Whenever I hear the word “filibuster” I immediately think of Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” speaking to the point of exhaustion to prevent a vote on a bill. Mr. Smith was paying a personal price and the Senate was paying a price by not being able to perform any other activity as … More Paper filibusters, obstruction and the dysfunctional Senate
I was watching a recent broadcast that was reporting Obama’s approval rating was dropping because he hadn’t “fixed the economy” or ended the Afghanistan war. It made me think of the second law of thermodynamics that states the entropy of a system will increase until equilibrium is reached. Of course the second law was not … More Obama, Afghanistan and the second law of thermodynamics.
To be sure, I don’t consider this a particularity enlightened or profound observation. I just find it amusing. Sometimes political groups adopt litmus tests for the purpose of demonstrating acceptance of their particular philosophy. I find it interesting that in some cases the litmus test originated from a source diametrically opposed to their philosophy. … More Do you know the Pledge of Allegiance? Are you sure?
Clearly it is not my fault! As a human tendency to avoid accepting responsibility, scapegoating has a long history. One need look no further than Germany in the early 1930s for arguably the most nefarious example of blaming another group for one’s own circumstance. Were the Jews really responsible for the economic turmoil that provided … More Supply side transference of responsibility.
The undeniable conservative agenda of Fox News pushes their content out of the category of news into polarizing entertainment for those who share their beliefs. Fox News is indeed more accurately described as Faux News. They carry just enough legitimate news stories to give the appearance of news. Some are factual, some are blatantly false. … More The fuzzy line between news and entertainment
Big businesses, through their veils of incorporation, are designed to do one thing and one thing only: make a profit. Every activity performed by the corporate organization is geared toward maximizing this manna. Assigning human attributes to a corporation such as altruism, ethics or morality are erroneous. Although conceived by humans and composed of humans, … More Of moths and men: The personification of corporations
Sometimes it’s good to take a moment and reflect on topics that may give us pause and provide some perspective to the routine of our daily existence. Here a few orthogonal observations I have found interesting. Stellar nucleosynthesis, heavy elements and the human body Of the hundreds of known atoms on earth only the lightest … More Perspectives
When is the last time you called a residential land line? The way we communicate is changing daily and while these changes are recognized by some polling organizations, they are not being adequately addressed resulting in poll data that may not be representative. Without confidence in the representativeness of the sample it is not possible … More Polls: Land lines account for most survey responses but are they representative?
Even under the best of circumstances it is difficult to collect representative data from a limited sampling of the population. Legitimate organizations make an honest attempt but there are factions that, through ignorance or by design, so fully bastardize the process the resulting information is less than meaningful. We must be critical thinkers when it … More Things that make you look dumb: Citing bad poll data
As a society we have an insatiable hunger for information but when it comes to knowledge we seem to have an unwavering commitment to maintaining a perpetual low calorie diet. Our hunger for information is sated only by the most banal forms of entertainment. We are surrounded by hundreds of cable channels, hundreds of satellite … More Aristotle.. can you keep up with Kardashians?
Confronting Mediocrity 