Blog

31 Jan 2024

What to do about the American Empire

The term "American Empire" has appeared in many left-liberal publications to describe the political structure and the imperialist intentions of the United States. They don't say much good about the U.S. Just out of curiosity, I decided to google "American Empire" to get the names of a few of the publications: [...]

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29 Jan 2024

The Enigmatic Noel Field

Years ago, when I lived in Greenville, South Carolina, I patronized the main library at the corner of North Academy and College Street. The same building now houses the Children's Museum of the Upstate. As I walked up the paved path over the front lawn to the entrance, an old man approached me and offered to tell me about the Bahá'i Faith. I said no politely and continued on. When I looked behind me, I saw that he had already greeted the next person, fifteen feet behind me, with the same spiel. I encountered him perhaps a half-dozen times at this location. [...]

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28 Jan 2024

A German Perspective of the White Malaise

Hardly a day goes by without media outlets mentioning inequality and racism in America, Dogs in illegal compounds are chained-up and suffer beatings and starvation. Tropical settlers burn more of the rain forest every day, and what are the Whites going to do about it? [...]

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26 Jan 2024

Making College a Mission-Possible

During college, we listened to Cheech and Chong's hilarious skit about "Dave" and "Man" doing a drug-deal late at night. Dave knocks on Man's door, and says, "Hey, Man, I got the stuff, let me in." From inside, Man calls out, "Who is it?" Dave repeats, "Man, it's Dave. Let me in. I got the stuff." After a long pause, Man replies, "Dave's not here." Dave yells to him, "Man, I'm Dave! Let me in!" "Who?" "It's Dave, Man! Let me in!" "Dave's not here." [...]

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19 Jan 2024

Facebook and the Nazis

Seeing so many posts on Facebook condemning the wealthy in the U.S., I decided to compare that to Nazi propaganda condemning the wealthy in Germany. They follow similar lines, like a loathing for Capitalism and a demonization of the wealthy. [...]

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18 Jan 2024

Politicians on their Best Behavior

George C. Wallace grew up in rural Clio, Alabama, in 1919. He realized early that he wanted a career in politics and moved gradually up the political chain of command until 1962, when he became governor of Alabama. He ran as a Democrat, or as a "Dixiecrat." Other prominent Dixiecrats included Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Senator John Stennis of Mississippi, and Senator Herman Talmadge of Georgia. They practiced segregationist policies, a law-and-order administration, and a strong military. In 1968, Wallace decided to run for President and started with the Democratic primary. Unfortunately, a would-be assassin Arthur Bremer gunned him down. Bremer's gunshots ended Wallace's presidential bid and crippled him for life. He never fully recovered from the shooting. [...]

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12 Jan 2024

Money at Work

First of all, smart, wealthy people do not hoard money. They put it to work by investing it. In fact, new business-owners commonly run into a problem when they neglect cash-flow. As soon as they make some money, they want to plow it back into the business; but when they need the money to cover a short-fall, they cannot access it. [...]

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08 Jan 2024

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is one of the modern marvels of the Western World. His firm SpaceX runs about half of all satellites orbitting the Earth. His firm Tesla has sold over a million electric vehicles—50% more than its closest rival. His Boring Company builds tunnels that route auto-traffic under urban areas like Las Vegas. [...]

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04 Jan 2024

How Well-Off is the U.S.? Some Facebook Opinions

I signed up with Facebook during the Lockdown of 2020, at first to create some publicity for my most recent book, Divide the Country!. Then I realized that I could keep up with old friends whom I will probably never see again, but still care about. Then I realized that Facebook also works as a sort of media-aggregate. Facebook-members around the globe publish personal accounts of events in their locales. They also upload videos and photographs; so why bother with TV when Facebook has it all? [...]

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02 Jan 2024

Brahms and Beethoven

I remember when I first became aware of music playing in my head during the Summer of 1974, when I attended Harvard Summer School—jogging with some guys along the bank of the Charles River. I kept hearing Santana's "Soul Sacrifice,"—the Woodstock version—keeping time with my strides. [...]

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29 Dec 2023

Orlando di Lasso and the Music of Royalty

The Belgian composer Orlando di Lasso was born Roland de Lassus in Mons, Belgium, in 1532. Like so many gifted Belgian musicians during that time, Lassus could write his own career-ticket. The Habsburg administrators in the Low Countries decided, if young Lassus had musical gifts, he must go to Italy to learn the trade. So Lassus spent much of his youth in Mantua studying music in the court of Ferdinand of Gonzaga, who had himself spent much of his youth in Spain serving as a page to the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Interaction between royals in different empires did happen, but mostly in the realm of art. As a young man, Lassus apprenticed at several churches in Italy. [...]

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25 Dec 2023

Lord Vinheteiro

The Lord's real name is Fabricio André Bernard di Paulo, and he was born in São Paolo, Brazil. His name sounds Italian. His ancestors may have been among the European immigrants who swept into Brazil in the late-nineteenth century—millions of them. The Lord regularly posts his piano-videos on YouTube, where I discovered him. I found him the way I have found other things on the Internet, by cruising sort of absent-mindedly. Before long, the Internet intuits things about me and guides me to the things that I want to watch. TV is so yesterday. . . [...]

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23 Dec 2023

Antiques Roadshow

First of all, few Americans know that the Public Broadcasting Corperation (PBS) basically pinched the format for the show from the British, who had their own Antiques Roadshow going long before the Americans started theirs; but my guess is that Britons prefer the American programme over their own original. The British show is too tepid and sedate for Americans. It also appears out of focus or "pre-exposed." Film-makers sometimes pre-expose film to wash out some of the color and give the images a somber or colorless tone. [...]

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21 Dec 2023

Man! What a Spread!

Years ago, a friend from college told me his home had had a fire. Hot coals tumbled out of the fire-place and set the rug on fire. Before anyone noticed it, two stuffed chairs caught fire, too, and they had a time putting it out. Soot from the fire, rather than the fire itself, caused most of the damage. The coals from the fire also burned holes in the wooden floor. I saw the aftermath and realized that his family had had a close call. My friend said his family ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to figure out what to do. [...]

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18 Dec 2023

From the Old Economy to the New Economy

I have an old friend in Greenville named Bill Gautsch. I speak German and recognized "Gautsch" as a German name. I also know that many Germans, and by extension, Americans of German descent, take their names from the professions that their ancestors practiced. A Gautscher in Medieval times participated in the manufacture of paper. John F. Goucher, founder of Goucher College in Maryland, descended from a German immigrant who gave his name to the immigration officer, and the officer spelled it phonetically on the immigration form. [...]

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15 Dec 2023

America and Brexit

Great Britain's withdrawal from the European Union--known widely as "Brexit'--occured not quite four years ago, 31st January 2020--beating the onset of Britain's Covid Lockdown by only a month and a half. Among other things, the Lockdown delayed Britain's effort to disentangle its association with the EU, and allowed the lingering protests over the Brexit decision to create a problematic aftermath. [...]

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06 Dec 2023

Barbour Clothing in Germany

During a Fall visit to Germany, perhaps ten years ago--and before I started carrying a lap-top and cell-phone, with which to keep myself informed--the weather suddenly turned cold, and I realized I needed warm clothes right away. I bought two sweaters, a coat, and a hat. Today, ten years later, I still have them. Of the four articles, I receive the most compliments for the hat, a so-called "cabby-cap." [...]

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04 Dec 2023

How to Increase the Entrepreneurism of Women

This article appeared in the Sunday edition of Die Welt on 26 November, in a special section titled "Better Future Conference." The article bears the title "Wachsen aus eigener Kraft," which translated into English means "Growth Through our own Efforts." The Conference's promoters wanted to discuss the ways and means to involve more women in business start-ups and ownership. [...]

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29 Nov 2023

The Course of Human Events

National Public Radio used to do its listeners a signal favor on 4th July. During the afternoon news program "All Things Considered," the staff would read aloud the Declaration of Independence, from beginning to end. It unsettled me to listen to it. Although the Declaration stands as one of the nation's defining documents, I realized I knew little about it--only that Thomas Jefferson wrote it, and the Founding Fathers co-signed it on July 4th. [...]

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27 Nov 2023

Democracy: a Terrible Form of Government

The 1965 TV show Slattery's People ,starring Richard Crenna, always opened with a voice-over: "Democracy is a very bad form of government. . . . All of the others are so much worse." Crenna played a local California politician struggling with the human and structural problems of guiding society from a state legislature. Slattery's People won praise for its realism, but it lost out in the rating's sweepstakes and disappeared forever after just a season and a half. [...]

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24 Nov 2023

Meet my New Friend/Lover

Consternation fills my heart every time I see a White man or woman pose with an animal--not with a lover, a spouse, or children. Humans should form deep attachments with other humans. You don't have to make a rule about it. Communication, mutual attraction--all those things work better with fellow humans, not with dumb animals; so we should gravitate naturally toward the humans. Animals can substitute only up to a point. That they have anyway suggests some kind of social dysfunction that has set in. [...]

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13 Nov 2023

The Failure of Independent Functioning

Years ago, when I was despondent over a failing relationship, I sought help from a licensed therapist. During our session, I couldn't help but notice that she had left a book on her desk, positioned just at the edge of my field of vision. It bore the title: I HATE YOU!—don't leave me. Understanding the Borderline Personality, by two doctor-types: Jerold Kreisman and Hal Straus. Curiously, I lacked the nerve, at that time, to ask the therapist about it. Did she want me to see it? [...]

