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…
Read more →

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…
Read more →

Yep, you probably didn’t hear it here first: Ben Carson is nuts.  But this isn’t your web site, it’s MINE, and I can say what I want.  So there.  Ben Carson is nuts. He scares the shit out of me.  That slow delivery.  That oh-so-sure cadence.  You hear it and think, “Where have I heard that before? …
Read more →

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…
Read more →

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…
Read more →

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…
Read more →

A recent study by The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network indicates that the happiest countries in the world are: Switzerland Iceland Denmark Norway Canada Finland Netherlands Sweden New Zealand Australia Now, you may ask, what do all these countries have in common — except, perhaps the last one, with which I’ll deal a bit later on —…
Read more →

New Horizons is on approach for a dramatic flight past the icy dwarf planet and its moons in July 2015. Source: New Horizons | NASA

Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, NY) front page from January 28, 1994. Ever remember seeing something in a newspaper but you don’t remember the date? Not even sure of the wording, so it makes it hard to research? Yeah, me too. Well, I found it. Every winter, when people tell me how cold it is, I remind them that…
Read more →

The fundamental truth about politics is that it is always driven by fear. The poor have nothing to lose, hence, no fear (unless somebody tells them they’re having their God taken away from them, as we see happening.) The middle class is driven by fear, but unwilling to act decisively because they’re afraid of falling….
Read more →