Note to Reader: This is an article from December 5, 2012. I want to begin this missive with a dictionary definition, if you don’t mind. Hero: A person . . . who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. In today’s America, that definition has, unfortunately, come to include anyone...
To the best of my knowledge, I’ve just entered the sixth decade of my existence. (I say it’s to the best of my knowledge because it’s all I recognize. Whether or not this is just one more episode of reincarnation, or my actual beginning, has no bearing on the topic of this article....
These days, everyone with a modicum of brains or a semi-operational moral compass seems to be contemplating their erstwhile support of or opposition to the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Wars. Notable exceptions exist, most conspicuously Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, (not to mention their inner circle of counselors, stooges and court jesters), but honestly, no one should...
In June, 2008, Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court regarding its decision in DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ET AL., PETITIONERS v.DICK ANTHONY HELLER. As is my habit, I shall weigh in. In December, 1791, Congress adopted the Bill of Rights, (i.e. the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.) The second of...
Quandary – A tough situation; a pickle; between a rock and … oh, you know what I mean. I need a word. Those who know me, know I’m a stickler for words. I know it’s why I enjoy reading stuff by Dick Cavett, W.F. Buckley, Maureen Dowd, Christopher Hitchins and a couple...
“Hey Bob Howdy!” (That’s what cowboys yell to each other whilst riding on the lone prairie.) “Hail Fellow, well met!” (That’s how Eton alumni greet each other every time they meet.) “S’up?” (Tis I!) For the longest time, the recording industry, (i.e. the big record labels), determined the winners and losers in the Pop,...
One dictionary defines anecdote as: “a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.” There’s a tendency to reduce the validity of anecdotes when they’re used within an argument or debate, which is unfortunate, because anecdotes are often told from a first-person perspective, and we all live life from a...
Today we consider, once again, the wholesomeness of the National Rifle Association. I’ll leave it to your own reading schedule to peruse the article, but I’ll simply add a suggestion: I propose that Middle and High schools throughout our country initiate Gun Shop classes, just like we (folks my age) had Wood Shop, Metal...
William Deresiewicz takes a rather sharp blade to a book he recently perused. Apparently, the book suggests an alternative to a college education: Start a blog. Among the things it suggests that kids might do to “create and share value” absent a formal higher education is this: “Become a Public Intellectual.” In five easy...
Every now and then I stumble across something that gives my belly a serious twist; stories that are so difficult to believe, they seem to come from a Hollywood script. Imagine you’re the parent of a little child. Imagine that child has a life-threatening disease that is essentially untreatable but for one medicine available to...
First, a bit of disclosure: I’m a lifelong non-smoker. Never even tried. I don’t express that as a matter of pride in my ability to resist or anything like it. It’s just what is. I still don’t know how or understand why I never smoked, aside from remembering I always hated the overwhelming stench....
Got logic? “The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Wayne LaPierre. While I grasp the initial attraction to LaPierre’s bad guy/good guy thing, the underlying logic runs down a twisty, dark rabbit hole. Human nature, unbound and unfettered by national boundaries, will...
Yesterday was a very sad day for us. Nimitz, the gentlest, sweetest doggie who’s ever lived, passed. The cancer that had been first diagnosed a couple of years ago had finally grown too strong for him to fight. The tears still flow, and our hearts ache from his absence. Bubby — our nickname for Nimitz...
Laws do not stand in judgment of morality. Quite the opposite is true. And laws either promote commonly accepted moral virtues, (i.e. benevolence, compassion, charity, forbearance, selflessness, love, etc.), or they abet the cleaving of those virtues from society. Our nation’s turn to torture, thanks to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza...
Remember when T&L whooshed off the cliff? Yes, it was just a movie, but consider a couple of things. They careened off that particular cliff by their own choosing. They didn’t have to. They’d made a number of rather unfortunate choices earlier that boxed them into an emotional corner, but remember, those choices (for...