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11 Nov 2023

My Thoughts on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

When the movie version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest appeared on the TV for the first time, some years after it had finished up in movie theatres, I watched it for perhaps ten minutes, then switched it off. I had already read the novel and knew the whole story by heart. I could picture scenes from it in my mind—like live-action dramas. I could hear, so to speak, the characters' voices. [...]

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09 Nov 2023

Re-examining The Little Drummer Girl

The American novelist John Grisham has said that he reads John le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl every year or two to revitalize his own writing. I am sure most writers have a favorite older writer they turn to for inspiration. That a successful writer like Grisham reads le Carré should serve notice to the reading public. [...]

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07 Nov 2023

The American Dictator Will Win in the Ballot Box

Americans don't have an informed sense about dictators—enough to save us from one, should he appear. They expect him to announce his intentions well in advance, which no dictator in his right mind would ever do. They expect him to introduce himself to the public with a mouthful of hate-speech, which is also unlikely. They also expect him to seize power in the tradition of a good-old street-fighting revolutionary; but why do that if he can stand for an election and win it the good-old democratic way? Winning the election gives him constitutional control of law-enforcement and the military services. It also avoids a lot of unnecessary bloodshed. [...]

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05 Nov 2023

The Problems of Deception Part 1

At a party, years ago, a friendly three-year-old asked me if I had a penis or a vagina. Her mother put her head in her hands, weak from embarrassment. Kids can say the darndest things, with no grasp of adult norms, pretense, or a political agenda—just wide-open wonder. At just three years of age, she had figured out that there are two sorts of people, male and female. [...]

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03 Nov 2023

The Problems of Deception Part 2

The history of contemporary cross-dressing must start with Bruce Jenner, who won the gold medal in the Decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Jenner became a household name in those days and joined other champion athletes of that era, like Mohammad Ali, Chris Evert Lloyd, and gymnist Mary Lou Retton, on the boxes of Wheaties breakfast-cereal. [...]

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01 Nov 2023

The Problems of Deception Part 3

Some time ago, a woman-friend who worked in a nearby office-building told me that, the day before, she had taken a break from work and gone to the ladies' room on her floor. As she sat in her stall, a tall person entered the stall next to hers, wearing huge red high heels--that pointed toward the stall, rather than away from it. She was married and knew it had to be a guy. She asked around and learned that the cross-dresser wasn't even on the right floor. He wanted some government department to pay for his sex-change operation. [...]

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29 Oct 2023

Aesop's Fables

Of course, I have heard about Aesop's Fables all my life, without knowing much about them. At the beginning of the new millenium, that changed. I read about a construction crew in my great-great-grandfather's hometown in Germany, Erfurt, that accidently dug up a treasure-trove from 1300 a.D. The construction workers turned it over to archeologists in Erfurt. [...]

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27 Oct 2023

Office-Holders

The political journalist Ronald Brownstein has worked for the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and the Atlantic magazine. In his career, he has covered a number of beats: the White House, the national scene, and political strategic planning. He published a well-received book The Second Civil War in 2007. [...]

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25 Oct 2023

Julian Assange: Politics in the Nursery

Julian Assange has attracted thousands of disaffected American well-wishers, who see his quest for truth and transparency as the antithesis to overly secretive American leadership. But the criticisms run deeper than simply a need for transparency. The disaffected Americans and Britons despise the everyday intentions and functions of their nations. [...]

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24 Oct 2023

The Motives of Julian Assange

Wikipedia's 32-page article on Julian Assange reports that he started his computer-hacking career at age 16, using the handle "Mendax". In 1991, cyber-security at Nortel, a tele-communications firm headquartered in Canada, caught up with Assange. The Australian Federal Police arrested him and charged him with 31 counts on hacking and related crimes. He had to pay a fine and a penalty, but was not jailed because of "his disrupted childhood." [...]

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20 Oct 2023

America's Foreign Relations

Maybe slowly but surely, Republicans are getting their brains around the limits of pluralism and the tolerance/diversity fraud. What the Democrats want in the way of a government should not interest Republicans, although we do suspect that whatever Republicans don't want, the Democrats do want. They define themselves principally by opposing us. [...]

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18 Oct 2023

The Only Trillionaire

Scanning my Facebook page on any given day, I can't miss how much left-wing Democrats and Socialists complain about billionaire business-people. Citing their power and influence, they treat the wealthy as hardly less than enemies of the people, stunting the poor and enslaving the workers. Conservative-Republicans, on the other hand, wish that more entrepreneurs could achieve great wealth and add a thousand more billionaires! [...]

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13 Oct 2023

Who is Anand Giridharadas?

I first came across Anand's name in an issue of Time magazine that featured his article on elitism as its cover-story. Once you see Anand, you can hardly miss his dark, hardened, resentful features, nor his salt-and-pepper pompadour. He is an American citizen with Indian parents. Wikipedia reported in its article on him that his visits to India gave him a new perspective about life, but he does not write about India's many problems. He saves all his hostility for this country, its wealthy, and the captitalist system. [...]

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09 Oct 2023

The Decision-time Grows Nearer.

Let us take stock of some recent stories from the mainstream media, reported by the on-line news-outlet, The Hill, which keeps track of all the networks. On October 6th, The Hill reported that Greg Gutfeld, a Fox News reporter, stated on his show that the United States needs a civil war in order to bring peace. Not surprisingly, other broadcasters expressed consternation over Gutfeld's wanting to incite violence, at such a time. [...]

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06 Oct 2023

De Tocqueville on Socialism

I have never thought of Socialism as anything but a swindle. Its pedlars promise a utopia on earth—fueled by the equality of all citizens—an end to economic oppression, a higher standard of living, and an era of good feeling, unlike any other. But study the details closely, and you wonder why in the hell anyone would want to live in such a place? Can humans make a living in the clouds? Can the clouds support their weight? Eastern Europe is still cleaning up the rubble from Socialism's last flirt with the clouds. [...]

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04 Oct 2023

Alexis de Tocqueville

I find Alexis de Tocqueville's name mentioned by a variety of Facebook bloggers, from the political Left as often as from the Right. De Tocqueville appeals to bloggers for the same reason that George Orwell does. Both have a reputation as maverick thinkers. The Wikipedia article on de Tocqueville states that "the complex and restless nature of his liberalism has led to contrasting interpretations and admirers across the political spectrum." [...]

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28 Sep 2023

A Special Teacher

I remember my childhood pretty well—a smug, indolent kid who spent long Summer days in front of a TV, munching on Butterfingers and Snickers bars, with few big ideas about anything. As time went on, wild hormones pushed me forward, more or less against my will. But hormones can only go so far in maturing a person. Something else has to defeat the child's passive-aggression and spur him to want something more. [...]

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26 Sep 2023

A Nation of Shopkeepers

After college, I started working. I lived fairly quietly for 18 months, worked hard, started a savings- account, and learned German in the evening from an old Austrian widow. I already knew I wanted to go to Europe, and I intended to stay there for a while. After 18 months, I felt I had saved enough and quit work. I flew to Frankfurt-Main Airport in Germany aboard a military charter and stayed with relatives in the military who lived near there. [...]

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23 Sep 2023

The Horrible Bret Easton Ellis

I found this article in the Sunday edition of Die Welt during my trip to Germany. The figure in the photo, Bret Easton Ellis, has published a number of celebrated novels and other works, but he is hardly your typical writer. In the photo, Ellis stares at the camera--and basically at the wider public--with controlled disdain. For the potential reader who sees it, the malevolent hauteur in his expression could not give his novels a better introduction. Just the subject matter and the presentation give me the creeps, so I have never tried to read one, nor have I seen any of the half-dozen or so movies derived from them. [...]

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15 Sep 2023

More Diversity!

This article appeared in the August 17th issue of Die Zeit newspaper, written by Hannah Schmidt, a free-lance music critic. In English, the title of her article means, "More diversity! More people of color! Less ignorance!" She addresses her concern about racism and discrimination at one of Germany's notable music competitions. At the end of the first paragraph, she asks the question, "Who makes the decisions about how and why a particular performer wins a prize, and does this system keep up with the changing times?" [...]

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13 Sep 2023

Participatory Democracy

During college, I took the introductory political science course from an instructor whose specialization was urban planning. During one class-session, he tried to explain to us the concept of "participatory democracy." I am sure I yawned a lot during his class, as I did during much of my college education, because I had so little sense of career-orientation. The instructor, as urban planner, considered participatory democracy a good concept, as the means to expedite solutions to urban problems. I consulted the Wikipedia article on "Participatory Democracy," which is also mostly favorable. [...]

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11 Sep 2023

Battered Republican Syndrome

Human-kind's various arenas reveal a lot about us, how we agree and disagree, how we respond to crises, or don't respond, how we provide solutions to problems, or don't provide them, and finally whether we fight cleanly or ruthlessly to the bitter end. History suggests that human-kind responds slowly to crises, if at all, or procrastinates, then overreacts. We don't like to disturb our routine, no matter the circumstances. We employ palliatives that allow us to remain in denial, that's about all. [...]

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08 Sep 2023

Marcus Garvey's Challenge

"Now is the chance for every Negro," Garvey writes, "toward a commercial, industrial standard that will make us comparable with the successful businessmen of other races. . . . All that Africa needs is proper education." At another point in his writings, he states, "If the Negro is inferior, why circumvent him? Why suppress his talent and initiative? Why rob him of his independent gifts?" [...]

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06 Sep 2023

So, what is this Booshwahzee?

