November 30, 2021

There are a lot of things to be grateful for this holiday season, and one of them is the sounds of silence that are coming from Washington. For example, it has been nice not to be reading tweets…

…about how Jared Kushner is bringing peace to the Middle East while at the same time using his ties to Donald Trump to raise money from theses same countries for an investment fund.

…about how President Biden is responsible for high gas prices during a recovery, yet not responsible for falling gas prices due to Omicron.

…about how great the stock market has been. As the former occupant of the White House found out, the Lord giveth and the stock market taketh away.

…about how the President and his family are wasting tax payer dollars for their annual Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket.

…about infrastructure week, which will get rolled out soon.

…about how it’s okay to say “Merry Christmas” again.

…about how the three men guilty of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery were good people, and the victims of an Obama judge.

….about how Kyle Rittenhouse was a good kid, and only a Trump judge got him off.

…about how the Omicron variant is a Democratic plot to keep power.

…about how Aaron Rodgers is now the GOAT, and not Tom Brady, and

…. about how Ilhan Omar needs to apologize to Lauren Boebert

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa….

November 26, 2021

The question vexing scientists, philosophers, and pundits is how we got so stupid so fast. Things we used to consider facts are now in dispute. People are told to not believe what they can see with their own eyes. Our general level of knowledge of civics and history is at an all time low. Conspiracy theories abound. Some analysts blame Facebook and Twitter, but, as it turns out, they are not the cause of our dumbing down, just it’s manifestations.

The rapid explosion of ultra-processed, hyper-palatable foods has led to a massive increase in caloric intake over the past 40 years, and the subsequent epidemic levels of type 2 diabetes and dementia. In terms of brain health, processed foods are potentially damaging due to their high levels of sugar and calories. In general, because of poor diet, we are getting larger i.e. morbidly obese. Anthropologist Christopher Stringer highlighted in Scientific American how our brains have been getting smaller over the past 10,000–20,000 years due to worsening nutrition, stating, “It’s energetically expensive to maintain a bigger brain, and the brain will not be maintained at larger body sizes unless it is necessary.” In other words, we are starving ourselves, and our brains our atrophying as a result.

We are fatter, dumber, and, given the number of calories we burn in a day, lazier. Now we have the answer to the question as to how people like Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene came to be. It’s a concept that they would never allowed to be taught in schools…natural selection.

P.S. This is no more stupid than a lot of the stuff being put out by the Right.

November 22, 2021

Of all of the cuckoo, crackpot stuff I have heard coming out of contentious school board meetings around the country, the best, or worst, came from a very angry mother, who shouted at school board members, “You don’t know nothin’.” At the risk of being labeled a grammar scold, “Really?” It is bad enough when our public discourse gets overly negative, but now it is getting doubly negative. This is an example of some of the people, who are trying to commandeer school boards. These are the same people, who know more than the medical experts about pandemics. Apparently, Dr. Fauci and his ilk don’t know nothin’.

I would like to think that school board members and teachers have educational credentials, and that healthcare professionals have commensurate degrees. It does not make them right on every issue, but at least they know something. We don’t have to be deferential, but we should be respectful. It is okay to question. It is not okay to not know nothin’.

November 21, 2021

The public debate over Kyle Rittenhouse has come down to, in the immortal words of NRA president Wayne LaPierre, whether he was a good guy with a gun, or a bad guy with a gun. I mention public debate because the jury has made its decision, and the last thing the jurors need, like healthcare workers and school board members, is a whole lot of crap from people who don’t know what they are talking about. Progressives believe Rittenhouse was a bad guy with a killing machine looking for trouble. Conservatives believe he was a good guy with a gun looking to be a hero.

My question is different. My question is what the hell is a 17 year old doing crossing state lines with an AR-15? Where were the adults? Don’t even the people who cheer his exoneration think it’s a little odd that we now live in a country where this is apparently acceptable behavior. This is the same country where people feel justified to attack the Capitol with weapons, hang the Vice President, kidnap and assassinate Governors, attend school board meetings with flak jackets, appeal to the Supreme Court for the right to bear arms at all times, allow hundreds of thousands of people to die of COVID, issue death threats to elected officials who voted to fix potholes, murder unarmed teenagers, and post memes of themselves killing other politicians. Am I the only one who thinks this is odd? If I am, I am prepared to stand back and stand down.

November 19, 2021

The New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons Thursday night by a score of 25-0. It was not quite as dramatic and artistic as the stirring comeback from a 28-3 deficit in Super Bowl LI, but it was still pretty good nonetheless. It was their fifth win in a row, putting them solidly in the playoff race. It was a Thursday night game on the road, which is always difficult, against a team that had four wins against five losses. It had been the first time Atlanta had been shutout at home in decades. The Patriots were trying to build back better this year after a disappointing 2020. Yet, when I read the papers the next morning, all I saw was articles about how much the Patriots have to work on. It may be true, but give me a break. For some, it’s never enough.

Which brings me to President Biden, the Democrats, Build Back Better, and inflation. The Patriots had deflategate when Tom Brady allegedly let the air out of some footballs. The Republicans have been trying to let the air out of Joe Biden’s agenda. The infrastructure bill passed. The economy is growing, unemployment is shrinking, people are getting vaccinated, wages are rising, and consumers have money in their pockets. It sounds pretty good, but, in the words of many, albeit not just Republicans, the Democrats and Coach Biden have some things they need to work on like inflation. As with the Patriots, the Democrats may be victims of their own successes. Recoveries bring demand, and demand brings rising prices. Reasonable or not, we expect more. Fortunately, the Super Bowl and the mid-term elections are a ways off. There is plenty of time to get things exactly right. In the meantime, give me a break.