When I first heard about weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS), also known as armed drones, (such as Predators and Reapers), my gut told me this wasn’t a good thing. Not because UAVS don’t save American lives. They do. And my concern is precisely because drones save American lives. I worry about drone warfare because UAVS and unmanned...
President Obama gave a heart-wrenching speech at the vigil held for the shooting victims. One line from that speech staggers the mind: Are we prepared to say that such violence visited upon our children, year after year after year, is somehow the price of our freedom? The question is, of course, rhetorical, but the...
This article makes a number of interesting points, and I want to share them with you. As a preface, I need to correct, or at least modify a term the author (mistakenly?) uses: High caliber. Furthermore, of the weapons that proliferate amongst the armed public, an increasing number are high caliber weapons (the weapon...
The following post shares my comments from a correspondence with a dear friend regarding the horror that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I include it here because I think it’s relevant to our Village. My initial reply: I agree with you on almost everything you’ve written, and the part with which I...
As Andrew Sullivan says, Kathryn Bigelow (Director of Zero Dark Thirty) is NOT a torture apologist. I agree with everything he says. (I’m anticipating viewing the movie, but with trepidation.) And I second Sullivan’s call for a Bush/Cheney investigation and obvious, subsequent prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and treason. War criminals did...
We can’t just say, “Everybody does it”. No! Dammit! Everybody doesn’t do it. Sure, Iraq does it. Afghanistan does it. Somalia does it. Great company, those, or they, or them. S’wonderful to be included in any kind of statistic with those countries, right? But it’s especially heartwarming to have an “Access to Military-Style Weapons”...
A Morning Read. I watched a newscast interview last night. The guy being interviewed owns a small business. He makes over $250K annually. The report didn’t say how much over $250K the guy makes, but regardless, he makes a decent income from his small business. Asked if the tax increase proposed by President Obama...
Our Lack Of Choice With the release of the movie, Zero Dark Thirty, the gut-wrenching topic of torture has been re-introduced to the nation’s common discourse. In the years since George Bush and Dick Cheney unleashed the dogs of war upon the world, we, America’s citizens, have been denied the damnable but needful conversation...
Let me quote something from an interesting article in The New York Times: . . . when does regulating a person’s habits in the name of good health become our moral and social duty? The answer, I suggest, is a two-parter: first, when the scientific data clearly and overwhelmingly demonstrate that one behavior or another...
I don’t get it. I read a lot of commentary, OpEds, bloggish stuff and all sorts of things. But never once have I read anything from this so-called, “prolific” Indian satirist and I don’t care WHAT Native American tribe he’s from. Look, if The Grey Lady wants to call somebody prolific, bounteous or profuse,...
I put the kibosh on an old friendship a while back. Trust me, it was no easy thing. But after slogging through all the emotion, and contemplating all the options I could find to contemplate, I had to. Let me explain. My erstwhile pal — a professed, born again, church-going Christian — is a very conservative,...
It’s time to begin a conversation. I’m going to call it: Guns — A Continuing Discussion — (Append the part numbers here) Let me preface with this: I am not an anti-gun ownership guy. Neither am I an anti-automobile ownership guy. Or an anti-helicopter ownership guy. But please, it is not unreasonable to anticipate a...
Please Don’t Let It Break. If, on some sunny, cheerful morn, the bridge I happen to be traversing, (whist silently pleading, “Please don’t let it break, please don’t let it break”), chooses that particular moment to heave a sigh of frustration, and collapse into the swirling maelstrom, I can assure you ONE of my...
A follow on article to this morning’s article by David Brooks. This one is by Paul Krugman, who illustrates my point about the Republicans’ so-called attempts at rapprochement.
Humanity has always been hardwired to fear … But the fear used to be of wild beasts prowling, the encroaching Visigoths, plague, world war. Now, in the pampered present, all that anxiety has to find a new focus … we have come up with … our status might be falling or — the horror,...
