Shaky Danny

It is obvious by now that both Obama and Romney campaigns were trying to keep the race as close as possible in order to maximize fund raising. Our political campaigns are in the potlatch tradition.  They provide the means for us to make payouts within the tax code without the appearance of impropriety.  Very little of the activity has much to do with influencing votes Dick Morris, the manic depressive Delphi, argues that the United States electorate should be romanced like an adolescent with a constant barrage of upbeat optimism. When we step back from all the clutter there appear to be some fundamentals driving the voting choice.  I believe that we can build a model for these beliefs based on our history.  It is generally held that we Americans have no historical sense or memory but I contend that we do have a mythology based on our collective memory of historical events. One of our collective modern issues is that most of us, at least below a certain age, ha...

Fritz, as Grandmother Hilda called him, his name was Fred, served as a lieutenant in the German army in World War I.     He served on the western front, so he may have been fighting Americans.    He won the Iron cross: -Everyone went over the top, except me and this other fellow. So we looked at each other and decided it was better to be killed by the enemy than our own side.    The job of the second line of the German army was to kill anyone in the first line who didn’t attack.    We couldn’t find our guys, so we kept going; the other side must have withdrawn.    Eventually our side caught up with us so they gave us the medal. Years later, I realized that this is the story you tell when you don’t want to say what you did.   When Fritz got taken into concentration camp he wore that cross.    They took it away from him.    Hilda bribed a consulate for visas and got him and her family out of Germany. ...

When you’re talking about police and soldiers, you’re essentially talking about a lot of guys who like to play  Call Of Duty  and  Halo . It is difficult to appreciate the level of hypocrisy they confront and the depth of compartmentalization that this requires. Most of us at some fundamental level believe that there is some equitability or justice that plays its way out. This deep human desire is one of the foundations of religion.    Whether it is reincarnation, heaven, rapture, eventual human development, fatalism or just the naïve joy at seeing the downfall of the wicked and horror at the victimization of the innocent, we all want the world to confirm our human perception of right and wrong.   Justice, as any other ideal, is found as common or as rare and beautiful as your perception of it.     The police dilemma is more extreme than the accommodations that we all make.    Because of their situation, they stare into this moral ...

I am not going to get into the issues of truth and justice because I am not a good advocate for that.    I think there are some teachable moments in the Martin/Zimmerman case.    It is so rare that children might pay attention to us older folk and this instance may give an opportunity.   Given that all phone calls are recorded it seems to me that Mr. Martin’s last call should be subpoenaed from the phone company. There was some doubt about testimony that could be answered and it would give a more reliable timeline of events as well as state of mind.    The precise GPS coordinates may be helpful as well. http://open.salon.com/blog/paul_j_orourke/2013/07/17/where_was_trayvon_the_missing_minutes There has been an observation that the administrations characterization of vigilante justice could also be applied to our foreign policy: http://www.salon.com/2013/07/18/holders_amazing_anti_drone_war_speech/ I think we should hunt down all vigilantes. ...

After Marx, academics had a serious issue:    they had to build on his work without referencing it.    This isn’t all that different from the difficulty academic psychologists had with Freud.    Freud talked goofy and it sounded silly when you were writing grant proposals.    Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the latest attempt at building a rational sounding justification for talking therapy.   Sounds like a prissy version of Freud to me.   With Marx the difficulty was much more immediate.    One citation and your funding disappeared.    Poor Keynes had to throw in Calculus and talk all the way around his fulcrum to say that if you wanted to keep the game going you had to grab money away from the winners and keep the losers in the game. Sociology hung onto its journalist roots; that shred of honesty kept it halfway decent.    But then they threw in statistics.    The real ugliness was when they...

Just recently some Americans from Bulgaria were warning me about the dangers of Muslim immigrants. I said: -If we can survive the Irish, we can survive anything. They responded. -You don’t understand. They are violent fundamentalists who want to impose their religion on everyone.  Sam Kinison was the comic who made the observation that since people were making poor geographical choices, the solution was not to feed them but bring them somewhere else. In the case of the Irish, the British subjected them to a horrific policy of mono-culture, deprivation and abandonment.    The United States did not conduct a military campaign of evacuation, but it came fairly close.    It was a terrific social and economic burden for the United States. But it was far preferable to conducting a military campaign against the British on behalf of the Irish, although the Irish may have preferred that solution. In Syria we have two million  Alawites who most likely wa...

Someday Bicyclists will have to pass a driver’s test, get a license and have a plate on their bicycle just like motorists. Until then some observations on bicycle safety:   To begin with, ride straight.    The bicycle version of the two footed goof who drives with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake is the cyclist who ducks in and out of traffic to keep away from the cars.    It is more difficult to keep track of you when you are playing games.    If you are hiding from me it is no longer my fault. Just like the two footed moron who thinks they should stop more quickly, the phantom cyclist is un-teachable, certain that they are courteously providing more room. Next, understand one fundamental fact: you are a nuisance, and the longer I have to be in your company, the more of a nuisance you are.    You are not a traffic warden.    Police officers and crossing guards take a class in how to direct traffic.    Y...