Americans have heard this term "Bourgeois" all their lives. We look at it as a derogatory description of the smug, complacent middle-class, invented by Karl Marx. Anyone who has ever flirted with Marx's nutty national concepts of government ownership of the means of production knows the term and has parroted Marx's contempt for the bourgeois-class and its wealth-oriented value-system. [...]

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04 Sep 2023

Over-control

Former FBI-profiler John Douglas published his autobiography Mindhunter in 1995. It is irreverent as hell, so I knew I'd love it. He describes himself as a "blue-flamer," anxious to please his superiors. He also relates a few hard-edged college escapades that landed him in jail. He flouted authority during college, as often as he enforced it in his professional life. When his fiancee asked him to meet the priest scheduled to marry them, Douglas started running his mouth about meeting her in a topless lounge, where she danced with tassels over her nipples. When one of her tassels flew off, he happened to catch it and returned it to her. [...]

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01 Sep 2023

Has the Republican Party become the Steer Party

In his novel The Sun Also Rises, the writer Ernest Hemingway relates how Jake Barnes and Bill Gorton take a train to Pamplona, Spain, to watch a bull-fight. During the trip, Jake explains how workers load the bulls into a truck to take them to the bull-ring. The bulls don't like the workers messing with them and enter the truck ready to butt heads with anyone or anything. [...]

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28 Aug 2023

Things Kids Learn

Years ago, my parents put on a supper-party for close friends. Among them was an unmarried man, whom my father had known most of his life. He drank himself into oblivion and was obviously too drunk to drive himself home. Mother mentioned this to another guest who offered to take the drunk home as a passenger in his own car. His wife followed them and picked him up in the drunk man's driveway, after he had accompanied the drunk inside. [...]

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25 Aug 2023

Walking in Step

A blogger in London recorded this film-footage on his cell-phone for his Facebook page. It shows a real crowd of tourists crossing the Thames River over the Millenium Foot-bridge on its first day of operation. If you cross the foot-bridge from south to north, St. Paul'sCathedral will loom largely in the foreground. If you cross from north to south, you will see a replica of the old Globe Theatre in Stratford upon Avon, where William Shakespeare staged his plays. [...]

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21 Aug 2023

Marxist Celebrities

I have always voted Republican and have no use for Marxism, Soviet Socialism, or anything of that ilk. In a free-society, you can work as hard as you want and reap all the financial rewards, as long as you do it legally. With your earnings, you can also do anything you want, such as starting your own business. You can employ other people. You can look for outside capital and incorporate. It happens everyday in a free society; so wealth happens. [...]

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18 Aug 2023

The Masks We Wear

Over the years, I have watched The Mask, starring Jim Carrey, a dozen times, since it appeared in cinemas in 1994. In the beginning, I just laughed myself sick watching Carrey interact with his dog Milo. The scenes of him going through changes in personality and intention, when he put the mask on, fascinated me. He had to try to persuade a psychiatrist that the transformation was real, but the psychiatrist was buying it. [...]

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15 Aug 2023

Why Are They so Angry?

Parents have to tolerate the actions of children, when they whine about being denied something, or when they browbeat us: "How can you be so cruel to me!" The arguments turn into tantrums as they try to gain power against us. They fixate on getting more stuff, fighting off our attempts to distract them: "Cookies, Mommy!" "Allowance, Daddy!" day after day. [...]

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12 Aug 2023

Erfurt and the History of Capitalism

In 1993, my mother found a collection of old family letters in a shoe-box. She had studied German in school and recognized the peculiar "Gothic" script in most of the letters. She did not, however, speak German herself, so she handed them to me and asked me to translate them. I could not read the Gothic script at first, so I had to ask for help from German friends, and I was still working, so I had to steal time from work to translate the letters. As I read about my German ancestors, I knew I wanted to see Erfurt. [...]

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08 Aug 2023

Marxist Bots and Salon Bolshies

I have seen so much revived interest, enthusiasm, or enrapturement for Monolithic Communism in recent Facebook posts. They claim loyalty to Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or various left-wing groups, too numerous to mention. It is, of course, possible that these bloggers represent nothing more than various, government-financed bot-bloggers based in Russia and China, that have nothing to do with their various namesakes. If that is the case, Americans really must compliment their mastery of the American idiom. [...]

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04 Aug 2023

Angela Merkel

I think that the constitution of every country needs an amendment pertaining to the eligibility of its political candidates who run for the highest public office. To wit, eligible candidates must have a family—children. I believe this for two reasons. The leader has to see him or herself as a leader not just for the present but for posterity. The leader does not simply represent the nation to other nations of the world or act as arbiter and chief administrator, but also has a personal stake in the success of the country. The children hold the leader accountable as hostages to fortune. Their presence serves as parameter-setters for their parents' behavior and policy-making. [...]

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01 Aug 2023

Lake Summit

I can no longer remember when I visited Lake Summit for the first time, probably at the end of my high school years. My family went through Tuxedo, North Carolina, every Summer on our way to Flat Rock, just a few miles farther north on Highway 17. As the car climbed up the steep, widing highway, I could feel the transition to a lower-humidity, mountain climate. From the highway, we could see the expanse of the lake. I remember the clear, cold, bracing water of the lake, and the tall, majestic White Pines and Tulip Poplars that grew around it. [...]

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28 Jul 2023

Socialism Again?

An older friend once said to me that America's collective memory endures about twenty years, and then a new generation of events eclipses it and implants itself. The implosion of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall—the Marxist Last Supper—happened thirty-four years ago; so my guess is that few Americans today have enough recollection of those events to explain in detail how and why they happened. [...]

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26 Jul 2023

Left-wing Bot-Journalism

In 2016, I published a book titled Freedom is a Public Utility, in order to quantify "freedom" as a public resource—a source of power-creation in a human society—like oil, natural gas, or uranium. Albert Einstein once described progress as a product of "divine curiosity" and the "play instinct of the tinkering and brooding researcher." [...]

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24 Jul 2023

The Green Party Should Turn Red

I saw this article about Winfried Kretschmann in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper during my visit to Germany in June and July. In English, it means "In ttimes of crisis, we have to take risks." Kretschmann serves as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg—the equivalent of a governor in Germany—for the Green Party, Die Grünen. The Greens have represented themselves to the public for years as the party of the environment for its advocacy for the end of nuclear power, militarization, and the production of toxic garbage like plastic containers. [...]

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21 Jul 2023

Working Too Hard

I remember the time I was driving my mother somewhere and saw her glance out the window and wave at the son of a friend of hers. She looked wistful and said, "Isn't it a shame that D____ has to work in a clothing store?" Possibly she thought that D____ had had suffered a financial reverse and needed to work just to pay his bills. [...]

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20 Jul 2023

Analog vs. Digital

I stayed in Germany for three weeks in June and July. Night-time temperatures were as low as 52F. Day-time temperatures sometimes reached into the 90s. I usually eat breakfast at my hotel and look at newspapers. For some reason, several articles made comparisons between "anolog" devices and "digital" devices. [...]

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17 Jul 2023

Why Church Matters for a Writer

Years ago, I went to a literary symposium at Converse College to listen to some of the "Old Greats" of Southern fiction ramble on about their lives and defining influences. Historically poor as a result of the Civil War 1861-65, the South has overflowed with high-end literary talent. Most of the them, it seemed to me, grew up Episcopal or Catholic. I think I understand why. Both are "high-church," revelling in the holy mysteries of ritual and liturgy. I grew up Episcopal and learned first-hand an important lesson on this subject. Until 1979, we used the 1928 edition of The Book of Common Prayer (BCP). See below my Confirmation certificate and my personalized copy of the BCP, awarded to me after the service. After hearing the liturgy for years and years, I can recite much of it from memory. More importantly, I can hear it in my head. [...]

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14 Jul 2023

Free at Last?

If freedom in America only means that we have bonded out of jail for a little while, the hilarious pathos of it should concern you. If you quote the Reverend Martin Luther King in the context of bonding out—you only stay free until someone revokes your bail? Shouldn't Americans have more expectation of freedom than that? So we need a reality-check to ask ourselves if we even understand the terms of a freedom-loving society. Do we need to examine the requirements? [...]

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10 Jul 2023

The Dark Side of Life in Englewood

The rapper Lil Durk grew up in Englewood, a crime-ridden neighborhood of South Chicago. The Wikipedia article on Lil Durk describes his life as imbued with the culture of his neighborhood. During Durk's childhood, his father went to prison to serve a life-sentence for murder. His brother, other male relatives, and several rap associates have met violent deaths. [...]

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07 Jul 2023

Money and Determinism

I remember watching the movie Office Space, filmed in 1999 and directed by Mike Judge. In one scene, three totally pissed-off office workers walk onto an empty field with their baseball bats, ready to kill something. But they wear pressed shirts and ties for their jobs at a software company; so the only thing they kill is the hated office photo-copier. [...]

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05 Jul 2023

The Public Enemy Question

As a cultural dissident, I study a lot of what passes for art. Over the years, I have surveyed the angry defiance of Black Rap artists like Public Enemy and wonder to myself, "Why are we governing these people?" The videos of rap-songs like "By the Time I Get to Arizona," and "Shut 'em Down!" suggest a violent insurrection against the Whites. [...]

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30 Jun 2023

Soaking up Temple Guilt

The Reverend Jim Jones, pastor of the Peoples Temple and later demented leader of the Jonestown community, clearly had a few things wrong with him psychologically. When he entered a hospital for treatment of stress, chest pain, and insomnia, a consulting psychiatrist described him as "paranoid with delusions of grandeur." [...]

