Civil War, epidemics, farmers, France, greed, humanity, infectious disease, Oedipus, planet Earth, politicians, politics, population, poverty, power corrupts, pressing our luck, Pretty Boy Floyd, revolution, rich, Robin Hood, space, starvation, technology, time warp, United States, world population, World Wars 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 Back in 1994, Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray wrote a book, The Bell Curve, pointing out an inconvenient truth: half the population has below average intelligence. While much of what they said was considered controversial for a variety of reasons, the basic concept is incontrovertible. Half the population is below average when it comes to intelligence. George Carlin said, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. In and of itself, that isn’t a major problem, as intelligence does not account for the main differences in human behavior. It . . . → Read More: The Bell Curve Comments are closed Blog agnosticism, behavioral psychologists, bell curve, blood and soil, Bob Dylan, Charles Murray behavior, Charlottesville, corruption, drug costs, ethnicity, European descent, George Carlin, George Harrison, hippies, homeless, honesty, human intelligence, Humira, hunting, intelligence, Malcolm Gladwell, mass shootings, Masters of War, militia, morality, National Rifle Association, NRA, Peace and Love, politicians, power, power corrupts, religion, Richard J. Herrnstein, Second Amendment, self-defense, Steven Pinker, The Tipping Point, tipping point, Tom Lehrer Just when I had essentially become numb to our current political situation, Las Vegas exploded in chaos as a result of a a planned attack of automatic weapons fire. Las Vegas was not the first mass shooting in US history. Here’s a brief (and limited) list: “The Top 10. Mass shootings, of course, are not the only gun deaths in the States. The US holds the world record for gun deaths not related to the carnage of war. The Second Amendment to the Constitution actually encourages gun ownership, primarily for citizens involved in a well-regulated militia. What the Framers . . . → Read More: Where to Begin Comments are closed Blog agri-business, agribusiness, Amadou Diallo, AR-15, automatic weapons, Constitution, corporate donations, coyotes, elections, Framers, government, Grauman's Theater, gun violence, guns, hand guns, hunting, Las Vegas, law enforcement, mallitia, militia, muzzleloaders, NRA, pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical business, politicians, politics, quick draw, Revolutionary times, rifles, Second Amendment, self-serving, shotguns, summer soldiers, training, weapons 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 In “That Ol’ Black Magic,” in reference to the Ol’ Black Magic of love, Robbie Williams says he’s loving the spin he’s in. Love isn’t of course, the only “Black Magic,” that puts people in a spin. In the U.S., we’ve grown increasingly aware of the “spin” used by major corporations and politicians to influence politics and consumer behavior. “Spin” is basically a biased interpretation. While some form of “spin” has undoubtedly been with us throughout human history, the “father” of modern political spin is usually thought to be canaries in cages down in coal mines so that, when the . . . → Read More: The Spin I’m In Comments are closed Blog Agent Orange, bats, bees, birds, bomb, bombs, butterflies, canaries, canary, clear the airway, coal, coal mining, Coca Cola, Coke, corporations, deforestation, Edward Bern's, global climate change, GMO, Good Samaritan, health, insecticides, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State, Lincoln, long-term problems, Mandy Patinkin, Miami, Mideast, military and civilian first-aid, Monsanto, natural gas, neonicotinoids, North Vietnamese, oil, Ol' Black Magic, politicians, public relations, Robbie Williams, sea-level rise, short-term thinking, Spin, Stephen Colbert, stone age, stop the bleeding, The Late Show, trees, Vietnam War, walking dead, well-being With apologies to Paul McCartney, the winding road I have in mind for this blog is not to your door but to the 2016 elections in the US. For one reason or another, we seem to be off to an earlier and stranger start than is usually the case. The impetus for this blog post was an article in Salon by Heather Cox Richardson about the intellectual battle for the soul of the Republican Party. The article caught my attention because I started my political life as an “Eisenhower Republican” while I was still too young to vote. I liked . . . → Read More: The Long and Winding Road Comments are closed Blog 2016, austerity, Big Ag, Big Enders, Big Pharma, Charlie Brown, Chinese Revolution, conflict, Cuban Revolution Russian Revolution, Democrats, economic data, economic history, economy, ecosystems, election, evidence procedure, financial well-being, Food Stamps, football, French revolution, George Santayana, gerrymander, global mean temperature, global warming, greed, Heather Cox Richardson, incarceration, inequality, Jonathan Swift, Little Enders, Lucy, Lucy and Charlie Brown football, macroeconomics, microeconomics, Minimum Wage, national defense, November 2016, opportunity, Paul McCartney, politicians, reality-based, religion, Republicans, Salon, Social Security, values, voting, wakeup call, Wall Street No, not the The Leftovers TV show…. The “left-behinds”—those who are failing to keep pace with the technological revolution. I am increasingly one of them. At one time, I was among the “techno” leaders. I was one of the first academics to embrace email and did so at a time when most of my colleagues were rejecting email as a method of communication. I have previously mentioned secretaries I knew in days gone by who resisted having their typewriters replaced by computers and word processing programs. They were among the first left-behinds. At the time, I didn’t fully understand why . . . → Read More: The Left-Behinds Comments are closed Blog advertising, Amish, buggies, buggy whips, computers, corporations, distance learning, documents, Donald Trump, Facebook, heavy metal, know thyself, left behinds, left overs, LinkedIn, mental limits, music, online class, organizations, physical limits, Pinterest, politicians, rap, Rock and Roll, science, secretaries, social media, technological revolution, technology, TV, tweets, Twitter, typewriters, video |
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