September 18, 2021

One of the Ten Commandments in the Christian faith is “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” I find it odd, if not un-Christian, that people would be seeking religious exemptions to taking the COVID vaccine. By allowing yourself to be a Petri dish for the virus, you are, in fact, allowing the virus to survive, mutate, and kill. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where it says do not take vaccines. It is not one of the Ten Commandments.

Most responsible religious leaders have said that God does not prohibit the use of vaccines. They have encouraged their flocks to get the shots. The Pope has said that getting the vaccine is morally acceptable and responsible. I was a little dismayed to read in today’s paper that the Catholic diocese of Springfield is willing to issue a religious exemption if you “bring a note from your doctor” or some other bogus request. I know the church needs all the parishioners it can get, but it needs to be firm with people. The Catholic faith should not recognize any requests for religious exemptions. If it does, it needs to cite its biblical reference, chapter and verse.

September 16, 2021

Reportedly, five conservative, anti-vaccination talk show hosts have died from COVID. There were death bed conversions in some of the cases. I just learned of the death of someone I was acquainted with in Florida. We weren’t friends, but we did play some golf together. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, and was an extremely successful and wealthy businessman. Unfortunately for him, he was a huge Trump supporter and anti-vaxxer. While we all have to take personal responsibility for our actions and decisions, this is another unnecessary death that should be laid at the feet of Donald Trump. Trump poisoned the well from day one, and people are still dying from the poison. I really don’t understand why people are willing to die to make an inane, misinformed and unscientific point, but that is the power of sycophancy. Jim Jones only killed a few hundred people. Donald Trump is finally the best at something.

September 12, 2021

President John F. Kennedy famously asked in his inauguration speech, “Don’t ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” This simple statement motivated an entire generation to volunteer for the Peace Corps and other similar organizations. Kennedy’s speech offered Americans a choice. Now, our current President is saying something similar, but people don’t have to make a choice. With his six point plan to fight COVID, he is saying, “This is what your country will do for you. What will you do for your country?” We will provide the vaccine for free. All you have to do is take it. Unfortunately, we are deeply divided on this issue that Donald Trump injected into the mainstream.

There are many theories about what caused the fall of the Roman Empire. It’s borders became indefensible. It’s resources were spread too thin. There was lead in the wine goblets. I think a more accurate description was that there was a gradual erosion of democratic norms that led to a dissolution of civic-mindedness, and an increase in violence and intimidation. The Roman Senate, riddled with corruption, stopped responding to the will of the people, and leaders threatened physical violence against their political enemies. Public service was no longer seen as an honor. Consensus was rare. Income inequality became worse. Leaders set themselves up as dictators. Internecine war ensued.

It is a slippery slope. We should all be concerned when a large percentage of the population is more concerned with its misguided sense that individual liberties are being eroded than it is with the common good. When this happens, institutions begin to crumble, and it becomes every man for himself. This is what will lead to the Fall of Home.

September 7, 2021

I teach Sunday school for the Catholic church, but I am being muzzled by the powers that be (no, not that one), who don’t want me to talk about the sometimes sordid history of the church. I am not trying to turn Catholics against each other, or trying to tell young, Catholic students that they should feel shame. I just think that a more complete understanding of the history of the Catholic church is necessary for moving forward. Netflix had a very successful mini-series on the Medici, which looked at the many atrocities committed by the Popes during the Renaissance. These atrocities included murder, sex, and corruption. This series was so successful that it was followed by “The Borgias.” You can read about it in Paul Strathern’s book, “The Medici” as well as in many others. In Dante’s “Inferno,” there is a special ring in hell for the sacrilegious Popes. The book, “God’s Bankers,” details the Vatican’s complicity with the Nazis during WW II. The Church has a very complicated past.

More recently, the Catholic Church has been plagued by pedophile priests, and the subsequent coverups. There is no “Altar Boys Matter” coalition, but maybe there should be. There are systemic issues that lead to these terrible outcomes. You can’t ban history. The challenge is to discuss and understand it with context, and try not repeat it.

September 1, 2021

The seemingly forever war versus the Taliban in Afghanistan has come to an end, hopefully. We are all breathing a collective sigh of relief, but we still have to worry and care about the state of women’s rights and the plight of women…in Texas. We have a lot to worry about from the Texas Taliban. A slim majority of middle-aged, white men have taken it upon themselves to abolish abortion after six weeks, not months, of pregnancy. They are even recruiting private citizens as vigilantes and bounty hunters to turn in anyone involved in procuring an “illegal” abortion. Pretty soon, women in Texas will have to cover their heads and faces with bandanas, and not because of COVID. This disease promises to spread faster than the delta variant to the swamps of Florida and Mississippi.

The United States can still apply economic pressure on the Taliban to make sure that their reign of terror is mitigated. They need money, and we have it. Corporate America should apply economic pressure on Texas. CEO’s should move their headquarters, subsidiaries, and distribution centers out of the state. Relocations should be off the table. Entertainers should cancel performance dates. There should be no tourism. We can remember the Alamo. We just don’t have to see it. Do not attend any events involving a Texas-based sports team. And can we all agree that the Dallas Cowboys are not America’s team?

Don’t mess with Texas? We have to mess with it because Texas is a mess.