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28 Jun 2023

Crocodile Tears for the Boys

This article appeared in the New York Times on June 1st. It begins with the concerns of sociologists--"It's the problem that has too many names. 'Toxic masculinity'. 'The feminization of America'. 'The crisis of boys'. 'The end of men'. The state of manhood has become one more front in our culture wars, a debate that keeps breaking down along political lines." [...]

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25 Jun 2023

The Facebook Revolution

I joined Facebook during the Corona Lockdown of 2020 to help publicize my new web-site, which I started after publishing my last book Divide the Country that same year. It was a busy year with the shorter hours for shops, the vaccinations, (I have had four!) and the extended closures of government offices. The employees and tourists stayed home, and in that vacuum, the character of street-traffic in the downtown area altered, as roller-bladers, skateboarders, and cyclists took to the street, turning it into a post-apocalyptic, alternate-reality. [...]

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22 Jun 2023

The Politicians Failed Us on Jonestown

The history of Jim Jones, his Peoples Temple, and the settlement he started in Jonestown, Guyana, has interested me for some time. It happened in 1978, just a few years after I had finished college. At the time, I did not have a TV set, nor did I read any account of it in the newspapers. Jonestown the news-story came and went, and I mostly forgot about it. Work responsibilities in my first job and building new relationships were all I could handle. [...]

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16 Jun 2023

Jim Jones: a Leftist Prototype

I watched an episode of NBC's Dateline TV show recently, about the Reverend Jim Jones and the mass suicide, or murder, of his followers in South America in November, 1978. Jones had led the congregation of his Peoples Temple from Indianapolis to California, before allegations about his behavior drove him to leave the U.S. And relocate to Guyana in South America. Until the death of Jones and his followers, they all lived in a remote jungle location—very remote. [...]

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14 Jun 2023

The Enduring legacy of Jim Jones

At age 70, I finally realize that most people are attracted to someone who talks—guys, gays, girls, it doesn't matter. Mankind as a social animal wants to be talked to. The myth of the strong, silent type winning over a crowd does not hold water, in my experience. If you want my attention, you have to talk to me. If you talk to me, I will listen. I may not believe you; I may even hold you in a degree of contempt, but I will continue to listen. [...]

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11 Jun 2023

Sally Perel's Interesting Life

This article appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on February 5th, during my visit to Germany. It commemorates the amazing life of Sally Perel, who wasn born in Germany and died in Israel at age 97. First of all, Sally, pronounced "Zah-lee," is a guy, short for Salomon, and my reader can probably guess by now, his story concerns the life of a Jew in Germany during the Third Reich and the Holocaust. [...]

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09 Jun 2023

The Jewish Difference

The movie Europa Europa came out in 1990, about the Jewish boy, Salomon Perel, a German Jew who survived World War II and the Holocaust by passing himself off as a German—first, by joining the German Army, then by joining the Hitler Youth. He did it as a matter of survival, because to tell the other soldiers that he was in fact a Jew would have meant instant execution by men brainwashed to hate the Jews. When all this happened, Perel was just 16-years-old. [...]

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03 Jun 2023

Dissenting to the masquerade

I am a dissident to much that goes on in the modern society. I see entirely too much masquerading, and little self-evident intention. It has reached such a level that I consider the intentions deceptive. [...]

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02 Jun 2023

Dissenting to the Masquerade-2

Dwayne Wong (Omowale) posted the notice of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's 85th birthday. I knew nothing about Omowale, so I consulted his Amazon home-page. It states that he was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1991. [...]

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26 May 2023

Capital for Innovation

The title in English means "Billions for Innovation." The author, venture-captialist Klaus Hommels, warns Europeans that they have neglected investment for technological innovation and for start-ups. He reminds younger Germans that the "Wirtschaftswunder," the post-war reemergence of Germany, from the ruins of World War II into a modern super-power, depended heavily on capital-investment, to the tune of 4% of the nation's gross domestic product! Financing under the aegis of the Marshall Plan provided much of that initial financing. [...]

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23 May 2023

The Disruptive Dynamic

Professor Milon Friedman and his wife Rose worked as economists in their lifetimes and published Free to Choose, like a personal memoir, in 1980. As the book grew in popularity, Friedman filmed explanations for the themes of the book. My reader can view them on YouTube. Friedman features topics like "The Power of the Market" and "The Tyranny of Control." [...]

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20 May 2023

Triumph of Propaganda

Contemporary American leftists must believe that no one ever denounced Capitalism before they did; or maybe the denunciation of Capitalism by other groups does not interest them. Maybe they never studied capitalist attitudes in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. The leftists would demand to know "Denunciations of Capitalism by the Nazis? Impossible!" [...]

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18 May 2023

Entrepreneurs

Seeing the degree of ongoing character-assassination, day after day on Facebook, directed against America's outlier entrepreneurs, concerns me. In earlier times, people hated Steve Jobs and Bill Gates the say way; but entrepreneurs express our nation's freedom-loving character better than anything. With all the trash-talking going on, why does no one explain why millions of people all over the world use every trick in the book to gain entry into this country? [...]

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16 May 2023

Freedom to Choose

The phrase, "Freedom to Choose," defines more than anything the Republican ethos of governing a country. We like for a free-market to offer us stuff. We like to go in a grocery store, hardware store, computer store, and see rows and shelves loaded with merchandise—and we pay for it with money. The free-market exists in a state of constant, accelerated evolution. It has to evolve in order to keep up with, or outpace, the competition. Make it faster, better, and cheaper. [...]

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14 May 2023

Reason as Logic? Or Reason as Motive?

The late John le Carré published perhaps his greatest spy-novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1974. In Chapter 11, the elderly spy-hunter George Smiley announces to his friend Peter Guillam that he has been "sacked," or forcibly retired. Smiley and Guillam visit a pub in Wardour Street, then go to a wine-bar near the Charing Crosss Road. Guillam asks, "Did they give you a reason?" [...]

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12 May 2023

Movies on a Plane

I flew home from Germany on the 29th of May. I watched several movies, yawned a few times, then turned my attention to the movies that the other passengers watched. First of all, I was impressed at how violent their movie-choices were. When the plane landed, and we prepared to disembark, I had enough courage to ask two complete strangers the name of the movies that they had watched. They told me the names: Violent Night and Hell or High Water. [...]

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09 May 2023

The Role of Resentment

I always liked the film The Manchurian Candidate, released in 1962, about the assassination of a U.S. President; but when the actual assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy took place the next year, the producers of The Manchurian Candidate pulled it from cinemas, and I did not get to see it until years later. [...]

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07 May 2023

The Role of Resentment II

The Nazis have always interested me, for their ability to undermine German faith in representative government. The Nazi administration covered all the bases of a dictatorial leadership brilliantly, so that future dictators, and even Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin expressed their admiration of the Nazis. Heinrich Himmler covered the security for the Nazi-state brilliantly and ruthlessly; the "Führer," Hitler, directed military campaigns, while Joseph Goebbels distringuished himself as propaganda-chief, the manipulator of German public opinion. [...]

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05 May 2023

The Battle for Turf

Most people credit a strange New Yorker named Eugene Schiefferlin (1826-1906) for introducing Starlings and English Sparrows to the North American continent, where they have multiplied beyond comprehension and become urban pests. Schieffelin, himself an ornithologist, had no idea about the damage he had done. [...]

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27 Apr 2023

Overpopulation Case Study: Bangladesh

My first article about overpopulation, posted April 24th, concerned Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, situated on Africa's western coast. It appeared in 1987 in the German newspaper Die Zeit, authored by staff writer Ansgar Skriver. [...]

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24 Apr 2023

Overpopulation: the Build-up

This article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper from February 19th, 2023, shows how the population problems of the World finally get the attention they need, although adverse publicity toward the overpopulated countries will probably not make them amenable to solutions that involve intervention by the West. [...]

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21 Apr 2023

My Personal Path to Writer

By the early 1990s, I knew I didn't want to fool forever with real estate. I had put thousands of miles on my work-van; but after years of back-breaking work, and little to show for it, I knew I needed to make the transition to something else. I already spent more time writing than I should have; so I needed to make the transition to writer pretty soon. [...]

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18 Apr 2023

Dizzy Gillespie

I attended Trinity School in Columbus, Georgia, from kindergarten until graduation from the eighth grade. Like many private schools, it ran an uneven but inventive academic program. I really decided to become a writer there, because my seventh grade English teacher Paul Mulkey read stories to us by O. Henry, J. D. Salinger, and Ambrose Bierce. The stories made me think. [...]

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16 Apr 2023

The Mouse that Roared, a Review

The British movie The Mouse that Roared came out in 1959, and I still remember going to see it. I vaguely remembered the story about the tiny European Duchy of Fenwick, a principality like Monaco or Liechtenstein, invading the United States with an army of soldiers clad in Medieval chain-mail and carrying bows and arrows, but not much else. I remembered nothing about the reason for the invasion, or how the two nations resolved the conflict. [...]

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13 Apr 2023

Community versus Autonomy

This article appeared in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, February 25, 2018. The title, "Der Aufstand der Atome," translates to English as "The Revolt of the Atoms." The accompanying photograph shows a solitary man sitting in the shade at the edge of a city square. Like him, many Americans see themselves as atoms. The sub-titled text explains that government's intervening in the lives of citizens has superseded all other personal, local organizations, leaving Americans isolated and dependent on it. [...]

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10 Apr 2023

German Journalistic Photography

During my college-years at Furman University, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the library. Furman has had to struggle to keep important alumni from focusing only contributions for athletic programs, and to maintain the alumni's focus on academics and the education of young people, as the University's main goal; so for years, I have earmarked my yearly contributions for the use of the library only. [...]

