Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
FEBRUARY 14, 2025 – “It’s about another mile down the road,” said Cory, as we continued along Concord Boulevard south of the exit off I494. If I’d ever before driven down this route through an old and worn part of the Twin Cities, it was eons ago. Our destination was “1st Class Auto Sales” along …
FEBRUARY 13, 2025 – Many of us have been left to wonder: “What’s next—[e.g.] now that Co-President Trump and Defense Minister Hegseth have demonstrated they skipped the class in Basic Introductory Negotiations 101 [redundancy fully intended to underscore the point] by showing their cards to Putin before the game to sell Ukraine down the river …
FEBRUARY 12, 2025 – (Cont.) Now comes the third piece contributing to my “crisis of perception”: the Grand Dismantling of American government—conducted at breakneck speed with chainsaws and giant meat cleavers. The process is too deep, too broad, however, to examine fully in real time—or on this blog site. My readers—left, right and center—know the …
FEBRUARY 11, 2025 – (Cont.) Better than a year ago I expressed concern about how Trump 2.0 might unfold very differently from Trump 1.0. The latter was a clown circus starring Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, Don Jr., Eric and others, not to mention the Charlatan in Chief himself, along with dark wingmen such as Steve …
FEBRUARY 8, 2025 – Not to be overly dramatic, but for the second time in my life I’m experiencing what I’d characterize as a “personal crisis of perception.” That’s a rather vague description, I realize, for what could be cast more definitively as a “worldview crisis” or “big picture crisis.” In any event, my first …
FEBRUARY 2, 2025 – (Cont.) Now that we’ve seen what destructive disruption we’re in for under Trump 2.0, the question, of course, is “What do we do now?” To a large extent, how that question is answered depends on where we have skin in the game. Notice, not if we have skin in the game, …
FEBRUARY 1, 2025 – (Cont.) That is, if we think we know what’s happening in the world today (under current circumstances, this means right down to the hour), what’s likely to happen in future weeks, months, even years? Since November 5, and especially since January 20, the commentators I follow and the people with whom …
JANUARY 31, 2025 – At any moment in the course of human events, every member of society faces three basic big-picture questions: What’s happening? Based on what’s happening, what’s likely to happen in the future? How can and should one try to influence and adapt to what’s likely to happen? Since Trump’s inauguration, these three …
JANUARY 23, 2025 – When I heard Republican Senators respond to the president’s blanket pardon of the J6 violent offenders, I experienced a bizarre physiological reaction over which I had no control. It ambushed me as I stood in our kitchen, rinsing dishes headed for the dishwasher. Fortunately, I was standing over the sink, and …
JANUARY 18, 2025 – Recently, I watched a Netflix documentary about the mind-boggling effort to build, launch and deploy James Webb. Of course, I’m not referring to the second NASA administrator by that name but the largest telescope ever built (by earthlings) and named in honor of him. The documentary reminded me of what I’ve …
JANUARY 11, 2025 – The images of Armageddon coming out of southern California form a veritable horror film. For the time being, the apocalyptic movie diverts us from whatever else in the world would command our attention. Amidst the regular reports of the role of climate change in the disaster and finger-pointing at various levels …
DECEMBER 30, 2024 – President Jimmy Carter was such a nice guy, people said so long before he died at the ripe young age of 100. As people reflect on his exemplary life, I have a few memories of my own about him. The first was the mock Democratic Presidential Nominating Convention held at my …
DECEMBER 26, 2024 – ‘’Tis the season for the Middle East: the star over the manger in Bethlehem, in the case of Christians; the Maccabean Revolt, capture of Jerusalem and cleansing of the Second Temple and the miracle of the oil (think: lights of the menorah), in the case of Judaism. Unfortunately, every season “’tis …
DECEMBER 1, 2024 – Today we hiked across Central Park to the Met, where we wandered slowly through the special exhibition, Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350, featuring works of the very early Renaissance, Sienese artists Duccio (ca. 1250/60 – ca. 1318/19) (in the main), and Simone Martini, and brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. After …
OCTOBER 14, 2024 – Each of us might well say that by a certain age, we’re “concerned about the current direction of the country.” The more you see and experience of this land of ours—the third most populous in the world—the more chronic dysfunctionality you’ll notice. Because of this, we’re naturally likely to conclude that …
OCTOBER 7, 2024 – Today, of course, marks the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israelis, a beastly assault and hostage-taking operation that triggered the vengeful destruction of lives and property in Gaza in the latest cycle of violence between Israel and its enemies. Forever, it seems the best that American policy-makers can do is …
JULY 27, 2024 – We’re still at our Shangri-La on the shores of Grindstone Lake in northwest Wisconsin, and if you’ve followed my posts over the past few days, weeks, months, and now years, you know my attachment to this place. While I’m here I’m far more attuned to the dynamic beauty of our surroundings …
JULY 14, 2024 – Today I finished reading The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes, a British scholar with serious academic chops and credentials. He’s written no fewer than nine books on Russian and European history, which have been translated into 30 languages. Yet, as is so often the case among academics, Figes has his …
JUNE 15, 2024 – Today our household—our hosts and we visitors—strolled from our perch above local vales down to where the Pattaconk Brook flows through the center of the compact village center of Chester. Though beastly heat is predicted for coming days, today’s weather was as ideal as can be found on planet earth. Yards, …
JUNE 2, 2024 – In ancient times I was involved in a case concerning a prominent piece of real estate in downtown St. Paul[1]. For years the matter consumed a plurality, sometimes a majority, of my billable hours at the firm. Other lawyers with the pertinent client relationship that predated my hiring had reeled the …
APRIL 30, 2024 – I looked forward to writing today’s post. Having junked out on news reports about current events—everything from the war on Gaza to the college campus protests to the Hush Money Trial to what planet Bill Barr is on—I knew exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say …
DECEMBER 21, 2023 – Early this morning I’d wanted to address (here) the recent decision of the Colorado State Supreme Court on the question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the Duly Defeated from standing for election as president. To offer my two cents’ worth in any viable currency, however, I decided I’d need to …
DECEMBER 17, 2023 – I see a close parallel between certain team sports and the infinite spectrum of world problems. If the analogy doesn’t provide solutions, at least it allows reconciliation of chronic frustration against persistent reality. I start, though, with a team sport that’s not parallel to battling issues of civilization: basketball. Played at …
JULY 4, 2023 – In commemoration of Independence Day, today’s post breaks from my individual “inheritance” to celebrate our collective American inheritance. But in the mix of dazzling fireworks, condiment-loaded hot dogs, and liberal servings of potato salad, we should take a sober and sobering account of that inheritance. In my early school years, American …
MAY 17, 2023 – Apart from chronic environmental issues bearing down on the entire planet, the most acute potential crisis facing the world right now is the effect of Congressional failure to raise (or better yet, abolish) the artificial cap on U.S. Government debt. This is one of the dumbest of all wholly avoidable, self-inflicted …