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 Going to Hell in a Handbasket is an old saying typically used to describe a situation heading for disaster. That seems to be the current situation in the United States. In many ways, the States reached its zenith during World War II because everyone—at least nearly everyone—worked together for the common good. This is not to say that everything was wonderful during that time. We unjustly imprisoned Japanese Americans and excessively rewarded those whose companies produced munitions we needed for the war effort. In doing so, we created what has become the military-industrial complex. President Eisenhower, who had been . . . → Read More: The Handbasket to Hell Comments are closed Blog 1920s, 1930s, Allies, banking, butcher, Chine, Chinese Revolution, Civil, Civil War, conservative intellectuals, corporate greed, cuts of meat, earn a living, finance, financial laws, follow the money, France, French revolution, Gordon Gekko, Great Depression, greed, greedy, handbasket, handbasket to hell, Hell, hell in a handbasket, industrial age, Investing, Michael Douglas, Military Industrial Complex, Nineteenth century, political influence, president, repeating history, revolution, robber barons, Russia, Russian revolution, slavery, tax code, tax laws, Teamsters, the States, the wealthy, thumb on the scale, trade unions, Trump, Wall Street, war, wealth, wealthy, WW II, WWII In one way or another, everyone thinks, “God’s on our side.” This has always been the case. In the religious wars between Protestants and Catholics in the Middle Ages, both sides thought that God was on their side. In the U.S. Civil War, both Tap water catches fire and earthquakes multiply. As a rule, those who own and run oil and gas companies do not explore for fossil fuels in their own backyards. Is it worth ruining our environment to exploit fossil fuels when we are currently able to get the power we need from wind and solar energy? . . . → Read More: God’s On Our Side Comments are closed Blog backyards, Bears Ears, Bible, Bob Dylan, Catholics, Civil War, clean energy, commies, culture, despoil the land, earthquakes, ecology, England, environment, exploitation, fossil fuels, fracking, gender, God, Grand Staircase, greed, head of state, hydroelectric power, love of money, Masters of War, matriarchy, Middle Ages, modern world, National Monuments, North, oil and gas, political interests, political strife, politics, Protestants, queens, reality, religion, religious, religious wars, South, Southeast Asia, tap water, tax laws, U.S. Civil War, vested interests, Vietnam, vote, water, water catches fire, wealth, white men If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you already know about the conflict between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. While the Trump administration seems to be setting a new record for corruption and other “dishonesties” in the White House, this isn’t the first time in U.S. history politicians have yielded to temptation and the abuse of power. As Lord Acton pointed out, power corrupts, and that has certainly been true for U.S. Presidents. As is true today, our Founding Fathers tended to be the rich and powerful. One of the ways they used their wealth and power was . . . → Read More: Stormy Weather Comments are closed Blog agri-business, American Presidents, Belgian Congo, corporations, corruption, Democrats, Donald Trump, earthquakes, fame, Founding Fathers, fracking, French Indochina, Gordon Gekko, greed, Lord Actor, Martin Shkrekli, Mexico, Native Americans, oil and gas, political donations, politics, power, presidents, profit, Republicans, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Shkrekli, slavery, slaves, Stormy Daniels, the Fugs, the Rolling Stones, Vietnam, wars, wealth, White House, White Man's burden, Wide Wide River 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 I am finding the growing discontent represented by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement interesting in a couple of ways. First, unlike the “Tea Partiers,” who were reasonably well-focused in their demands for lower taxes and smaller government, the “Occupy Wall Street” group—groups at this point, as they are currently (as of 13 Oct 2011) in 103 cities in 37 States and a number of other locations around the world—do not have well-organized, uniform talking points. Our friends the media pundits don’t know how to respond to them because, other than their sheer numbers, it’s hard for them to find a . . . → Read More: Occupying Wall Street Comments are closed Blog 1 percent, 1970s, 99 percent, be the change you want to see, Bean Counters, Bob Lutz, Car Guys, change, credit-default, discontent, Gandhi, global discontent, global population, government, Herman Cain, John Hagel, John Sculley, John Seely Brown, lower taxes, Mahatma Gandhi, making money, making things, management, Michael Bloomberg, millionaire, millionaires, monetary policy, money, New York Times, occupiers, occupy wall street, Paul Gilding, Pixar, poverty, rich person, shared vision, smaller government, social unrest, Steve Jobs, swap, talking points, taxes, Tea Partiers, Tea Party, Thomas Friedman, Thomas L. Friedman, Wall Street, wealth The “Bell Curve” is the common expression for what is otherwise known as Standard Normal Distribution. The concept basically states that in any category, most members of the category will be grouped in the middle, with fewer members at the extremes. Wikipedia provides a fancy definition: In probability theory, the normal (or Gaussian) distribution, is a continuous probability distribution that is often used as a first approximation to describe real-valued random variables that tend to cluster around a single mean value. The graph of the associated probability density function is “bell”-shaped, and is known as the Gaussian function or . . . → Read More: The Bell Curve Theory of Life Comments are closed Blog apple, bell curve, black/white, blueberry, Byron Katie, conservative, Democrats, demonization, demonize, frame, framing, frozen evaluation, George Lakoff, liberal, lobbying, map, marketing, men, mental maps, metaphor, Pareto, perception, perspective, pie, pigs, polarization, poor, progressive, public relations, reality, Reification, Reify, Republicans, rich, standard normal distribution, strategies, strategy, territory, universal quantifiers, values, wealth, women |
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