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06 Apr 2023

German Newspaper Photos

If German-newspaper publishers obscured the text of their articles and revealed only photographs, the average American reader would not know what to make of them. German newspapers reaveal a consciousness of history. They take the reader back in time, so the reader knows where history has taken the nation. They keep us mindful of historical events and characters. [...]

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04 Apr 2023

Divide the U.S.

All right, so we know that we need to divide the country. What's holding us up? What are we afraid of? The answer is that informed people know that a revolution, a reformation, or reorganization all develop a momentum of their own. Once the revolution-bug bites, the virus infects the thinking of normally reasonable people. The German Reformation initiated by Martin Luther, for instance, led as often to visions of hell as it did to visions of heaven. [...]

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31 Mar 2023

How Long Do Republicans Wait?

Americans who vote Republican have to remember that, for people who work for the Republican Party, it's just a job. They may like their jobs. Mostly they prefer to keep their jobs. They may share the Republican sentiment for free-market principles and military readiness; but when someone like me comes along and suggests that Republicans petition for a nation of their own, they worry about things like job-redundancy and relocations more than they do about Democrat big-government and peacenik sell-out. [...]

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23 Mar 2023

Release Grand Ole Prometheus!

Left-wing trash-talking of the GOP represents a concerted campaign that should concern its leaders. The scathing rhetoric suggests that the trash-talking will not end until the Left can make the GOP the permanent minority-party, and silence or discredit its associated media-organs. Older Americans familiar with the Nazi-smearing of the Jews should note the similarities in the left-wing method. Neither the Republicans nor freedom-loving people of any stripe should ignore the potential threat that these smear-tactics represent. [...]

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21 Mar 2023

Republicans: a New Start

The Republican Party has a few tasks it needs to undertake. It needs to examine the philosophy it claims to represent and to take stock of its future, and stop thinking in terms of personal rivalries. We have more on the line than just choosing candidates and securing a victory in future elections. The GOP needs to regain a corporate sense-of-self. How can we move forward when we have deep doubts about the game, the rules, and not least the players? [...]

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17 Mar 2023

The Importance of Money

I attended college in the first-half of the 1970s. After years of prosperous times, America faced its first really serious financial crisis, caused by the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. The Arabs wanted to pressure the U.S. and Europe to drop their support of Israel; and when the two sides did not come to an agreement, the Arabs closed off deliveries of oil. [...]

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15 Mar 2023

Republicans Need their Own Country

Nothing expresses the angst of contemporary Republicans like this CNN article, published just a day or two ago. The first sentence says it all: "Republicans hold a dour outlook on the country. . . . Just 30% of all Republicans say the country's best days are still ahead of it." No doubt, their Party leaders have also read this article and surmise that Republicans mostly feel afraid. I wonder what their leaders will say about it. First step: give the voters some reassurance. [...]

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13 Mar 2023

Entrepreneurism in Nineteenth-Century Germany

In 1993, my mother told me that she had found a collection of letters in my grandmother's personal effects, perhaps five years after her death. Mother had studied German in school and knew that the letters were written in German. Since I speak German, she asked me to translate them. With the help of German-speaking friends, I did this. [...]

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10 Mar 2023

The Revolution is Already Here on Facebook.

One afternoon, I nearly laughed myself sick watching short-videos on Facebook. The first featured a singing donkey; the next, an hysterical, talking Emu; and finally a dog who talked like the donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) in Shrek. Other videos feature men in wing-suits, leaping from a cliff, accident-prone construction-workers, or chefs fixing steaks. Who wants to watch TV when you can look at Facebook? [...]

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06 Mar 2023

What is a conservative?

The article "Was ist Konservativ?" appeared in the Sunday edition of Die Welt on February 12. The words of the title resemble the English so closely, no one should have a problem translating them. Trying to define "Konservativ" as a socio-economic concept should take some time, which most of my readers don't have. If they try to listen to the experts define it, they might find that the experts themselves can't agree on any but the most fundamental statements. [...]

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04 Mar 2023

Humanitarian or Marxist?

Reading Wikipedia's article on Peter Kropotkin, I had to admire the author's clever use of Marxist euphemisms. He did not bother to think pink! Instead, he put a humanitarian halo over the Marxist tendency to nationalize industries and confiscate private-wealth in the name of the common-good. The Marxist, Robin-Hood principle of stealing other people's stuff, in order to squandor it in the public sector, makes wealth a non-renewable public resource. Once it's gone, it's gone! [...]

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03 Mar 2023

Evil Capitalists: History Repeats Itself

W. B. Yeats composed a poem in 1920, titled "The Second Coming," that contains many quotable lines. The following lines affect me that most: [...]

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27 Feb 2023

Want to Become a Flight Attendant?

This article, "Ein Stewardess muss schwimmen können," (A stewardess must know how to swim.) appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper on February 19th and took up two full pages, with the image of stewardesses in life-jackets simulating a plane-crash in water. It also shows simulated a kitchen fire, a flaming lap-top computer, and smoke in the cabin—all of them situations for which a stewardess must train. [...]

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25 Feb 2023

What Really Happened to the Class of '75? What really happens to any class. . .

Really, every college graduating class gets the same hype—new vistas, challenges, opportunities, and so on. Both the valedictorian and the guest speaker exhort the graduates to go out and conquer each new challenge. They make you feel like crusaders, as game-changers. It works until you try to get a job, find a place to live, and all that. The first challenges, then, make you feel like something less than special. So many less-educated people hate uppety college students. [...]

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23 Feb 2023

The White Rose Conspiracy Failed

This article appeared in the February 12 edition of Die Welt, published in its Geschichte, or History section. Translated, it means "Long live freedom!" The article recalls for Germans the conspiracy of students at the University of Munich during World War II, who secretly published anti-Nazi leaflets and scattered them everywhere—hundreds of leaflets. [...]

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21 Feb 2023

The Spit and Shit Terrorists

The title of this article from the February 14 issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper translates into English "The Tyranny of the Virtuous." I think the title is beautiful! It hardly needs an introduction. We all know about moralizers trying to boss around other people by browbeating them into submission, reproving them for their shortcomings, or accusing them. Every generation has to deal with moralizers. Christian moralizers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance spent lots of time admonishing and guilt-tripping other Christians for their shortcomings. Aside from Christian functions, they used these tactics to gain power over others and increase their standing. [...]

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20 Feb 2023

National Divisions: a Brief History

I will state my position at the outset. If the United States has already split apart, why try to hold it together? The divisions have demonstrated plainly irreconcilable differences. The U.S. needs to divide into three new countries. How much violence and intimidation do the citizens need to experience before they deal with the inevitable? Perhaps I can persuade my readers of the urgency of our present situation by offering an historic view of disunity and intimidation. [...]

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17 Feb 2023

Berlin's Polarized Voters

The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported on February 14 about the recent election for seats in the House of Representatives in Berlin, Germany. Berlin had held this same election in 2021, but the election experienced numerous logistical problems, so that the Constitutional Court had to intervene and declare it invalid. [...]

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15 Feb 2023

Working Overtime in Germany

The German newspaper Die Zeit ran an interesting article in its February 2nd edition, titled "Über Stunden," about working overtime in Germany. The article by Kim-Melina Bertram and Daniel Sander contains just a little text. It consists mostly of charts pertaining to the average German's work-week, whether he works full-time or part-time, at home or in an office, how closely his employer monitors his hours, and how much he actually puts in each week. Sticklers for uniformity, the average German works 40.5 hours--right at center of the European average. Critics judge the 40-hour work-week too long and push for a 38-hour week. Not surprisingly, the fiscally healthiest nations in Europe, Austria and Switzerland also have the longest work-weeks. [...]

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12 Feb 2023

War and Peace and Social Networks

The BBC mini-series production of Tolstoy's War and Peace wrapped up in 1972 and arrived in America in 1975, thanks to the Public Broadcasting System. Many viewers consider the mini-series very good because its extraordinary length, about eighteen hours, allowed it to develop the sub-plots, give the characters depth, and even to explore the characters' thoughts when they were alone. [...]

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08 Feb 2023

The Limitations of a Political Party

I had a crazy idea a few days ago: Hoist a Republican and a Democrat over a large sack, with holes cut into the bottom for two sets of legs, and set them down into the sack. The Republican will face Right; the Democrat Left. Have them take a step forward. I reckon they won't get far, trapped inside the sack. If they continue to step forward, one or both will fall down. Frustration will mount, and they will pull so hard against each other, they will start scuffling, as each tries--short of committing violence--to pull the other in his direction. [...]

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05 Feb 2023

The Prisoner Runs for Mayor

Maybe the War in Vietnam brought the Counterculture into existence. The War had cost the lives of Americans since early in the 1960s; and it just went on and on. More than that, the War led to doubts about the political status quo, the wisdom of our leaders, and the goals of their policies. Artistic types expressed their angst and skepticism in movies and TV shows of extremely variable quality. [...]

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31 Jan 2023

The Real Cost of Treason

Like a lot of Americans, I discovered John leCarré in 1980 when Public Television ran the BBC mini-series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I thought it was so good, I decided to read everything that leCarré wrote, starting with Tinker, Tailor, since the mini-series had given me a head-start on it, and I knew how it would end. [...]

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29 Jan 2023

Existential Angst-Personal and Political

Let's face it. Most people live more or less perennially maxed-out. They have credit-card debt; they don't get enough sleep; they're on the hook to so many other people; so they cannot sleep anyway. The explanation for that kind of behavior? Go for the gusto! Apologize for nothing! Why bother to live, if you don't try to have your cake and eat it, too? [...]

