Global Tipping Point Allow me to be so bold as to declare that we have just hit a global tipping point of world-changing proportions. How’s that for a sentence to hook readers? Let’s start by agreeing what we are tipping from. The world has gone awry in the past five years and has moved decidedly away from liberal democracy. People around the world had gone to a place of fear for their lifestyles. These…
Resistance Insistence Resistance is a word that is stuck squarely in my mind today. I have a gray t-shirt with the word RESIST across the chest. It is a political statement and it is meant to mean a refusal to accept or comply with something. I like the sentiment in today’s political environment, only I would add an exclamation point at the end for RESIST! It says to me and anyone who encounters me and…
Compromising Compromises In almost every corner of modern life there are reasons to compromise rather than stick dogmatically to a strong and extreme position. This issue itself can be a very debatable one and some will say that compromise on the most important issues is unacceptable and morally repugnant. If only the world was always so black and white, life would be a lot less morally conflicted. I remember in high school, I attended…
My Two Cents I just finished watching To Sir with Love with Sidney Poitier on TCM. It’s a great movie, not because of the acting or even the script. It’s a great movie because of the messages of diversity, social awareness, the value of education, and how good teachers can change lives. I wish I could teach young high school kids. I’ve wanted to do that for years, but I’ve never figured out how…
Weinstein, Epstein, Trumpstein The Grammy Record of the Year for 1985 was Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, which goes: That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free Now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it Obviously, some guys don’t have everything workin’ right and the chicks just don’t seem to come for free. Speaking as a man who lusted after far…
The End of Democracy I love the news summaries that major news publishers now put online. They are the ultimate headline approach to reading in that if the story grabs you (that’s the point of headlines and why I spend so much time coming up with snappy titles for my stories), you then just click through to the one or more URL links in the headline and off you go with the next level…
Never Give Up NBC Sunday Today had a Sheryl Crow interview and discussed her career and life choices. She went from being a normal midwestern girl raised in a middle class lifestyle and choosing a normal school-teaching career, to being a Michael Jackson protege that launched her first platinum album in 1993. Somewhere along the golden path of Hollywood music success, Crow moved to Nashville and adopted some children so she could get back to…
The Enemy of the People Just when you thought Sharpiegate was dying down, we have two or three new scandals being uncovered that our beloved President Donald Trump seems to be perpetrating. These are not conspiracies being reported by left wing radical news blogs (like this one), these are stories posted by Politico and the Washington Post. There is so much to discuss, I almost don’t know where to start. We are all…
A Big Girl’s Blouse I am thoroughly enjoying the shenanigans in the House of Commons. I can barely recall a U.S. news day with as much Parliamentary proceedings making the news as today. Then again, three lost votes (the first three votes) for a new Prime Minister sets Boris Johnson in the record books as the most controversial PM in the history of England. No one has ever lost a first, much less a…
Stiffening The world is stiffening and becoming less flexible. One of my favorite old New Yorker Cartoons shows a Viking pushing up against a tree with the caption, “Even the Vikings had to stretch.” Obviously, what was intended was to take the ruthless and blindly ambitious Viking way of life (thought to be all about pillaging lesser and more sedate communities within their reach) and suggesting that no one can be continuously aggressive without…