The two principal problems in the US today are Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats tend to be inept. The Republicans tend to be evil. Neither considers the needs of the nation as a whole but instead concentrate on the narrow vested interests of its affiliated group. As a result, the country is not only polarized, but also paralyzed. It is easy to blame President Trump for our problems, but Trump’s presidency is a result of—not the cause of—our problems. Our problems won’t disappear if we remove Trump from office; they would simply coalesce around whomever replaced Trump as president. The . . . → Read More: Two Serious Problems
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 Comments are closed  Blog  a house divided, Abraham Lincoln, Animal Farm, cancer, Democrats, evolution, French film, French revolution, George Orwell, good and evil, land owner, Middle Ages, peasants, pigs, political parties, Republicans, rich and poor, Ridicule, royalty, society, States, Stevie Wonder, wealth 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 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 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 I am old enough that I had most of the childhood illnesses for which vaccines are now available. I had both kinds of measles, chicken pox, mumps, and (I believe) whooping cough. I did have a number of vaccinations as a child, including small pox, tetanus, and probably some others. In my early 20s, I was among those who took the first version of the vaccine for polio developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. When I was in the Army, all new recruits were vaccinated against everything for which vaccines were available, including plague, probably in anticipation of our being sent . . . → Read More: The Vaccine Wars Comments are closed Blog advertising, anti-vaxxers, army, bats, bees, birds, candidates for office, Catholic Church, CDC, Centers for Disease Control, chicken pox, disease management, doctors, Ebola, Galileo, GMO, guns, herbicides, ICIMED, immunization, infant mortality, ingredients, International College of Integrative Medicine, Joseph Mercola, measles, military, mumps, negative advertising, pesticides, political process, politics, Pope, quack, quack watch, smallpox, States, tanks, U.S., US, vaccinations, vaccines, vaxxers, Vietnam, whooping cough An old story whose origins are unknown to Google is about a relatively newlywed couple who wanted to divide chores evenly having weekly arguments about whose turn it was to mow the lawn. Other household tasks weren’t a problem. The husband had his responsibilities, the wife had hers, and each was comfortable with the assigned tasks with the exception of lawn mowing. They had agreed to take turns but had trouble tracking whose turn it was from week to week. After months of arguing about whose turn it was to mow the lawn, the wife blurted out, “In my family, . . . → Read More: In My Family… Comments are closed Blog air pollution, behavior, beliefs, Christel Nani, climate change, Copernicus, Crimea, disease, Elijah, English, Europe, family, fish, follow the money, following one's path, French, french fries, Galileo, global warming, hammer, heliocentric universe, homeopathic, Hundred Years War, income inequality, Joan of Arc, let there be peace on earth, medicine, nail, Nani, pizza, Pope, poverty, profit, remedies, right and wrong, river, Russa, Sacred Choices, school lunches, settled science, Shiites, States, still small voice, Sunnis, surgeons, surgery, tribes, Ukraine, vaccinations, vaccines, vegetables, war, warfare, water pollution, wealth Does it really serve a purpose to suppress the truth? I’m not concerned about the “little stuff,” such as who flirted with whom at the office party or how the rear fender of the family car was damaged. My concern is with the “big stuff,” things that influence everyone. You may recall, for example, that in the sixteenth century, Galileo found himself in hot water with the Catholic Church for supporting Copernicus’ theory that the earth was round and was orbiting around the sun. The Catholic Church attempted to suppress the truth, but one of the things about important truths . . . → Read More: Knowing the Truth Comments are closed Blog animal cruelty, antibiotics, ask your doctor, best interests, bread, Catholic Church, class-action suits, Connecticut, Copernicus, enemy, ExxonMobile, food prices, Galileo, genetically modified organisms, GMO, gun control, gun deaths, gun research, knowledge, news broadcasts, Newton, oil spill, pesticides, pharmaceutical, priests, reality, religious institutions, Sandy Hook, scientific evidence, sexual molestation, Slate, States, terrorism, truth, TV ads, war Those of us in the States (and perhaps the rest of the English-speaking world) currently have a wonderful opportunity to observe one of the lesser-known NLP Metaprograms at work: The Rules Metaprogram. Most behavior is “rule governed” in one way or another, so where and how rules apply is important in social interactions. The First Rule is perhaps to whom does a rule apply. Here’s one possibility: My rules for me. Your rules for you. Everyone chooses his or her own rules. This won’t work well in a variety of social situations. Imagine driving in a big city . . . → Read More: Rules Comments are closed Blog accident, atheist, children, contraception, culture, democratic, egalitarian, evolution, fabric, God, Japan, logic, marriage, Maude, metaprogram, metaprograms, NLP, nomination, party, pepperoni, president, rights, rules, same-sex, sex, sexuality, societies, spelling, sports, States, traditional marriage, U.K., U.S. pizza, variety, women |
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