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27 Jan 2023

Susan Pinker, Author of Sexual Paradox

One day, years ago, during a visit with my parents, they showed me a long thank-you letter written to them by their five-year-old granddaughter, my brother's child. Lo and behold, she had written it backwards! I literally had to hold the letter in front of a mirror to read it. I could hardly believe my eyes! [...]

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23 Jan 2023

John leCarré: Call for the Dead quotes

I started reading everything by John leCarré after watching the 1979 mini-series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. His level of success varied, like any writer, but he turned out some of the best stuff I have ever read; and he did not just write outstandingly; he was also very quotable. [...]

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18 Jan 2023

The Debate Over Constitutional Originalism

I first saw a reference to "constitutional originalism" when it appeared on my Facebook home-page last year. Facebook Friends sent me posts from left-wing bloggers who complain that constitutional originalism limits the government's ability to assist the poor; it ensures that people with wealth will control people who are poor; and also it hinders social equality. One blogger sent me a review of a book published in 2011, titled Constitutional Originalism, a Debate, written by two American law professors with opposing views on it. [...]

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16 Jan 2023

False Reconciliation

Today is January 15, 2022. Glenn Beck posted this video on YouTube ten days ago, on January 5th. First of all, I think Beck looks terrible—his face puffed up from medications he takes for macular dystophy, an unnamed auto-immune disorder, and since last year, for his Covid illness. His ability to carry on despite his health problems deserves praise; but the problems clearly hinder his critical thinking. [...]

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14 Jan 2023

Pluralists versus the Zealots

I saw this article in the Wall Street Journal, published January 3rd, 2023, and written by Ben Sasse, a Republican United States Senator from Nebraska. Sasse's article occupies the top-half of the WSJ' opinion-page, while an opposing opinion-piece, written by Gerard Baker, the WSJ's former editor- in-chief, occupies the lower-half. [...]

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12 Jan 2023

Competing Ideas

Gerard Baker, former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal wrote an opinion piece on the same page as Senator Sasse's article. Gerard starts his article by stressing intentionality and positiveness. The start of the New Year, Bakcer writes, should give us "optimism, that timely annual infusion of resolve." But Gerard has passed the age of sixty now, "and the iron of realism has take up residence in the soul." [...]

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10 Jan 2023

Happy Singles

Anna-Elisa Jakob published an interesting article, "Danke, mir fehlt nichts," for the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine, October 22, 2022. Translated in context, the title means, "Thanks, I'm not lacking anything." The title and the subject-matter suggest that someone has asked a young woman, "Don't you dislike being single?" Is something wrong with young people, who don't want to get married? [...]

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06 Jan 2023

Sexual Alienation

Men take viagra to encourage and improve sexual performance. A doctor prescribes fitness-training as a cure for obesity. A therapist prescribes meditation or Tai Chi to improve job-performance and reduce stress. A dictator tightens his hold by propagandizing against his enemies; and if that doesn't do the trick, he subdues or even eliminates them. [...]

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04 Jan 2023

Life is Personal

I remember well the old Simon and Garfunkel song "Mrs. Robinson," which Paul Simon wrote for the movie The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols. He and Garfunkel also included the song on their 1968 album Bookends. Simon changed the name of his song from "Mrs. Roosevelt" to "Mrs. Robinson" to fit the movie's main character, played by Anne Bancroft. The third stanza of the song deals with bourgeois futility and ennui: [...]

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02 Jan 2023

Do You Want to be Included? The Drawbacks of an Inclusive Society

When I think about the modern America's preoccupation with"Inclusion," I think of the nightmare in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. Rodion Raskonikov dreams that a drunken peasant invites people to sit in a horse-drawn wagon, and takes a whip to the poor horse to make it pull the wagon. No matter how the horse struggles, the wagon barely budges. The cheeful, drunken peasant includes even more people in the wagon and beats the horse mercilessly for failing to pull them forward. The people in the wagon also mistreat the horse. "She'll fall in a minute, my friends!" the peasant shouts triumphantly. "That'll be the end of her!" With continued beatings and curses, the horse finally collapses and dies. [...]

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30 Dec 2022

Spam Before Computers

Most people today know the word "Spam" as a computer-term—the mass e-mailings that computer- users hate. Most users would love to unsubscribe themselves, but the spammers just keep sending the e-mails. I get between fifteen and twenty a day. Users call them "spam" because they are worse than useless. In a similar vein, Gary Larson published a "Far Side" cartoon about "Spamalopes," a specie of antelope that lions won't eat, even if they are hungry. [...]

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28 Dec 2022

The History of Chef Boyardee

My family grew up with Chef Boyardee. We saw his face on the wrapper of every can of spaghetti, ravioli, and beefaroni that we ate. We never associated him with a real person who had a real life. He was just a cartoon-like character in a toque blanche, about as real as Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck to a pre-teen. [...]

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26 Dec 2022

A New Life for Hostess Twinkies

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus went on record in 535 B.C. with the truism "Change is the only constant." Any educated person in this country has heard this a hundred times. No one pays it much attention to it—neither our partisan and petty-minded politicians, stodgy public-education officials, nor most of the population—with the result that the nation does not keep pace with changes in the world. If we want to criticize the "Establishment" for being out of touch, we really ought to start with the government. [...]

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24 Dec 2022

Strengthen yourself with dissent!

Strengthen your personal knowledge with some contrary ideas. Teach yourself to flirt with dissent. Keep your spiritual fontanel open. As you get older, the fontanel—the fibrous tissue that separates the bones that make up your skull—starts closing, never again to open. Before that happens, you need to cultivate the new ideas that normally do not fit in with your preconceptions. Look in the mirror and let the reflection play devil's-advocate to your point-of-view. At least, you can establish the foundation of a contrary culture, a counterweight that will defeat the blinders most Americans start wearing in their adult lives. [...]

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22 Dec 2022

Black Fragility: Why It's so Hard to Talk about Nationhood

The appearance of Robin DiAngelo's book White Fragility: Why it's so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism rankles a lot of Whites who feel they have created the greatest country on the planet. It has become a victim of its own popularity. A quarter of the World's population would like to settle here. They arrive no matter how hard we try to keep them out. [...]

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20 Dec 2022

How are American school-children performing?

This subject came up in a guest-article by Maurice Washington, Chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, and published in the Charleston Mercury for its October 2022 issue. Washington titled it "The Conversation We Can no Longer Ignore," meaning Democrats and Republicans have ignored the "Conversation" about failing school-children long enough. [...]

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16 Dec 2022

King Charles III

King Charles III visited my mother's hometown Charleston, South Carolina, just before his 29th birthday, in October, 1977, as the Prince of Wales. One day during his visit, Charles led a procession down Meeting Street accompanied by the leaders of Charleston's city-government and their respective entourages. [...]

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12 Dec 2022

Adrian Daub

The German writer Adrian Daub lives and works in the U.S. At this time, he serves as Professor for Comparative Literature at Stanford University in California. His latest book Cancel Culture Transfer came out in November of this year and has not yet received an English translation, so I have not seen it. His position at Stanford suggests aptitude on this subject, so I expect a translation soon. [...]

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08 Dec 2022

Mentoring Women

The above-article appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper on October 2nd of this year, translated loosely as "Don't fall into the woman's career-trap!" by the journalist Carolin Wilms. The sub-title reads "How can more women advance in the financial sector? [...]

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06 Dec 2022

Short history of Courthouse Square, Charleston SC

The Charleston County Courthouse at 83 Meeting Street started life in about 1790, replacing the previous building that burned in 1788, that had served as the South Carolina State House, just a year following the ratification of the young nation's Constitution. People interested in architecture can find similar buildings in Dublin, Ireland, and Chelmsford, Essex, UK. [...]

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03 Dec 2022

Julian Rappaport: Giving Socialism a New Spin

Julian Rappaport is only one of dozens of modern scholars who try to breathe life into the morabund socialist ideals of the nineteenth century. Such high-brow, quasi-psychological terminology to justify repressive government intervention in the daily life of Americans.In the insular environment of a university or safe networks like CNN and MSNBC, his ideas will likely go unchallenged. In an open marketplace for ideas, I hope someone has the courage to call this guy out. [...]

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01 Dec 2022

The Republican Party going forward

The Republican Party faces a number of challenges, moving forward. The Trump-camp will likely split from the mainstream-Party before the next election. Even without a split, the division in the Party and racor among its leaders do little to make the GOP look attractive to voters, and the polling numbers offer little encouragement. The party of the Silent Majority might move forward as the Silent-voter Party. The protest directed as much against the Party leadership, as against the Democrat opponent. [...]

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27 Nov 2022

How do you value yourself?

I saw this article in Die Welt am Sonntag during my visit to Germany in late September. I spent 24 nights in Germany, longer than I ever have. The weather started out fairly cold, then warmed to the mid-seventies before cooling off again. I spent long leisurely breakfasts reading newspapers to get their takes on current events in America and Europe, evolving social trends, and for their informed opinions about politics and the economy. [...]

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25 Nov 2022

Call for the Dead

I remember watching a British film, whose title I did not bother to learn, during the late 1960s, in my parents' home in Columbus, Georgia. Mostly, I remember the last scene where two old friends, who have become reluctant enemies during the Cold War, fight on a pier beside the Thames River in London. One man falls off the pier, and the river-current pushes an old barge over him, crushing him brutally against the pier. [...]

