Category Archives: Short piece
Carthage, Equity, and Henry Moseley
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th May 2021Scipio Aemilianus wept as he watched the final destruction of Carthage. Of course, he was the instrument that wrought the demise of that city. His tears came from the realization that everything is transitory; he could be sure that his city and country would one day suffer the same fate as the Punic Empire. We…
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Infrastructure Bill Offers Immortality
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd April 2021[A] man can die but once: we owe God a death… and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next. Shakespeare Henry IV: part 2 An intern working from home for the Lake Charles Courier and Ives Daily has discovered a hitherto neglected passage of the Infrastructure…
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Of Dogs and Socrates
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st March 2021Socrates stated that the unexamined life was not worth living when on trial for his life. Of course, he lost both. Let’s put the old Greek on hold for a while and consider the dog. Canis familiaris indisputably lives up to his reputation as man’s best friend. He seems effortlessly to possess all the qualities…
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On The Perils of Being Smart
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th March 2021First, you don’t have to be smart to realize how dangerous it may be. It’s easy to recognize a quality you may not possess. Also easy is the realization of why being smart may not be the smart way to go in today’s America. So what does it take to be smart? Getting a high…
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Chrome Paranoia
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th February 2021If you regularly use the Chrome browser, you recently may have noticed that clicking on certain news links yields a site not found or similar message. Clicking the link one or two times more gets you to the site. This, at least in my experience and that of some other users, is a new phenomenon….
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President Bans Vowels
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th February 2021A new presidential executive order that has been underreported by the press bans the use of vowels in all federal publications, by contractors who receive money from the US government, and by all US employees both in their private and official writings. The government printing office responded to the order by asking for a waiver…
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On Mediocrity
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd February 2021Some are born mediocre, others have it thrust upon them, while still others ooze into it. One does not have to be above average to recognize excellence in others. The honest mediocrity can define talent and make positive use of its products despite being ordinary himself. While there is an obvious price to near universal…
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The Ghost in the Machine – A Cautionary Tale
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th January 2021This article is almost a quarter of a century old. I wrote it for a print magazine and then published it here more than a decade ago. It’s buried in the site’s archives. I thought I’d give it fresh exposure and accordingly am resurrecting it. There’s a companion piece that I may also renew. It…
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The Case Against Children
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th January 2021Fertility rates are below replacement levels in every country in the developed world except Israel. While the leaders of these countries view this decline with alarm, it represents a logical response to the realities of the modern world. Below are a few reasons for this infertile phenomenon. My discussion is pertinent only to the modern…
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Happy New Year
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd January 2021A few thoughts to start the New Year. 2020 was an annus horribilis – the worst since 1968; a year that had riots, the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and a presidential election accompanied by civil unrest about as bad as the year just ended. COVID-19 appeared and kindled both the best…
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