Mark Twain famously observed: “We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it-and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again — and that is well; but also she will…
Month: December 2016
It’s Not the Size of the Boat, it’s the Motion of the Ocean
We hear more and more debate about the size of federal government and what powers have been drained from the states in contrast. The argument from Republicans and Libertarians, in particular, is that the powers of the federal government have expanded beyond its constitutionally outlined parameters and that state governmental authority has been diminished. Their…
All This Aggravation
Life has a way with endless random collisions to occassionally produce a juxtaposition that is so uncanny it seems cosmically intended. At the very least, it arrests our attention and we draw relevant conclusions from the coincidence. While reading Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, and contemplating his List of Virtues, I found myself most interested in “Industry” and “Silence.” Franklin urged…
The Needle and the Damage Done
Rick Perry is in the news again. It is likely that President-elect Donald Trump will name the former Texas governor as his Secretary of Energy. There is a peculiar irony here since it was Perry’s inability to remember the name of the Department of Energy in a televised debate that sank his own presidential bid. It is also a…
A Christmas Story
The Prologue I’m going to step into an area that could be dangerous. Dangerous because the topic is the most personal, yet debated and misunderstood of all socio-political realms. The topic is Gender Identification. The debate has swirled as long as I can remember, and even though there have been victories that signal acceptance of people…
The Internet, the Whole Internet, and Nothing but the Internet
“Truth” means being in accord with fact or reality. The opposite of truth is “falsehood” which can also appear as logical, factual, even ethical, but is, of course, a deception, whether intentional or not. As humans we depend upon truth, where it is assumed rather than being a subject of discussion; otherwise, how could we…