Category: Uncategorized
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My apologies– a silly mistake
In my Memorial Day blog in the paragraph on leaving Afghanistan I made a shamefully careless mistake- I referred to our being in Afghanistan for 20 years but then exiting at the Airport in 2001–I am sure most of you realized I meant 2021(the other makes no sense)but I try to avoid this kind of…
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The Day to Say…..What?
Many of you will remember that there was once a great NPR show late Sat afternoons(5:00-7:00 PM ET, actually)know as “Prairie Home Companion.” It was hosted by the greatly talented Garrison Keillor who was more or less forced into retirement for a “relationship” with a colleague. Keillor was–is, he still entertains some–one of the great…
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Journey Through the Mind– Maybe Elsewhere
“How to Change Your Mind–What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence” by Michael Pollan Copyright 2018 by Penguin Press Pollan is a Professor of Writing and Journalism at U-Cal Berkeley and at Harvard. He apparently is well grounded in psychology, pharmacology, social relations and several other things.…
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The Mideast Gets More Complicated
Ramadan, Easter and Passover usually come at about the same time and this year is no exception. Ironically, along with this complexity which vexes few people, there is another that may vex many, now or later. To the Israeli political gridlock I discussed in my previous post there has now been added the complication of…
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It’s a Dangerous World, Folks
My title will shock no one and seem quite frighteningly reasonable to anyone paying attention to world politics, the international type but also some of the domestic political conflicts. There seems to be trouble all over the place, Yes, I know that’ true pretty much all the time, but it does look worse to me…
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Foreign Policy conundrums
It must seem to the President that every time he gets one thing settled and back to “normal”(whatever that would be in the White House)another crisis appears. Of course, that has likely been the case for every President since Teddy Roosevelt or maybe since George Washington. But Joe Biden has put great effort into dealing…
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Better Anne Lamott than never
OK, it’s not a very original or really humorous title. But anyway, here we go. I had originally decided to do three “Christmas books.” The first one which I was going to make no 3 seemed inappropriate, so I changed my mind. Two would do– then I noticed Anne Lamott’s “Almost Everything–Notes on Hope.” I…
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Does History Repeat?–Facts and Opinions
One of the best known quotes in the world(at least in the academic world, anyway) is “Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it.” This from the philosopher George Santayana and his 1905 work, “The Life of Reason.” Others have said/written similar things, some better documented than others. In a 1948 speech to…
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Some last minute suggestions about those Christmas movies
I know this is_____ a bit late. I really feel one ought to watch Christmas movies before Christmas, as watching them after the day seems to take some of the fun out of it. But perhaps not everyone feels that way, and anyway we’ve got a couple of days to go here, so here goes.…
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Some Christmas(sort of)reading
Well, Thanksgiving is past and I’m not quite comfortable yet with doing something on the election, so I guess I’ll start my idea of some books you might read for Christmas–but not necessarily the ones mostly recommended, not necessarily ones clearly definable as Christmas books (Maybe I’ll try a blog on Christmas movies later) My…
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