“How Could They Let This Happen?!”

Some few years back, I took advantage of my new “involuntarily retired” status to follow a lifelong dream to learn Russian.  I still don’t speak it fluently – it’s a tough language – but at least I can express myself grammatically. The language courses were augmented by cultural courses that were mandatory for Russian majors, [...]

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Boo. Hiss.

I live in New Hampshire, a state that every four years subjects Presidential candidates to a pretty thoroughgoing grilling concerning their stance on the issues of our times.  I’m not sure how we got this exalted status, but over the years we’ve become pretty savvy at picking front-runners; there’s a statement that sums it up, [...]

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Post-a-Day: I Protest!

“Have you ever protested for anything?” Finally, a topic I can respond to. Most of the last several have been, shall we say, “uninspiring.” In fact, in my callow youth, I did care enough about something to mount a picket line. Mind you, it didn’t do much good. We did everything by the book: Kept [...]

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Post-a-Day: The Geneticist Follies

Question: “What % of who and what you are is determined by genetics vs your own choices? Is it 50/50 or more or less of one? Or should there be three numbers: your genetics, how you were raised, and your own choices (33/33/33 or 10/40/50)?” The old Nature-vs.-Nurture debate. For what it’s worth, I think [...]

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Post-a-Day: Spaceballs

“Are you happy or sad the Space Shuttle is finished?” This is not something I would ever have dreamed I would say, but — I’m happy.  So happy. Probably most of my readers are more or less in my generation, so like me, they recall the initial excitement of the Space Age:  New worlds to [...]

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Post-a-Day: “If I Ruled the World…”

“What would you do differently if you were president or Prime Minister of your country for a day?” OK, maybe not the world.  Maybe just the USA.  Point is, one day wouldn’t do it. I’d want to put a stop to foreign aid.  All of it.  The countries that ostensibly need it, have had it [...]

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The Benefit of Benefits

Well, yes, I’ve been absent for a few days.  One reason is that I had that 24-hour bug that’s been making the rounds lately.  But the primary reason is that the more recent prompts for Post-a-Day have been either irrelevant or ridiculous.  ”If you could teleport yourself anywhere in the world…”?!?!  Beam me up, Scotty, [...]

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PostAday: Your Tax Dollars

The original Post-a-Day topic prompt read, “It’s time to vent,” and my first thought was, “You mean I haven’t been venting all these years?!”  For me, it’s always time to vent.  Sorry. A couple of days ago, I posted a comment about the State of the Union address, and ended it with the promise to [...]

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So, Would You Rather Be Stupid or Evil?

I once knew a college professor at one of the Ivy League colleges who had the distinction (among many, many distinctions) of being one of the few college professors in contemporary America to have escaped being a raving Socialist.  Nor was he a raving Conservative.  He had a flamboyant and very witty personality, spoke and [...]

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PostAday: “Tell Me the Truth, Ruth…”

“Is it always better to know the truth, even when it hurts?  Or is ignorance bliss?  Or are they both true some of the time?  Bonus twist: how does your opinion on truth jive with your opinion of wikileaks?” First a note about the title of this post, which some of my readers may recognize:  [...]

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