Worlds Colliding Writing is something I find very soothing to do. I was recently so upset about an incident involving gun laws and some people I know who are involved at the most sordid end of the gun manufacturing business, that I wrote a story denouncing the whole affair and sent it to a subgroup of related friends for consideration. The reaction I got back was difficult for me. I spent a moment wearing a…
Governance Provenance Where does the concept of governance come from? I have read the anthropological books like Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond that delineate the history of governance from the tribal to today’s democracy in all of the areas of the world. What Diamond suggests is that none of the development of civilization are really due to any inherent superiority of one race or culture of mankind, but is rather much more attributable…
Dead Babies Can’t Take Care of Themselves Remember Alice Cooper? He/they was born in 1948 in Detroit to a typical post-war middle class American family as Vincent Damon Furnier. It was once his family moved to Arizona that he decided that rock n’roll was his future. He hit his shock rock stride in the late 60’s and early 70’s when he and his pals realized that there was more to rock n’roll than just music.…
Simply Irresistible I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Robert Palmer, the British singer/songwriter who wrote and sang the top late 80’s hit records Addicted to Love and Simply Irresistible, but both catch-phrases that title and end these two songs stick out clearly in my mind, so I’m sure I’ve heard him sing many times despite not knowing who he was. The man was a true 80’s phenom with his elegant attire and his blend…
Choosing Life It has occurred to me that while I very often write about the hottest political topics of the moment, I have gone the better part of a week since the abortion topic hit our headlines in such a stark manner as it has, and I have not yet chosen to write on that topic. It is a hard topic to address, not because my views are conflicted, but because there is almost no…
SP2201 I am in the habit of rewatching movies I have seen before, some of which I have seen many times. Yesterday, while my granddaughters were occupying the big living room TV watching Rocky and Bullwinkle (which also never gets old), I chose to watch Dirty Dancing on my iPad. The movie is set in the summer of 1963, when I was nine years old, strangely enough, the same age as my oldest granddaughter. While…
Captain America Today I stopped by the local BMW Motorcycle store in Escondido. I am planning out my upcoming rides and feel I need a few pieces of on-bike luggage. This is less about the trip we have planned to Moab in May and more about the trip In June and July back east. The plan is to take the motorcycle trailer back to Ithaca to bring back some personal effects from Homeward Bound, so…
Voting as a Duty Yesterday I watched an interview with E.J. Dionne and Miles Rapoport, the authors of a somewhat radical new book called 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting. This book argues that the best way to cut through all the voter suppression and voter fraud crap we are living through is to make voting a mandatory obligation of citizenship. That sounds so radical, but it really isn’t. There are many mandatory obligations…
The Magic Kingdom My visiting family just returned from a two-day stint at Disneyland. They are a Disneyworld family, but they enjoy Disneyland equally well. I wrote several months ago about my visit to Disneyworld and how impressed I was by the pleasure it evokes in so many people who visit and visit regularly. Yesterday, the state of Florida revoked Disneyworld’s special district permit that it has enjoyed for 55 years when it was used…
The Boys in the Boat All things pass. But sometimes they return, even if for brief moments. That may be the best definition of eternity any of us can ever achieve. This morning I was at JFK staying at the TWA Hotel, which I wrote about. I was reminded of John F. Kennedy and Howard Hughes. That was their glimmer of eternity as they sparked memories in one Baby Boomer’s brain and found their way…