Current Events

Paying the Price for Being What You Used to Be

Don’t let prehistoric opinions define who you are today. I inadvertently took last week off. I have been engrossed in a book project and on Thursday of last week realized that I hadn’t written my weekly blog, which I have always posted on Wednesdays. Nobody noticed so I guess we all (make that all three of us) needed a week off. We have lost the opportunity to be spontaneous and misinformed, to learn and grow, to become [...]

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Why No News Isn’t Necessarily Good News

Casualty list of America’s daily and weekly newspapers grows. What’s the news across the nation? According to one highly informed source, the country is becoming an “expanding news desert.” It’s hard to believe when you can access breaking news any time of day, whether via cable news channels or internet websites. Not only can you get your news, but you can choose your kind of news, customized to fit your personal needs, beliefs and desires. And, as [...]

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It’s Getting Tougher to Say what We Mean

Is that your head or someone’s misshapen big toe? Just one letter can change meaning. The political landscape is getting crazier and crazier, but is it crazy in a good or a bad way? Are facts important to you— such as the things people actually do and say— or do we really have the option of alternate facts? How about the alternative of optional facts? My recent blog about the overwhelming evangelical support for President Trump was [...]

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Erasing Past Sins Distorts History’s Lessons

History teaches us that racial harmony extends beyond racial tolerance. It’s not that I’m a big fan of “Gone with the Wind,” which was, in my opinion, a chick flick before that expression became part of the national vocabulary. The movie came out in 1939, many years before some started inappropriately referring to women as chicks and movies as flicks. A quick Googling revealed the term “chick flick” first appeared in print in 1988. It didn’t take [...]

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Another Invisible Threat Complicating Our Lives

How much plastic are you ingesting? I’ve been doing a lot of research the past couple of weeks on quackery and consumer scams, mainly because there has been such a tremendous increase of such chicanery and it is keeping state attorneys general busy across the country. This outbreak has been triggered by the pandemic that as already changed our lives and will recast our future as a country and, sadly I think, hastening our exit from the [...]

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Selling Hope or Merchandising Miracles?

Talking heads and promises abound… The following fake report is brought to you as a public service by SYMIC— Stop Your Musing It’s Confusing. And now a few words from our stars in a recent comedy or drama, depending on what does or doesn’t make you laugh. President Trump at April 23rd Briefing: (Addressing his medical experts) …And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a [...]

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Trying to Stem an “Epidemic of Lying”

Staying ignorant of the truth is literally a no-brainer. We live in an epidemic of lying. Research shows that about 60 percent of adults lie at least once in a ten-minute conversation. About 40 percent lie on their resumes, and 90 percent lie on their online dating profiles. — Dr. Amit Sood, Director of Research, Mayo Clinic’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why people lie, and why some seem incapable [...]

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Laughing at Our Scary Clown Prince

Insult comic or harmless clown? Donald Trump has become the Clown Prince of American Politics. I’m talking about the entire history of American politics. This is a jester who elicits few laughs and, like the modern breed of clowns, is more scary than humorous. He looms in some of our nightmares as something out of a Stephen King novel. For others, his brand of humor is a confirmation of pent-up animosity, fear, frustration and intolerance that allows [...]

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