Short piece

Lifetime

January 3, 2024

You’ve likely received notices from various sources offering a lifetime of service for a relatively small fee. A typical promo is a lifetime of a huge amount of online storage (about 10TB or more) for $50. By comparison, Dropbox sells 2TB/year for around $120. Hence, the offer appears too good to be true. Well, it […]

Error

December 19, 2023

She’s been my lifelong companion. Never left my side for a nanosecond. I’m using the feminine just by default. Like the supreme being, error and gender are as unrelated as ham and gefilte fish. She doesn’t just afflict humans or other animate objects – she suffuses the universe and her basic nature is more mysterious […]

The Meaning of Life

December 8, 2023

Humans, at least since the time of the ancient Israelites, and the Greeks more than 2000 years ago, have tried to figure out why we are here and what is our purpose in the vast Cosmos we inhabit seemingly with the significance of a single photon in the Milky Way. Well, after a life approaching […]

Long Division

August 13, 2023

Dividing by two isn’t very hard. But if the divisor is large the resultant halves will also be quite large. The disposition of large countries has never been homogeneous no matter the dense accretion of national myths. Typically, there is a degree of truth on either side of internal disagreements. It is rare for one […]

Governance

July 8, 2023

People today seem utterly unsatisfied with the government under which they live. The more tolerant or representative a government is, the more vehement the expression of dissatisfaction. This obvious dissent from what the government proposes or allows among the democracies may merely reflect what people are permitted compared to governments that are more repressive. No […]

No News

June 28, 2023

The title of this article is what’s available on the numerous TV outlets purporting to be purveyors of news. Their problem is time inflation. There just isn’t that much real news in comparison to the time devoted to its dissemination. The product delivered as “news” is largely devoid of content though enveloped in a sesquipidelian […]

Straws, Camels, and the United States

April 26, 2023

Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity and consume your own smoke with an extra draught of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaint. ——————————————William Osler —————————————————— In addition to the […]

Too Much Bread

January 31, 2023

Man does not live by it alone, but too much makes him obese. Not just physically fat, but mentally flabby as well. Until about the last 80 years the main human activity was devoted to survival. Hobbes famous declaration that in a state of nature – ie, one without government – life would be solitary, […]

Alma Mater Bans Language

December 25, 2022

Not to be outdone by the parvenu institution on the west coast (Stanford for those of you who are not au courant), my alma mater and that of my children has decided to go full frontal and has banned language. As a loyal alum, I can not name the institution as it no longer has […]

A Tale of Two and a Half Doctors

December 14, 2022

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it […]

California to Finish Vote Counting Before Any Other State

November 21, 2022

Wackos of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your minds. California’s Secretary of Election Returns, Sus Domesticus, declared today that the state would finish counting its votes before any of the other 49 states. Speaking to an audience of preschool students he went on to say “I effing guarantee it.” Not only […]

Anger

November 3, 2022

The intensity of a person’s anger is usually inversely proportional to his knowledge of his hostility’s source. You’ve likely noticed the superfluity of people angry over complex issues they’re sure they understand, but whose emotional overload overwhelms whatever capacity for reason they may possess. Hyperbolic anger seems to be at an all time high. This […]

Follow the Leader

October 20, 2022

It (progressivism) is rather as if a nurse had tried a rather bitter food for some years on a baby, and on discovering that it was not suitable, should not throw away the food and ask for a new food, but throw the baby out of window, and ask for a new baby. GK Chesterton […]

California Bans Breathing After 2035

October 2, 2022

The California state legislature just passed The Respiration Control Act banning breathing effective 2035. Introduced by San Francisco representative Twinkle Raspberry the state’s first trans-species legislator – they identifies as a hedgehog – the act will ban breathing effective 2035. Rep Raspberry explained that the gas exhaled by humans and other mammals is 4% to […]

Wisdom

September 22, 2022

Wisdom in an individual is hard to define. One almost has to resort to the Potter Stewart approach: I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it. Here’s a dictionary definition: “The soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.” Neither Stewart or […]