Is Seven Days in May, a book and then a movie from the 1960s, relevant for now?
The book was published in 1962. I was 7 at the time. The movie came out in 1964. I don't think I ever saw it in the theater, but I watched it on TV several times, perhaps before I read the book,...
View ArticleA Brief Note in Response to Aaron Sorkin's Opinion Piece
I am reacting to this essay, which appeared in yesterday's New York Times. Let me say first what I liked about it. There is no doubt that now the Democrats need to make an appeal to lifelong...
View ArticleA Selective History from Reagan to Trump
I'm responding to this opinion piece from Peter Wehner entitled What Has Happened to My Party Haunts Me. There is no doubt that those Reagan Republicans still alive today are haunted by all that Trump...
View ArticleAn Oddity That May Be Worth Further Consideration
Nowadays, I mainly do my book reading on an electronic device, mostly that's a Kindle Fire, and recently I read a novel on my new Mac laptop, using the Kindle app for the Mac as the reader. I prefer...
View ArticleDemographics and Democratics
So it seems we now have each political party claiming to be populist. I am quite cynical about Republican populism and I definitely am not alone in that view, for example consider this recent piece by...
View ArticleMale Fail
I'm going to give a brief reaction to this piece in the New York Times: Many Gen Z Men Fell Left Behind. Some See Trump as an Answer. There are three points I'd like to make. First, while at the...
View ArticleImpatience
Getting the meaning in what you readDoing so at near ultimate speedThe inherent contradictionBrings forth an afflictionWhich is termed - intellectual greed.#SlowSlowQuickQuick
View ArticleWhat Will Follow the Trauma of Trump?
The last week or two I've been haunted by the following metaphorical scenario. A cancer patient has learned that the disease has metastasized. There is a particularly large tumor which is causing a...
View ArticleYeah Baby
Giancarlo StantonSeems like he could be in CantonBut with so often going for the downsIts more probable to be Cooperstown.#MVPForTheALCS
View ArticleFrom Long Ago - My Inner Thoughts About Learning Technology And Undergraduate...
What I write here was triggered by seeing an ad in Facebook about a Master Class taught by the well known writer, Michael Lewis. I've read several of his books. Back in 1999, I read The New New...
View ArticleMy Hubris
Many of my friends and family are feeling malaise now, given the outcome of the election. I am no different. But where I'm likely to be quite different is to have the urge to come up with a strategy...
View ArticleCorrelation, Causation, and Inference in Big Time College Sports
The past day or two I have been puzzling about whether the results of the Rose Bowl, a college football game where Ohio State overwhelmed Oregon in the first half, and the Illinois basketball game...
View ArticleMaslow Encore Une Fois
This is a connect-the-dots post. One form of connection is from the past to the present. My blog started back in 2005 and some of the references that I linked to in posts during the first year were...
View ArticlePutting Two And Two Together About The Current Trade War
I've read some pieces recently about Trump's misdirection and his taking actions to confound things so that others, the media and the press mainly but also some Republicans, don't understand the real...
View ArticleShould There Be A Remake Of Seven Days In May?
For those who are my age (and those even older) you may very well have read the book by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II. I'm sure I read it, maybe in junior high school, or perhaps in 9th or...
View ArticleThe Sequel Where Clarence's Older Cousin Turns Mr. Potter Into Another George...
I have a soft spot for schmaltzy movies and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is one of my favorites. I must have seen it a zillion times, but in case you haven't, it's available on Amazon Prime,...
View ArticleCharity, Government, or Joint Provision of Social Services: When Is One...
For the past few years I have been making a monthly contribution to the local food bank, part of my usual charitable giving. A couple of weeks ago I learned that USDA had been giving grants to food...
View ArticleI Am Not A Psychiatrist, But Really...
... how can the ADHD research be so inane?I am reacting to this piece from the NY Times Sunday Magazine. At first, I thought it an interesting read but as I got further into it I became increasingly...
View ArticleGetting Started
When I was a kid, before I took piano lessons, which I started when I was 8, I learned two songs. One was Chopsticks, which was a very easy piece. You can see why it became an introduction to playing...
View ArticleAl Truism
Earlier today my Facebook feed was filled with items about Bill Gates, stemming from this piece in the NY Times Magazine, about the plan to zero-out the Gates Foundation endowment in the next 20 years...
View ArticleRubbing SALT into the Wound
I'm commenting on this piece from today's NY Times, which is about how the cap on the deduction for state and local property taxes is causing problems for Republicans in the House in passing that big,...
View ArticleArtificial Dumbness*
*The term Artificial Stupidity has already been claimed by Computer Science.With my title I mean to make reference to the massive amount of illiteracy that characterizes our society today and, in...
View ArticleTwo Reasons Why I'm Scared of Using AI
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.--- Joseph Heller, Catch-22The line seems so apropos to me now. I have an old hit tracker for my blog called StatCounter. I no longer...
View ArticleCrass Warfare
I'm going to give a personal reaction to the passage of the recent bill that has garnered attention from so many.First, I want to talk about household income and expenditure. The word "comfortable" is...
View ArticleFlying Under The Radar Politics
While I mean this to be a stand-alone post, in some sense it can be taken as a sequel to my post from Saturday. It was motivated by asking these questions. If there were an effective way to fight...
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