Our Plague

Once again, unchecked human population growth is at war with Nature – and Nature is fighting back!

Today – late-May of 2020 – our nation and the rest of the world is in lockdown.  Because of a virus, an invisible enemy.  We stay at home (involuntarily), we keep “social distance,” we wear masks, we avoid crowds (no theatre, no concerts, no restaurants, no church worship, no ball games), tens of millions have lost their jobs and their income, many get sick, many die, and we wonder when it will end, when will things return to normal?

Murder Most Foul

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941; Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016) released the single Murder Most Foul late last night, Thursday, March 26,2020.

Today ... in History

Today in History

Today's Historical Events

Today in American History

There, now, don't you feel "virtuous"?

Being Jeff Bezos

Let’s pretend.

Why Bezos?  Because he is the wealthiest man in the world.  Let’s assume his net worth to be $130 billion, which is more or less accurate as of today (Bezos' wealth is highly variable as it is based on the value of Amazon stock which – like the rest of the stock market lately – has been highly volatile.  The exact value of Bezos' wealth does not affect my argument in the slightest).

Let’s pretend his fortune is yours!

A Republic, Not a Democracy

Many Americans say “The United States is a republic, not a democracy.”  But it is not true.  It seems to imply that the right to vote is not built in to our Constitutional system, but 43,782 American citizens cast their vote for George Washington in 1788.  So I wonder what they mean when they say “The United States is a republic, not a democracy.”

Lying is Legal

Lying (you KNOW you are telling an untruth) is a Constitutional RIGHT guaranteed by the “freedom of speech” clause in the Constitution’s 1st Amendment.  If freedom of speech doesn’t protect a lie, what does it protect?  2+2=4?  The Earth is round?  The truth rarely needs protection.

But there are “exceptions” to our right to lie.  Freedom of speech does NOT protect perjury, which is telling a lie under oath, before Congress, or in a legal contract.  Freedom of speech does NOT protect slander or libel or defamation which are lies about another person that are deliberately malicious and are spoken or written with a clear intent to damage another person, his reputation or his finances (but public figures are not protected by libel and slander laws, an interesting exception that president Trump wants to undo – for himself).  Freedom of speech does NOT protect shouting fire in a crowded theater.  Or threats or incitements to violence.  Or conspiracy to commit a crime.  Or obscenity.  Or plagiarism.  All President Trump’s lies are legal as he is not under oath.  What a list, and there are a few more.

Bernie Sanders on Socialism

A close friend of mine is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for president.  He thinks that Sanders could message better.  So, he wrote Sanders a speech that explains Sanders' notion of socialism.  Here it is.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for coming.

I am running to be the Democratic candidate for President of the United States in 2020. Yes, your Democratic candidate, even though the party I have been aligned with for all these years in the breathtakingly wonderful state of Vermont is called the Democratic Socialist party.

Does Big Money Always Win Elections?

Of course not, as incumbency typically trumps big money campaigning. Many voters prefer the devil they know! 

Nevertheless, one of the legs of the Democracy Movement is that money is not a form of speech that is protected by the First Amendment’s free speech clause (“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”).

Boredom

Are you ever bored? Is boredom a recurrent problem for you? 

The mind is always running, and it wants stuff to think about. When all it can think about is “I have nothing to think about,” that is boredom. When all it can think about is “I have nothing to do,” that is boredom. Many of us cope with boredom by dulling the mind’s insistence on thinking by taking drugs, by drinking alcohol, by watching TV, by playing solitaire or by watching our smartphone waiting for the universe to talk to us.

From the Earth to the Moon

Exactly five decades ago, on July 20th, 1969 at 02:56 UTC, Commander Neil Armstrong, Jr. set foot on the Moon, the first human being ever to plant his feet solidly on another planet or planet-like object. This event was set in motion eight years before, on May 25th, 1961, when President John F Kennedy spoke these words: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” 

The Space Race (between the USSR and the USA) began the day that Americans heard the radio beeps of an unmanned space vehicle called Sputnik on October 4th, 1957. Less than a year later, July 29th, 1958, President Eisenhower established NASA to compete head to head with our Cold War adversary. Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made man’s first flight into space on April 12th, 1961, Kennedy spoke his stirring words a few weeks after Gagarin’s flight, and the second stage of the Space Race was on – the race to the Moon! NASA responded immediately with the Apollo program, dedicated to putting men on the Moon before the decade was out. Apollo’s brightest moment occurred on July 20th, 1969, fifty years ago today.