Engaging Life with Courage and Intelligence
A post with a historical reference
Will the ghost of Adlai Stevenson run in 2028? For those who care about the past, the Democratic Party was the dominant party in the US Congress from 1948 until 1980. The weaker Republican Party gained small advantages in both houses only once in Eisenhower’s first election in 1952. In the other 15 Congressional elections,…
The translation of the news flash in Spanish is “Dictatorships Do Not Function.” For anyone who believes that authoritarian regimes are good for anyone but the dictator and his family, there is a perfect example to bet against authoritarians. The BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, and South Korea’s intelligence service—consistently cite an initial North Korean deployment…
America’s economy and society are at a critical juncture. Like an energetic bunny, America dominated the twentieth century. The American Puritans in the North and West used technology to industrialize, electrify, and computerize the country. The Southern Cavaliers provided most of the fossil fuels needed to energize our progress. The USA developed a diversified economy…
Many of us, either continually or occasionally, regard the “strange” actions of others as being stupid, evil, or uninformed. There is no need to provide examples of “strange” actions since America is now so fractured that it would be harder to find examples of shared “solid” understandings. In light of the chaos in the public…
If a rabbit does not see, hear, smell, or feel a bobcat coming, the rabbit will be the bobcat’s next meal. I have no perception of the microbiome of subterranean ecosystems. Likewise, I am unfamiliar with the current pop song “Born to Die” by Lana Del Rey. These two facts do not mean that I…
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not likely to cause the demise of the human race. Instead, AI-like humans are more likely to trigger our downfall. These AI-hybrid humans will not be half-human, half-machine cyborgs, as depicted in the movies. Instead, they will be fully human, driven by their burning desire to dominate others. They will not…
I hope my predictions of the future are wrong. Almost everyone except the very poor or the very rich plans for the future. Most of us need to plan and perform mundane activities, such as holding down a job, balancing our checking accounts, and keeping appointments. People who employ others must also be concerned with…
A surprising percentage of Americans side with the narrative that some things cannot and should not be thought about or acted on. Guns, including automatic firing capability, should not be controlled. If God allows dozens of crazy men to shoot 20 people at a time, who are we to object? A minority of Americans (about…
Sixty years ago, when an English professor required a class to read something like Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, what did many “busy” students do? They took a shortcut. They went to the bookstore and bought the CliffNotes for Wuthering Heights. CliffNotes were summaries of a wide array of books. CliffNotes were a lazy student’s…
By 2003, the George W. Bush regime did the following: a) lowered taxes for his ultra-wealthy benefactors, b) loosened financial regulations to allow his ultra-wealthy benefactors to snooker millions of students, retirees, and wannabe homeowners and investors, c) blamed all the problems on Democrats, and d) started a war with IRAQ. In 2025, the Donald…