OVER the years, I've come to know various governments like people, some friendly, some not so; some balanced, some not so; some greedy; some not so. Reflecting on our United States of America, I would have to characterize us as prickly, individualistic, not so balanced, and, with money seeming to be the new god and business the new religion, greedy without limit. But it's more than just that. It's easy to say that money and business under our capitalistic (ever increasing profit) approach res...

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SUBSCRIPTIONS are clearly the way the business of humanities is going. I say business, because thus far business has penetrated almost every aspect of our lives. I recall watching business invade medicine when I was in practice, attempting to turn my love of helping others to love of money. Later, I watched the same happen in education, culminating in the private “for profit” colleges and universities, where the love of truth, knowledge and wisdom languished secondary to love of money. I ...

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“THESE are the times that try men’s souls” – Thomas Paine. Divisiveness seems everywhere, encroaching everything everywhere, and with it a kind of intolerance and negativism. It’s always been easier to berate, criticize and destroy than to support, solve. create and build, or at least so it seems to me. Little is accomplished by divisiveness and its ultimate expression in destruction and death individually, through mass shootings or nationalistic war. On the other hand, discriminati...

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LIKE many other Americans, I thought deposing Donald Trump during last year’s presidential election would end the bitter decisiveness erupting in almost every sector of government, business, transportation, environment, medical care, education, even to the point of separating family members and impassively expression frustration through public shootings. Nope. I didn’t realize until recently how close we came to blurring the lines between Administration, Legislation and Courts, paving the...

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ACCORDING to Wikipedia, the common European adder or common viper, is a venomous snake that is extremely widespread and can be found throughout most of central and eastern Europe and as far as East Asia, so you can see that we’re not talking mathematics here. What we’re talking is talk. Conversation. Discussion. Dialog. Debate. In short, viperous praddle, intentionally so.

I’m not talking propaganda or prepared speeches, public or private. I’m talking more of intentional gossip that ...

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HAVING posted yesterday on the “solution” to a cupboard-“bare” market, in the process suggesting that the “market” and by extension, our economy (at least from a “market” perspective) is run by gamblers, I’ve come to wonder who’s in charge of it all: the economy, government, the world? Or is there no one at all sitting in the drivers seat?

I’ve always held that the key to anything human, is balance and qualified cooperation. The framers of our Constitution called it “...

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AS promised, today’s post follows on yesterdays. Talk is cheap as some would point out; action is something else altogether. Still, both come together in Plato’s famous (or infamous) REPUBLIC depending on your point of view. The 10-book “series” is is a Socratic dialogue, on justice, the just city-state, and the just human. According to Wikipedia, Socrates talks with various Athenians and foreigners about the meaning of justice and whether a just man is happier than an unjust one. In ...

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JUSTICE “is a concept on ethics and law that means that people behave in a way that is fair, equal and balanced for everyone,” according to simple.wikipedia.org. On the other hand, legally, justice can be be equally defined as, “n. 1) fairness. 2) moral rightness. 3) a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/ her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal” according to Law.com, an online “legal dictionary”. The whole idea of justice ca...

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LET’S face it: Information overload is here to stay. And much of it is spun, hoodwinked, tainted, biased or just plain untrue. I’m for a day — today — without any digital news. Nothing. Nada. And a little bit of nothing, I think, will go a long way to regaining my balance. My center. Especially in this unbalanced world. Think “The Qatsi Trilogy – Koyaanisqatsi/Powaqqatsi/Naqoyqatsi” (Hopi for “life out of balance”) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009D004MC. Then think THE EDG...

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YESTERDAY I posted on the dark side, so today, in the spirit of “Koyaanisqatsi” I want to restore balance by posting on the lighter, even brighter side. An odd adjective pair? Well, one of the weights on the other side of the balance from dark is light comedy. Aristotle supposedly defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average (where tragedy was an imitation of men better than the average) — (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy). Ha, ha! But I’m not talking satire, paro...

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ONE thing authoring THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859) has taught me is a new respect for astronomy, a hobby I’ve always been interested in, ignited further by the recent acquisition of a Skywatcher Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. There aren’t many nights in the Bay Area perfect for viewing planets, but tomorrow is a sure winner, with Venus exceptionally bright and a full moon eclipsed. Didn’t know about it? In any field of interest...

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It's becoming harder these days to find unbiased news. What used to be dry factual reporting seems to have swung to its counterpoint: interpretation and opinion. What's missing, in my opinion, is BALANCE. But by balance I don't mean the "mean." 

Good news reporting involves presenting the facts (to be interpreted in various ways by the viewer/listener) and meaning (as be interpreted in various ways by the preparer/broadcaster). "Weighting" the news based on popularity moves it into the realm o...
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Now there's a question worthy of a blog post!  Of course, it depends to some extent on one's age and socioeconomic status; if you "have" then the world's typically all right, if you "have not," it's typically not alright, perhaps seemingly even hostile or, yes, downright evil in some instances. I suspect the answer is far more subtile, however, irregardless of one's age or socioeconomic or political perspective. 

An experimental 1982 American film entitled "Koyaanisqatsi" took on this question...
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