Category: Current Events

COVID PRISON

DECEMBER 3, 2021 – While driving (hacking and sneezing) to a Covid testing site yesterday, I listened to “Vaccination Nation” on Public Radio. Several experts discussed the Omicron variant and its anticipated effect. Amidst predictions came news that Omicron had just landed in Minnesota. My situation was a head-scratcher. I’d been “boostered” two weeks before …

THINKIN’ “THANKS”

NOVEMBER 25, 2021 – Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. First, its centerpiece is culinary abundance, and at the center of the centerpiece is a stuffed turkey, my favorite land-based food. Second, I enjoy the story of the Original Feast, which occurred exactly four centuries ago this year. However mythicized and romanticized, it’s a …

OUR HEIRS AS HIGHWAY ENGINEERS

NOVEMBER 20, 2021 – Posting a zinger-critique of America’s baggage seems no more useful than a fugitive analyzing tire pressure of an escape vehicle. Yet, ostrich antics won’t work either. Reality persists, watched or not. What do we do? What our species has always done: bequeath to youth. They will inherit the earth. They will …

CALL HIM A “SOCIALIST,” NOT “UN-AMERICAN”

NOVEMBER 16, 2021 – Doubtless, FoxHound infotainers are excoriating “socialist Democrats” and turncoat Republicans for having passed Biden’s “un-American,” “inflationary” infrastructure legislation “costing the taxpayer” over a trillion bucks. I see it differently. FIRST, it’s not $1.2 trillion. It’s only $550 million of additional money. That’s less than the $678 billion Americans spent on media …

OF FROGS . . . AND TOADS

NOVEMBER 13, 2021 – In despair yesterday evening, I read disturbing articles about the three big issues of our times: climate change, the pandemic, and crass threats of violence in rightwing American political rhetoric. And yes, I pled “guilty as charged” for having broken isolation from “breaking news.” (The relapse was temporary, I assure you.) …

VOTING AGAINST MYSELF

NOVEMBER 10, 2021 – Yesterday I sent a mail-in ballot for three seats on a corporate board. In my pre-evolution years I threw such ballots in the trash (the times having pre-dated recycling as well as evolution). Now “evolved,” I voted against myself . . . Four candidates are running for three seats. The incumbents …

TAX TALK, TAX ACT

OCTOBER 28, 2021 – I’m not a tax lawyer, but throughout my career I’ve had more than a passing brush with tax law. Currently, I’m working on a protracted deal with lots of “tax angles,” and to my consternation, the tax accountant I work with characterizes these angles as “complicated.” Over the years, I’ve developed …

“COULD” VS. “WILL”

OCTOBER 26, 2021 – In my latest plunge into the history of the French Revolution (Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan—see 10/20/21 post), I’m reminded of a factor I’d dismissed in previous study: climate change. Royal decadence, aristocratic privilege, and enduring feudalism became a powder keg. But what was the match that lit the …

LINKING WITH LiNK

OCTOBER 25, 2021 – Recently, my sister and brother-in-law attended a fund-raising dinner for LiNK. No, not Linkedin but Liberty in North Korea. They were so impressed by the people they encountered—and by the mission of LiNK—I thought the least I could do was call attention to this amazing organization. Founded in 2004 by mostly …

RENT CONTROL . . . CONTROL

OCTOBER 8, 2021 – Rent control has long been in vogue in “Big Blue” states like New York and California.  Now it’s up for consideration in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The shortage of affordable housing across urban America is a major problem, intersecting with companion issues, from racial inequality, income disparity, and access to transportation, …

THE DISMAL SCIENTIST

OCTOBER 4, 2021 – Traditional conservatives are quick to condemn big spending bills as “inflationary. Little sets their hair on fire faster than, “a trillion bucks.” Not all experts, however, think “a trillion bucks” are inflationary. Cathie Wood, whose Ark Investment Management fund has attracted billions of dollars, said recently on Bloomberg Wealth, “I truly …

“INTERESTING”

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 – When asked what he thought about democracy, Mahatma Gandhi purportedly said, “It’s an interesting idea.” Democracy has ample flaws to render it “interesting,” starting with . . . everyone gets to participate—including people who aren’t subscribers to democracy’s fundamental principle: power is derived from the consent of the governed, not from …

ENTROPY

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021 – Yesterday was the perfect lake day—nearly a full week into my break from “breaking news.” The weather was delicious—temps in the mid-70s, under cloudless skies, and a soft breeze out of the south tantalizing our imaginations. For the first time in two years we were joined by friends Ann and Ravi, …

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 – If you’re on the “normal” spectrum during most of your waking hours, the news over the past few years has doubtless left you “not so normal” on any objective scale of psychological conditions. The only antidote besides mind-altering substances is a hard break from “breaking news.” I’m 36 hours into cold-turkey …

AND LOOK AT US NOW

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 – On 9/11 I shared in the universal reaction to horror wrought by extreme misanthropes. Then came the “War on Terror”—a game for which we set the rules: 1. The game has no end; 2. No matter how many points we score, the other side wins by scoring once; and 3. The …

WHEN “THINGS GO SOUTH”

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 – Recently, in the outdoor seating of Boca Rica, a local Mexican restaurant popular for its authenticity, I heard a remarkable story. While ordering, I wore a bright blue, cloth mask bearing the slogan, Make America Intelligent Again. I’d been invited to lunch by W______, a retired banking client of mine, with …

GETTING THE STORY OUT

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021 – With Afghanistan dominating headlines lately, when was the last mention of Iraq, Syria or . . . Myanmar? Thanks to the persistent, courageous journalism of one Emily Fishbein, I read and thought about Myanmar quite a lot late on Tuesday. That’s when I received Jeff O’s email containing a link to …

HAVE WE LOST THE ART OF LIVING CIVILIZED?

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 – Out of respect for people’s privacy, I’ll refer to the lead characters of this post as “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D.” They are members of one big unhappy family that used to be happy. I am very well acquainted with each of them. The unhappiness that has descended upon them is …

THE (MSG-FREE) DREAM

AUGUST 28, 2021 – “Stay off the MSG,” our son Byron texted in response to a synopsis of my dream Thursday night. Years ago he would have been right. Whenever I ate lunch at the Nanking a block from my office tower in downtown Minneapolis, I experienced hallucinogenic dreams the following night—after my hands tingled …

FROM GREAT GAME TO END GAME

AUGUST 27, 2021 – As one of many, I’m following news reports and commentaries about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.  Much attention is on the moment; less focus on 20 years of failed policy. The ragged retreat is the bad fruit of long-lived failure. The more I read and listen, the more I scream, as …

A BILLION BUCKS

AUGUST 26, 2021 – Today’s headlines could drive any thinking person into a cave, protected from a world on fire and free from people obsessed with their individual freedom—to hell with the rest of us. To calm myself down, I decided to play an old mind game: What would I do with a billion bucks? …