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

August 8, 2021

Professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau contracted COVID and was sent home from The Olympics in Tokyo. Japan has not gained control of the pandemic so it is bewildering why a reasonably intelligent person would travel there unvaccinated. It cost him a chance at a gold medal (bad), he lost 5 to 10 pounds (good?), and he lost five miles per hour of swing speed (very bad). His specious and unsupported reasoning was that he didn’t want to deprive others of getting the vaccine. Unfortunately, golfers are not immune from the virus or stupidity. He might as well have said that his dog ate his homework. Clearly, he hasn’t done his homework.

I can’t wait for the FDA to grant full approval to the vaccines so we can get the next wave…of excuses for not getting vaccinated. “We can’t trust the government to deliver the mail so how can we trust it to deliver safe vaccines.” “I know this guy who knows a guy who had a bad reaction for a couple of hours.” “I am much too valuable at my non-essential job to take the time.” “I am going to wait until Donald Trump says it is okay.” “I will get vaccinated when Dr. Fauci says I don’t need to.” “Home schooling is terrific. Look at how I turned out.” “ I am waiting for a sign from God.” “Does anyone really know how the vaccine works?” And so on.

All these excuses point out how important it is to get the schools open. Golf courses have been open for a while.

July 27, 2021

Mississippi has some nerve. They are virtually last among the states (actually they rank 49th overall) in every category that means anything to its residents and their quality of life. They are near the bottom in education, healthcare, life expectancy, vaccination rates, personal income, infrastructure, economic opportunity and more. It was the only state to incorporate the Confederate flag into its own state flag. Those of us in the high tax states have to send money to Mississippi every year just to keep them solvent. They get $1.00 in Federal payments back for every $.85 they send to Washington, and they don’t even say thank you, y’all. Even the Ol’ Miss and Mississippi State football programs are losers.

With all of that, they have decided that what they really need to do is overturn Roe vs. Wade because that is what their problem is. Mississippi’s attorney general told the Supreme Court that Roe v. Wade was “egregiously wrong” and should be overturned as she urged the justices to allow a controversial law that bars most abortions after 15 weeks to go into effect. So the least productive and successful amongst us is trying to mandate how we lead our lives, and control the choices we make. There are a lot of things that Mississippi should be mandating, but eliminating abortion is not among them.

July 26, 2021

Achtung! Achtung! Don’t look know, but there are children in brown skirts going door-to-door trying to get you to eat cookies. Who knows what is in those cookies? Has anyone certified the cookies to be safe? And what are those young girls really up to? They promise to do their duty to both God and country, but whose God and which country? They probably want to take your Bibles, and give you the Koran or Torah in return. With all of their badges, they might be a paramilitary or terrorist organization.

The reality is we should all want to eat cookies. Cookies will make us all feel better. We should welcome the brown skirts into our homes (with another adult present), and try to understand what they are offering. There are several flavors of cookies, but they are all good. I urge all Americans to eat Girl Scout cookies. That is the one thing that we can all have in common. Cookies will bring us together.

July 23, 2021

I am part of a Zoom book group that gets together once a month to discuss aging and athleticism. We are engaged in trying to understand how the aging process affects athletic performance, and how to possibly mitigate some of its effects. We are not looking for the Holy Grail, and eternal life. We are just looking for ideas on how to shallow out the glide path. Unfortunately, there are thousands of studies that run the gamut from genetics and microbiology to personal observations. Conclusions are inconclusive. However, one concept that comes through very clearly is that older athletes are pushing the boundaries of what was once considered impossible.

We see it everywhere. Tom Brady is the poster child for exceptional performance at an “advanced” age. Phil Mickelson just became, at age 50, the oldest golfer to win a major golf tournament. Roger Federer is still competing at a high level. The average age of Olympic athletes is going up, not down. What is clear is that older athletes are able to compete longer by working out smarter and utilizing their experience.

Which brings me to Joe Biden. Joe Biden has been accused by the blame conservative media of “losing his fastball.” One letter writer claimed that he had no idea where he was. FYI. He is in the White House. Joe Biden is just doing what aging athletes have discovered. He prioritizes quality over quantity, and uses his experience to “read defenses” and make the right calls. As aging athletes have learned, it’s more important to remain fresh and avoid self-inflicted injury. Inexperienced Republicans should underestimate Joe Biden at their own peril. Tom Brady is still winning Super Bowls.