I no longer know what to say about the state of our nation that I and others have said over and over again, especially during the course of 2025. When I encounter someone with an opposing worldview, a phenomenon we all must live with at what seems like increasing frequency, I understand that it is socially difficult to engage, so I, like so many of us, just shut down and walk away, mumbling something like,…
Like most large families that gather at the holidays, over the years, we have tried every imaginable configuration of gift-giving. Many families go with the “kids only” approach that suggests that adults need not get presents and that Christmas is for children. I’m not sure if we ever tried that, but if we did it either got immediately breached or quickly discarded mostly because Mrs. Claus (a.k.a. Kim) vetoed it based on her passion for…
As I read today’s post I realize that I wrote it almost two weeks ago while in Edinburgh. I sometimes juggle stories around and occasionally get temporally misaligned. In any case, the good news / bad news is that while I did return home to a small weight loss while traveling (in the range I anticipated), it was not as large as my regular at-home weight loss. What I did do on returning is to…
I just sent my friend Kevin an article served up to me by Apple News. The article comes from New York Magazine, not exactly the gold standard in reporting. I prefer relying on the Economist or perhaps the Financial Times or even the Times or Post, but this was an interesting piece that got me thinking. It was an article about what parents should be considering about the future of their young children in the…
I’ve never printed a rebuttal, but there is a first for everything and I think Steve’s zealousness on this topic, not to mention his well-argued stance deserves air time…… Rich, I couldn’t miss responding, even if you hadn’t called me out. Where you say: “political violence has generally had broader transformative effects on human civilization, though religious violence has often provided the ideological framework that makes political violence possible or acceptable to populations.” And then go…
Where did your name come from? From the Jim Croce song
Do you remember that great scene from the 1972 classic Deliverance starting Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds? The ill-fated canoe trip starts with a stop in a hillbilly town where co-star Ronny Cox gets into a banjo duel with an inbred moon-faced country boy who can pick a mean banjo. I don’t know if the two are connected, but Charlie Daniels great banjo song The Devil Went Down to Georgia would seem to have almost…
I have misjudged the American people. I know I am going to bed tonight with some very important votes still to be counted, but right now, the numbers are not looking very good for Harris. I was horribly wrong about what I thought would be a coming to their senses of a majority of the voting population. Then again, maybe it’s me that has to come to my senses. The American electorate seems to have…