Trumped

Normally, I think Republicans are less honest and less intelligent than Democrats. I know; that’s wrong and prejudicial. Nobody has a monopoly on truth-telling and intelligence. Ah, but then comes 2016. Trump vs. Clinton. I say it now, fully cognizant of what I say: If you vote for Trump, you are an idiot. You have either a brain tumor…
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Guess that tune!

Okay folks, let’s see who listened to the radio in the ’70s.  This tune I hadn’t heard in 40 years, but I never forgot it: indeed, I hum it to myself at times and have to wonder why.  Give it a listen here: Guess this tune!

Trump and the Republicans

Donald Trump is going to be the nominee of the Republican Party in this year, 2016.  This is so beyond belief that I’m sure years later as I read this entry, I will feel an enormous sense of relief that this nonsense is over. What has it meant, really, that a dimwit like Trump has a shot…
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The New Arab Wars: a review

This book, by Marc Lynch, is worth reading if you are looking, as I was, for a book that puts the whole post-Arab Spring thing into perspective. If any part of the world is misunderstood by Americans, surely it is the Middle East. It’s a very complex part of the world, made infinitely more complex…
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The future of elections

We have the extraordinary good fortune of living in the greatest period in human history. Most Americans would blithely dismiss that statement even without seeing it as untrue.  It’s like being healthy: you just wake up and do your thing.  Nobody but a survivor of a near-death experience thinks about waking up and thanking the universe for…
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Why Sanders Is Nonsense.

Okay, allow me a little hyperbole. He’s not an abstraction. Bernie Sanders probably has a higher IQ than my cat, or me, for that matter. It’s just that he is gifted by nature with the appearance of a crazy professor, but he’s not been given a concomitant dose of professorial sense.  Here is his stance…
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Cuba! (Posted for a friend.)

Cuba has been nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for its work in fighting Ebola in Africa along with its outstanding health care solidarity work around the world.  And with good reason! When most countries including our own stood aside as the epidemic raged in West Africa, Cuba without hesitation rushed to the side of…
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The Real Thing

It just occurred to me: at the root of all human behavior is the desire to discover and to hold The Real Thing. It can be a god. It can be a can of soda. It can be an author. It can be a house. It can be an article in a magazine.  The Real Thing gives us…
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Vita brevior.

Yes indeed, life is too damn quick. I like this whole “waking up and living” thing.  After 56 years, I have gotten very used to it.  The prospect of having only 20 or 30 years left doesn’t thrill me, and I realize that many people turn to religion’s easy comfort so they can more easily spend those…
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