News & Articles

Wisdom, Montana. Image from the National Library of Congress.

Neither birds nor angels sleep on their backs, or is it back.

Do we usually see it’s too late before it is too late?

Bad ideas are typically recognized too late.

How many do you know who see you in their own cracked and dirty glass?

Having nutty friends and silly ideas is often the case. Keeping those in check and balance is a trick too often missed.

My grandfather told me “Be stupid, like a fox.”

R. Bly counseled a young poet to “Do nothing, like a walnut tree.”

I’ve seen poets and painters alike diligently worshiping my porcelain god.

Dumb moves get dumber with repetition.

There is great risk in loaning a valued tool.

The circus comes to town with each election.

Was it a robust Viking who sought a woman with golden hair, silken skin and no tongue?

Much is said of a person being either too trusting or too suspicious, but even more is said if they are content with either disposition.

If some early humans hadn’t taken an enormous risk we’d today be grazing among cows.

Wading in shallow water keeps one safe from ticks while making leeches happy.

A truly awful stink: a skunk nailed to a corpse.

Those who reject disagreement want boring lives.

Having contrary views loses friends quicker than bad breath.

Don’t know about you, but folk in decent health wearing costly hairdos and wearing nice clothes with cell phone in hand don’t strike me as either refugees or oppressed.

A practical thing country boys learn early. Don’t pee uphill or into the wind.

The Ivy League stands above but not immune from practical sense.

If a mayor or official proposes policy for a foreign country they ought to live and be elected there.

A school system can rid itself of a superintendent with a bond resolution leading to successful project completion. The process is repeated with the next superintendent who needs a completed project for their resume. Thus buildings go up while learning declines.

Is a belief the same as religion?      

“At the time” is often belatedly added to “It was a good idea.”

“King Charles III raises awareness of common men’s health condition.” “Tunnels rigged with explosives containing hostages.” Recent examples of why teaching English needs be taken seriously.

US labor could endure one hit, but job loss (exporting or off-shoring), technologic replacement and cheap labor combine in a 1-2-3 knockout punch.

Heard long ago, but still apt. “The new morality sounds like the old immorality.”

In 1928 after leaving Atawapiskat R C North, who’d later teach at Stanford, claimed killing fifty+ mosquitoes in one swat. North was 12 but possibly had large hands.

I much dislike the need for impeachment, but even more detest its overuse.

Hope springs infernal.

If an immutable religious text requires and inspires destruction of all others does the result qualify as religious war? If that same text calls for universal compliance with its tenets what happens to diversity?

The surest, fastest way to find something you need but have mislaid is buy a replacement.

Only the dead know peace. The rest of us enjoy a more lively condition.

Claiming no religious belief leaves out what is believed in.

In general voting is democratic unless the vote is for no more voting.

Two powerful systems vie for global power. One is political, the other religious. In practice they amount to much the same thing.

If everyone was given a million dollars the price of food and lodging would immediately rise accordingly.

Prompted by large numbers of youth drownings a century ago the Red Cross along with Girl and Boy Scout programs emphasized learning to swim. Spared drowning, youth found other ways to cancel themselves.

Putting a cat in a cow shed won’t turn it into a milker.

It’s possible to see reparations as a revival of original sin but with a cash payout for those sinned against. Ironically, the sinner group making payment become a form of slave providing unearned benefits for others.

No person is illegal, but people do illegal things. Illegal alien refers to a person having illegally entered the US. Basic grammatical understanding is useful, except for those having something else in mind.

We humans frequently look at a thing and either don’t see it or decide to see it as something else. This, I think, is not a survival trait because not seeing the alligator or thinking it is a floating log is what the alligator wants.

I know a person who rejects religion because it has a violent past, but they support a politic with a violent present.

I wonder what progress has been made making (for one) the German language gender neutral.

The noble notion inspired during the French Revolution to bring harmony and peace to the globe has been a great success for arms manufacturers.

Why sugar coat it? Some people lived longer lives because I couldn’t think of ways slow and painful enough to kill them.

The lavish way some online sellers use free boxes and packing from the Post Office reminds me of an axiom. Don’t be too nice or overly generous because this encourages some to expect it and take advantage.

I see kindness not as the main course but as reward or dessert.

I’m not religiously observant, but find that those who most often object to “faith” know less of it than I do. However, I appreciate their efforts to target religious failings as a way to support their always entertaining beliefs.

Is the world as it is or as we think it is?

I wrote a rant then wisely thought better.

We all live in thought bubbles. Academics and experts think their bubbles are worthier, their farts smelling of flower glades.

Not long past after severe winds toppled many North Country trees, lakeshore cabin owners realized (belatedly I’d say) all that dead wood could burn. Horror and risk! Government to their wealthy rescue helped supply cabin fire pumps that sitt unused and unappreciated. In 2010 Haiti’s climate-related earthquake killed approx. 250,000.

Two relatively modern systems thrive on urbanism and mass society. It’s difficult to say whether capitalism or communism best exploits its population.