September 1, 2021

“It’s All Been Done” is one of my favorite songs by the Bare Naked Ladies. It is the musical version of “there’s nothing new under the sun” from Ecclesiastes. That is how I feel about some of the great debates of our times. It’s all been settled except by right wing ideologues and conspiracy theorists, who refuse to recognize the truth and reality.

Fires ravaging Lake Tahoe, hurricanes savaging New Orleans, and the United Nations issuing a “red alert” have settled debates about climate. The debate is over, it’s done. If you are still a denier, it is probably because of the poison you are consuming on social media.

660,000 dead from COVID, including three conservative, unvaccinated talk show hosts, surging hospitalizations amongst the unvaccinated, and Cam Newton being released by the Patriots, settles the argument. It’s over; it’s done. Vaccinations are safe good, and necessary. If you are willing to die to make a ridiculous point, it is because you are poisoning yourself with social media.

Trump tried to overturn the election, and fomented the January 6th attack. As he would say, everyone knows it. He’s being sued along with Rudy Giuliano, Sidney Powell, the Pillow guy, and many others. The verdicts are in. They are all guilty. It’s over; it’s done. If you don’t or won’t believe that, it is because you are choking to death on the poison available on social media.

It’s all been done. It’s over. There is really not much else to talk or write about. Common sense and science have prevailed. The only conversations we should be having now are about how to mitigate climate change, how to get more shots in arms, and how to bring people to justice for January 6th.

August 26, 2021

For years, friend and relatives would give me books about golf for Christmas. People know I play golf so they assumed I wanted to read about it. I received books on golf history, instruction, jokes, architecture and more. I got several coffee table books full of wonderful pictures of golf courses from all over the world. The thing is, however, that I really don’t like books about golf. There are some good ones, but, in general, I find the subject of golf to be somewhat boring.

Which brings me to the internet. You click on one article about golf, and then you get deluged with links to thousands of golf articles. I clicked on a link about cats and dogs together, and now that is all I get. I am sick of busking and flash mobs. NPR wants me to fill out something so it can curate my newsfeed. This is not a revelation, but we are all driven to look at stuff that we have already looked at. The internet doesn’t educate, it perpetuates. The internet can be a great tool as long as you don’t allow it to make you its tool. I will curate my own stuff, thank you. However, those cat and dog videos are cute.

August 22, 2021

I am not a lawyer, nor did I attend law school. The closest I ever got was when I crashed a law school mixer as a college freshman. However, I did study Latin for five years, which helps in doing crossword puzzles and understanding what a quid pro quo is. Which brings me to de facto segregation. De facto means in reality. De facto segregation is racial, ethnic, or other segregation without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate. In other words, de facto segregation just happens with no fingerprints left behind. It’s not premeditated, but it is passively mediated.

We are now seeing de facto segregation of voters resulting from the gerrymandering of Congressional districts. The Supreme Court says that it is okay as long as the fingerprints of segregationists are not readily discernible. If gerrymandering does not take into account race when district boundaries are drawn, then, ipso facto, it is not racial segregation even though the ultimate result is de facto racial segregation. You need George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door to prove malicious intent. The 2020 census promises to make things worse. Harvard-educated Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts would be envious. Mirabile dictu!

January 23, 2019

Infrastructure

Everyone agrees that we need to spend billions, if not trillions, of dollars on a massive infrastructure program. Roads, bridges, airports, and train service are decaying. Broad-band internet service lags many industrialized countries. I could go on. The political and financial problem is where is the money going to come from to pay for this program? Trump should have made this his top priority rather than focusing on repealing Obama care, and pushing through a huge corporate tax cut. I think many Republicans would agree. We are now living with the fallout. The federal deficit is growing, and the economy is slowing.

It seems to me that some of our most successful companies are the most dependent on public infrastructure. Amazon, like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, is fabulously successful. However, what happens when you order something from a company like Amazon? You place the order over the public internet. A worker, who either drove to work on public roads or took a train or subway to work, packages your order, and puts it on a truck. The truck travels on public highways, probably heading to a public airport. Once it arrives at its destination, it goes back on a truck, which goes back on public roads and over bridges until it gets to your home.

Given this scenario, I think it’s time to roll back the corporate tax cut, and get serious about infrastructure. The corporate tax cut has crowded out all other government initiatives, which is exactly what it was designed to do. Good luck to any company when it has to deal with potholes, unsafe bridges, slow and unreliable train service, and crowded airports.

August 9, 2021

As the climate change-stoked Dixie fires rage throughout California, the second most destructive wildfire of its kind in history, people choose to ignore the inevitable and obvious and hang on. They refuse to leave. As the pandemic rages throughout the South, people choose to ignore the obvious and inevitable and hang on. They refuse to get vaccinated. In both cases, the results will be tragic. These people are whistling Dixie, pun intended. They are engaging in unrealistic and hopeless fantasy. I was shocked by the story of an Arkansas nurse who lost both of her unvaccinated parents to COVID, and still refused to get vaccinated. These people are not just whistling Dixie. They are also whistling past the graveyard.

Just whistle while you work

And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place

So hum a merry tune

It won’t take long when there’s a song to help you set the pace

And as you sweep the room

Imagine that the broom is someone that you love

And soon you’ll find you’re dancing to the tune

When hearts are high the time will fly so whistle while you work