November 17, 2021

Rick Steves is a prominent European travel writer. My wife and I enjoy his travelogues on PBS. The are quick, cute, and colorful. He explores the cultures, cuisine, and history of the places he visits. He spends time with the locals, and partakes in their traditions. In each place he visits, the locals have their own unique ways of celebrating their history and their lives. They seem to embrace their history, and not be tortured by it. The Germans continually celebrate Oktoberfest in the shadow of Hitler. The Italians celebrate Christmas without giving immediate thought to Mussolini, the corruption of the papacy, or the slave trading of the Romans. The French celebrate Bastille Day without being hobbled by the Reign of Terror. There are many examples of peoples making peace with their historic demons. They don’t ignore their history, but they are not incapacitated by it either. As people often say, two things can be true at the same time. A country can have a horrific past, and still be able to celebrate what is good. The amateur anthropologist in me says that most if not all societies and countries have something they are probably ashamed about.

The United States of America is no different. We have skeletons in our collective closet. I think it’s okay to, every once in a while, take them out, dust them off, analyze them, and then put them back. The true test of a society is how it handles the truth. We don’t have to cast blame, and make each other feel bad. After all, it’s no more our collective fault than all Russians are to blame for Stalin. We didn’t do it, but we do need to understand it. Two things can be true at the same time. We can strive to learn more about our history, warts and all, while we continue to celebrate everything that is good about us. “Keep on travelin’”.

November 15, 2021

There are a lot of crazy, right wing conspiracy theories going around. Many of them begin with the letter Q. I am not going to mention any of them except for the one I heard recently while I was drinking the blood of babies with my fellow pedophiles. Some of our economic problems are being caused by supply chain issues. If you rearrange just two of the letters in “chain,” you get “China.” This can’t be a coincidence. Many of our supply chain issues have originated in China where we also got the “China Virus” and “Kung Flu.” China is attacking us from all sides, and it’s all spelt out. This can’t be a coincidence.

Also, the state governor who is doing the best job in fighting the pandemic is Ron DeSantis. The Latin translation of “DeSantis” is “about Santa.” This can’t be a coincidence. Governor DeSantis is doing more than anyone else to make sure our children have a safe and enjoyable Christmas. There won’t be any coal in Florida’s stockings unless Joe Manchin gets involved. China is trying to be “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” and Ron DeSantis is trying to make Christmas great again. This can’t be a coincidence.

November 15, 2021

The January 6th Commission in the House of Representatives is devoid of any Republican representation except for the two Republican apostates, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Minority leader Kevin McCarthy made sure of that. Maybe we should call these the McCarthy hearings. Joseph McCarthy, Republican Senator from Wisconsin, was bent on manufacturing the truth as he looked for Communists back in the fifties, which is the period that the MAGA red hats long to go back to. Kevin is bent on burying the truth as the commission looks for domestic terrorists and their enablers. Coincidentally, the victims, if I can use that word, in both instances have been Democrats. Creepy Joe was a conspiracy theorist of the first order, believing there were Communists lurking behind every light pole. Kreepy Kevin tells us not to believe our eyes when white supremacists and neo-Nazis waving Trump flags attack the Capitol. If they had been Communists, I am sure Kevin would have gone full McCarthy on them. Kevin is also like another McCarthy, puppet Charlie McCarthy. He takes his orders from his own Edgar Bergen, aka Donald Trump, who has his hand right up his…

November 13, 2021

Inflation is taking center stage as a political issue, pushing aside wokeness, Critical Race Theory, and COVID. Nothing focuses one’s attention more than price increases at the pump. The price of gas goes up, and pundits predict the end of life as we know it. This is not to trivialize the financial pain that consumers feel when trying to buy the essentials of life like food, clothing, housing, and energy. However, I think we all have to take a collective breath, deflate, and try to put things in perspective.

The long-term trend in inflation since WW II has is 3.6%. From 2000-2008, the rate was 2.9%. The anomaly has been the last 12 years when the rate of inflation has been an historically low 1.5% with a concurrent drop in long-term interest rates. We have been spoiled by or, at least, complacent about low inflation rates.The Great Recession put a huge hole in demand. This wasn’t going to last forever. The pandemic just delayed the inevitable.

The world has changed as we work through the worst pandemic since 1918, and it is not going back to normal. Supply chain issues exist all over the world. People are changing their buying habits. They are buying more goods than services, which need to be delivered. Workers are right-sizing themselves. Non-essential workers were essential after all, and want to be paid. They are quitting in droves for better paying jobs, which is putting more money in their pockets. Through forced savings and government largesse, consumers are flush with cash and pent up demand. It may take time, but it will work itself out. I don’t see 18% interest rates, or long gas lines as we did in1979 in our future. We may have some long faces at Christmas, but at least they will be vaccinated.

November 3, 2021

Glen Youngkin won the governor’s race in Virginia. Congratulations to Mr. Youngkin. We apparently will not need an investigation into vote rigging because he is a Republican. The number one issue for voters in Virginia was education, well ahead of the economy and COVID. The concerns with education focused on critical race theory, Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” and mask wearing. Angry parents verbally attacked

members of school committees over these issues because that is what is wrong with American education.

The United States ranks 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. ranked 30th in math and 19th in science. I hate to think where we stand on history and civics. We are losing the critical worldwide race on education, and that is not a theory. We should be debating improvements to our educational infrastructure, teacher pay, teacher qualifications, educational standards, school safety, equal opportunity, school lunches, and even how we pay for education. We don’t have time to be arguing about fake, ginned up, so-called cultural issues. We need to teach real culture.