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22 Nov 2022

The Importance of Chess

My father turned me on to chess when I was just a boy. He and most of his friends had taken part in World War II, and he knew I read war-comics like Sergeant Rock, Johnny Cloud, the Navajo Ace, and Tank Commander Jeb Stuart, who talks to the ghost of his Confederate General ancestor—all published by DC Comics. [...]

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19 Nov 2022

Freedom for Women is Fragile

Dr. Marie-Luise Goldmann teaches in the Department of German Studies at New York University. Besides occasionally writing for newspapers, she also publishes high-end academic articles. Though their subjects vary widely, they mostly concern German-language literature: [...]

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16 Nov 2022

Wolf and Wanger

This article appeared in the Die Zeit newspaper during my visit to Germany in September and early October. It concerns three successul female writers in the former East Germany during the 1960s: Christa Wolf, Brigitte Reimann, and Maxie Wander. The photograph shows the crowded lunchroom at the factory where Brigitte Reimann worked, making charcoal briquettes. Not exactly the setting for a famous writer, where you would expect to see a nice desk and walls lined with books. [...]

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13 Nov 2022

Give More Nobel Prizes to Women!

The Die Zeit newspaper in Germany takes up an entire page to make the point, that the Nobel Prize winners in every category are predominantly white men: 947 white men versus 17 men of color and 59 women of any race. An obvious instance of sexism and racism, says the article, written by two women, Jelka Lerche and Alena Weil. The Nobel Prize selection committee selects prize-winners on an "einseitige," a one-sided, basis, that favors mostly males. [...]

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09 Nov 2022

The Evolution of New Yorker Cartoons

This cartoon came to me over my Facebook page, posted by the cartoonist herself, Teresa Parkhurst Burns, from the New Yorker magazine. It received the usual likes and comments from like-minded Facebook Friends. I studied the cartoon for a few minutes and realized, it wasn't funny. It will elicit anti-Republican titters but lacks the depth to hold a reader, who will then scroll on to look at other posts. Burns's cartoon stokes a reader's political convictions, rather than his sense of humor. [...]

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07 Nov 2022

Why the AfD?

Five years after the Berlin Wall came down—during the mid-90s, let's say—broadcasters in West Germany started asking their politicians some hard questions: "Have you visited the new provinces in the East?" [...]

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05 Nov 2022

Populism Makes Poor

Thanks to Donald Trump in America and the Alternative for Germany, the word "populism" has a new mostly negative application. Calling a politician a "populist" will never fail to rile him, if he is worth his salt. But the new attention has ironically obscured the meaning; so I went on-line to look up the meaning of "populism" on Wikipedia. As near as I can, it has not changed: [...]

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03 Nov 2022

Do You Know the AfD?

This photo of German politician Bernd Lucke makes an unfortunate impression on a viewer, inasmuch as he waits in the background, looking like a golf-ball that lands in the rough, while the white poodle prances past in the foreground. The photo reminds me of Bernd Lucke's political career. He was an economics professor who helped to found the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) political party—a protest party that split right-wing voters in Germany the same way Donald Trump split the Republican Party in the U.S. After infighting, Lucke lost his hold on the directional agenda of the AfD. He resigned to start his own political party, the Liberaler-Konservative Reformer, and almost disappeared from the political scene. [...]

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31 Oct 2022

Democracy Will Win! Won't It?

Frido Mann, the grandson of German writer Thomas Mann, bases this article on his father's own proclamations, delivered in the U.S. during war-time. Thomas Mann had written critically about Nazi-Germany since the mid-thirties, and he had a Jewish wife. Mann warned that the U.S. could only save the democratic nations of Europe if it dropped its isolationist stance and entered the war against the Nazis. [...]

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29 Oct 2022

A Nation on Paper

The nation of Tonga sits in the remote vastness of the South Pacific. It claims jurisdiction over 171 islands, of which perhaps 45 are inhabited. Many of the "islands" are hardly more than coral-reefs that remain submerged for part of the year. It is an odd location for a nation on paper—just to show that it can be done. [...]

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27 Oct 2022

German photo-journalists

Should newspaper journalism aspire to be an art-form? German journalists apparently believe they should—part informational digest, part geographical or sociological fact-machine, and add to that an intelligent, literary use of the language, they leave their American counterparts—so caught up in partisan politics—far behind. [...]

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17 Oct 2022

A 1 Horse-power vehicle

The Frankfurter Allgemeine published this image from 1973, which shows the effect of the Oil Embargo of that year, initiated by the OPEC nations against Western nations and America for their continued support of Israel. The Embargo crippled western economies for several years afterward. [...]

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12 Oct 2022

Revolution: Sometimes a Great Notion; Sometimes not so Great

Germany is an interesting country. That could sound bland or ironic, but Germany is an interesting country, and the more I learn about it, the more intriguing it becomes. In the 20th century, for example, Germany has shown breathtaking dynamism (1890-1914), at other times a horrendous cruelty (1933-1945), and always renewing itself, so that it has another go at life's challenges. Germany provides an almost exaggerated example of humanity's struggles with good and evil. [...]

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10 Oct 2022

Revolution, part II, Changing the Ground-rules

The above magazine article appeared in January 2020 in the monthly magazine of the City Archive (Stadtarchiv) of Erfurt, Germany, called Stadt und Geschichte, written by Dr. Horst Moritz, a local historian. As the official repository for government documents and correspondence, the archivists can speak with authority about historical events in Erfurt, and inferentially about most of Germany. [...]

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08 Oct 2022

Revolution, part III: The Ultimate Gamble

Our recent presidential candidates have faced unprecedented criticism: 1. Hillary Clinton, outwardly liberal, inwardly too tight with Wall Street operators; 2. Donald Trump, womanizer and all-around arrogant hard-ass with no tact and a take-no-prisoner attitude toward associates, as well as enemies; 3. Joe Biden, a confessed plagarist and dishonest self-promoter who faces declining mental-health; America needs better leadership than this, but we have to ask: who but amoral outliers wants to be President of the United States? Normal, decent Americans don't want the hassle of constant criticism and back-stabbing that characterize politics in our modern nation? As a result of all this, I have become, at heart, a revolutionary in regard to the future of my country. I want to launch a revolution, not to overwhelm my enemies, impose my will on others, or confiscate anyone's wealth and power, but to allow the opposing sides to function independently of each other. I want to do what the Founders did, step away from the oppression caused by the status quo and create a new nation that reaffirms the Founders' own intentions. [...]

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06 Oct 2022

Revolution, part IV: German Revolution, 1848

The American revolutionaries who penned newspaper articles during the Pre-War ferment, advocating independence, who signed onto documents that explained the reasons why they wanted independence, and finally who crowded into Constitutional Hall in Philadelphia during the hot Summer of 1787 to hammer out the structure of the new government, have endured their share of criticism from a number of sources. [...]

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04 Oct 2022

Spiritual Stasis in the West

This interesting article, Ökonomie und Versöhnung," by a Professor Nils Goldschmidt, appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper during my trip to Germany in July. It impressed me so much, I knew that I had to write about it and to recap its important points. The accompanying photograph shows sheltered, willowy young women dressed casually for a protest in the middle of a city-street, while police officers figure out what to do with them. [...]

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24 Sep 2022

Violence in the Real

This article appeared last July in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, by the newspaper's expert on hip-hop music, Florentin Schuhmacher. He regards gangsta-rap, and its sub-genre Drill, as a legitimate art-form. He can understand the reservations that law enforcement, parents, and teachers have toward music that glorifies gang-life, describes the rush of killing one's enemies, the pleasure of drugs—as a source of wealth—and demeaning women; but Schumacher also says the police cannot simply censor it. They must distinguish between art and criminal acts, shooings, and robberies. [...]

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21 Sep 2022

The Nehemiah Action Alliance Confronts Mayor Riley

This article appeared in the April 30. 2014 issue of the Charleston City Paper, one of Charleston, South Carolina's free newspapers, and described a meeting at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center, between the Nehemiah Action Alliance, led by a delegation of area religious figures, and the mayor of Charleston, Joseph P. Riley. The article reports that the delegation stepped into the "bully pulpit," against the mayor, "calling for social justice." [...]

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19 Sep 2022

The Rise and Fall of Sima Nan

I can no longer remember the first time I heard someone called a "two-faced hypocrite," or in what context the hypocrisy occured. Maybe we use the term "hypocrite" so often, it has lost gravitas as a personal stigma. In Christian circles, you hear that "Death has lost its sting." For whatever reason, hypocrisy has lost its sting, too. We need to dust off the old sins once in a while, to bring the sting back, to hold our leaders and fellow citizens to a stadard of behavior. [...]

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15 Sep 2022

The Results of Polar Bear Research Revisited

LIMITED-CIRCULATION NEWSLETTER, XMAS, 2006, from Lloyd: [...]

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13 Sep 2022

German Newspapers, part I

During my college years in the early-1970s, few figures in national politics stirred more controversy than Dr. Henry Kissinger. His presence in the Nixon and Ford administration carried more influence than any other official. His high-handedness made him plenty of enemies, but he accomplished so much during his tenure at the State Department and the National Security Agency. [...]

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11 Sep 2022

German Newspapers, part II

This article appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper during my visit to Germany last July. Just think of it. In some countries, people would rather sit in an outdoor cinema and just watch the ambient scenery, than sit through another damn movie. This particular outdoor cinema, perched on a mountainside, stands in the Tirolese Alps of northern Italy, near a tiny hamlet Vöran bei Lana, close to the Austrian border. Seriously, journalists and media-watchers have worried over the decline of movie-attendance since the onset of the Covid-epidemic in 2020 and the subsequent lockdown. The title of this article "Das war schon der Todeskuss" translates into English, "That Was the Kiss of Death," meaning the effect of the Corona pandemic on the German film industry. With the re-opening of cinemas, attendance has increased, but has a ways to go before it reaches the 2019 niveau. [...]

