I was on a Facebook thread recently questioning why kids should be *required* to learn cursive these days. I was casting around for an analogy to illustrate both the fact that cursive *could* have utility and acknowledging that in the third decade of the 21st century, it is an anachronism. One example is reading a […]
I’ve had several Iranian colleagues throughout my faculty career. Unsurprisingly, none were anti-American. Here’s an interview with Juan Cole and Mojtaba Mahdavi, two Middle East experts, on the current events in Iran. They discuss the politics in Iran and among the Iranian diaspora. Both Cole and Mahdavi point to the Netanyahu ambition of hegemony in […]
Review: “Breakneck” – The one-handed economist Dan Wang is a trenchant observer of the US and China. He was born in China but raised in Canada. He’s worked in the US and China as an adult, and he compares the culture of the two in this 2025 book. Wang’s big point is that US culture is […]
I see no reason to add to Joyce Vance’s piece; “Attacking the First Amendment on Repeat.” It is an excellent read. I subscribe to Joyce Vance’s Site: “Civil Discourse.” Nothing like casual threats to free speech on a Saturday morning in America. Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, saw Donald Trump’s Truth […]
I registered for the draft as a high school senior during the Vietnam war. At the time, you registered at 18, your lottery number was assigned at 19, and you were drafted at 20 if your number was low enough. In the event (a) my number was high enough that I wouldn’t get drafted and […]
Charts below are taken from Gas Buddy and cover one month (left) and six months (right) of pricing trends. As you can see, fuel prices were on a downward trend having hit a low in and around January 2026. Pricing had dropped ~ 40 cents per gallon. I can tell you similar did not occur […]
Our Republic is in great peril. The democracy so proudly brought forth hangs in the balance. The ever-so critical upcoming midterms won’t be Democrats vs. Republicans; they will be we the people vs. them, democracy vs. autocracy and fascism. Will be even more so if we make it to the 2028 elections (a huge if). […]
I am not so sure this war will last any longer than Trump and his dwarfs are in office. Once gone, someone will decide differently. I thought we gave up nation – building a decade or so back when! This not a place for the US to be except for an occasional cleanup in Aisle […]
Trump threatens Iran. I believe a 30-day window of an oil embargo just went out the window. At 8:50 yesterday morning, President Donald J. Trump posted on social media: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our […]
I was based in Cuba for about 9-10 months. It is not like there are hostilities between the Marines and Cuba. It was quiet duty. I was setting up land line communications for 20 posts and maintaining them day and night until they sent me some new-straight out of training privates. For a few months, […]