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07 Sep 2022

German Newspapers, part III

I grew up in a neighborhood full of children who were in and out of our house all day, so that none of the mothers locked their doors. We played games all day during the Summer and got our share of scrapes and bruises, but we grew up with a social consciousness—social in the sense of, or opposite to, a solitary consciousness. Baseball and football games were fun and sweet, even if they did not amount to much. Dad played football coach. My mother's cook worked as pitcher. If I feel an ease about dealing with people, it must grow out of my experience of growing up so socially. [...]

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29 Aug 2022

Caviar Gauche, part I

Among leftists and Marxists, the term "Caviar Gauche" or "Gauche Caviar" (translated literally as "Left-wing Caviar") denotes a measure of contempt toward wealthy people who affect a left-wing political stance, but live a life of wealth and leisure. Germans define the same personality as "Salon Bolschewist." The British use the term "Smoked-salmon Socialist." [...]

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24 Aug 2022

The Manchurian Candidate, part I

The Manchurian Candidate, published by Richard Condon in 1959, had a lot going for it. For one thing, it tells a very topical story for 1959, a conspiracy by Soviet and Chinese intelligence officers to steal the U.S. Presidential Election of 1960 and substitute their own safe-candidate to become the next President. [...]

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23 Aug 2022

The Manchurian Candidate, part II

Remaking older movies is nothing new. No sooner had the movie industry taken hold in the early 20th-century, producers and directors wanted remakes of existing movies. For detailed information about the business of remakes, consult Wikipedia's article. It actually runs in two parts, because so many movies have undergone remakes—A-M and N-Z. Examples include Seventh Heaven—made first in 1927, then again in 1937, and Back Street—made first in 1932, then again in 1941. [...]

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04 Aug 2022

The Stats on the NORC poll, June, 2022

A poll conducted in June of 2016 by NORC-AP asked American voters for their opinions about the upcoming Presidential Election, scheduled for November of that year. The results, published on the NORC website in August 2016 should not have surprised anyone, but I admit the data surprised me. NORC-AP reported that "Eighty percent of Americans say the country is greatly divided when it comes to the most important values, and 85 percent say the United States is increasingly divided by politics." [...]

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02 Aug 2022

The Malaise of Being White, part II

My Facebook correspondents rail a lot about narcissists and nacissism, and post trendy precepts by people like Maria Consiglio. That narcissism attracts so much attention and gets so many pithy put-downs suggests that the correspondents are clutching at straws after a failed fourth or fifth romance, and want to give up on it altogether. Narcissism has become the FB bête noire, since it evolved into a channel for the lovelorn; but the lovelorn need more input before they give up. [...]

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06 Jul 2022

A Glance Back at 2016

The U.S. Presidential Election of 2016 will not simply go down in history as its most contentious election; it may actually go down as the straw that broke the American camel's back. After the Election, articles appeared in major magazines and newspapers for the first time to introduce the idea of dividing the US. [...]

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01 Jul 2022

The Results of the Trump 2016 Election

For a moment, put everything you know about former President Donald Trump on the back shelf, and remember the most important thing that his presidency accomplished--something no other President has done. He revealed the level of division in the American public. He brought it to the forefront, revealing how the conflict stymies the nation's forward movement, gives it a zig-zagging sense of direction, and diminishes its ability to achieve its goals and solve its problems. [...]

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01 Jul 2022

My Suggestions to Americans

I am thinking in terms of two nations, now. These are my suggestions to the two political parties who have done so much to make a division inevitable. [...]

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27 Jun 2022

The Erfurt Synagogue Treasure

I am in Erfurt, Germany, again, my home-away-from-home. My Great-great-grandfather grew up here before going abroad about 1810, and finally settling in Charleston, South Carolina in about 1818. My mother found a bunch of his old family letters in an office-secretary, written by his father and his siblings still in Germany between 1812 and 1857. Among other things, I am impressed by Erfurt's long and complex history. During my very first visit in 1998, for instance, I read that a construction crew was clearing a site to prepare it for new buildings, and discovered a hoard of ancient artifacts hiding in the rubble. [...]

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26 Jun 2022

The American Grumblers

Over the last twenty or so years, the level of resentment in American society has risen to a dangerous, or at least dysfunctional level, leading to destabilization in the balance of world power. When I read about the Russian invasion of Ukraine or Chinese aggression toward Taiwan, I see it as the fruit of American disunity. [...]

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24 Jun 2022

Many Independent Centers of Power

As an American citizen, I prefer a government that permits and enables a freedom-loving, constitutionally-based society. I prefer it for one reason only--because it works better than anything else. It releases the energy, enthusiasm, and effort of thousands of people to build businesses and commercial networks to create wealth. A freedom-loving society releases man's potential. [...]

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23 Jun 2022

A Question of Power: Feminism in Contemporary Germany

An eleven-page article titled "Die Machtfrage" (in English, "A Question of Power,") appeared in Der Spiegel, the German news-magazine, on January 31, 2011. The authors of the article, Susanne Beyer and Claudia Voigt, interviewed a dozen women who hold important positions in the German government, in German media, or serve in organizations. All of them have just one thing on their minds--hiring quotas to enable women to get positions on the board of directors of German corporations. [...]

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22 Jun 2022

The Consequences of Intervention

As an American, I have watched as the court system fought a losing battle against quotas, and I have wondered why the people demanding these quotas don't create businesses of their own. The article's authors, Beyer and Voigt, complain that Der Spiegel employs only two female editors, among 28 male editors. But why can't Beyer and Voigt start their own magazine to benefit women readers? [...]

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19 Jun 2022

Feminism in Horror Movies

In the 1990s, with the proliferation of video-rental shops, I noticed changes in the format of horror movies, mostly caused by the emergence of lady-cop types--young, attractive women who do not tolerate sexism from their male cohorts. [...]

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18 Jun 2022

Sexual Equality in East Germany

Anna Kaminsky, in her interesting book about the women who lived in East Germany, writes that East Germany really had no choice about enrolling women into its full-time work-force. The number of killed and wounded men, sidelined by World War II, meant that the women had to take up the slack. [...]

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17 Jun 2022

Feminism in East Germany

I don't know if any country attempted to introduce sexual equality before the 20th century. While feminist and suffragist organizations lobbied governments to allow women to vote, to get educations, start businesses, and advance in society, the first nation to actually make sexual equality an official priority was East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic. [...]

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16 Jun 2022

Feminism as Viewed by Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem, now 88-years-old, emerged as the most popular Feminist in the U.S. during the 1970s when I attended college--assuredly more popular than the egregiously unattractive Betty Friedan, who allegedly even beat up her husband, from time to time. [...]

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26 Apr 2022

The Legacy of Tupac Shakur

This image of Tupac Shakur appeared on my Facebook page recently, twenty-five years after his death in a drive-by ambush. His loyal fan-base keeps his memory alive through thick and thin—through the discrediting of gansta-rap and the "Thug-Life" that Tupac exemplified, and in spite of changes in musical preferences and the emergence of younger talent. [...]

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25 Apr 2022

Tupac-All Eyez on Me

This second image, essentially a graffito, also came to me over Facebook. "All Eyez on Me" might be Tupac's best-known rap. It may also have got him killed. The lyrics are loaded with obscenities, delivered in a sort of fury, I just thought, "Come on, buddy. Get off your high horse." But most of his listeners probably don't understand the song in context. Tupac delivers his sneering, vindictive rant toward people that he knows: [...]

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24 Apr 2022

The Death of Tupac

Late in the evening, September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was ambushed in a drive-by and shot four times. After several surgeries, Tupac finally died on the afternoon of September 13. The obituary in the German magazine Der Spiegel for Tupac did not mince words about his activities. [...]

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23 Apr 2022

The Guinness Book of Poisonous Quotes

I received The Guinness Book of Poisonous Quotes as a gift, some years ago. As an educated man and a writer, I recognize most of the people who provide the quotes, as well as the targets of their insults, and am surprised at the viciousness of feeling. [...]

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18 Apr 2022

Schröder, Merkel, and Putin

German leaders like Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Socialist predecessor Gerhard Schröder have come under fire, since Russian leader Vladimir Putin betrayed them, and forced them to share the responsibility for Putin's forces invading the Ukraine. The invasions started during my last visit to Germany, although Germany only felt the full effect of the economic sanctions against Russia after I left. But informed Germans had already started worrying about the ripple-effect of the War and the sanctions—primarily the availability of fuel for transportation and residential heating, and a shortfall of cereal grains for food-production, livestock feed, and so on. [...]

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17 Apr 2022

The Hiss Case After Putin

Film-critic Fox Butterfield writes in the New York Times, "Concealed Enemies does not provide any pat answers to whether Mr. Hiss was guilty or whether his accuser Whittaker Chambers framed him." [...]

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16 Apr 2022

Perjury: the Hiss-Chambers Case and the Truth about the Alger Hiss Case

The Congressional House Sub-committee for Un-American Activities, known as HUAC, conducted a public hearing into the sensational allegations of Whittaker Chambers, that a half-dozen important government officials had been members of the Communist Party in the 1930s. Led by the freshman congressman Richard Nixon, HUAC conducted a hostile, if not prosecutorial, interrogation of Hiss. Hiss, in his turn, behaved like a man on the witness-stand [...]

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