Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

In this morning’s newspaper I came across an article which I think has some bearing on my recent blog about Individual Worlds (7/31/2015). The idea that certain events can be analyzed into two different and opposite descriptions is called complementarity. For example, depending upon how a physicist is viewing light, it can be thought of either as a wave or as a stream of particles, and in some cases the idea also applies to the macro world. The article this morning was about literature teachers and their problems in reconciling Atticus Finch, the champion of justice in To Kill a Mockingbird, with Atticus Finch, the racist in Go Set a Watchman . Now that we know all about complementarity, it’s not difficult to resolve the dilemma. Atticus views the defense of Tom Robinson as a matter of justice vs. racism. It’s just wave (justice) vs. particle (racism). Although a racist, the young Atticus was first and foremost a believer in justice. Perhaps if he had been in his 70s wh...

Whenever I wanted to do what the crowd was doing, I would say to my mother, “But everybody’s doing it,” to which she would reply, “If everybody was jumping into a fire, would you jump in too?” But in this case, I figure my opinion is as good as that of most people, so I might as well put it out there. In fact, it may be a bit better, because I am calling it an opinion; most people consider their opinion to be a fact. So I am going to write about three news stories from 2013 that, in my opinion, have the potential to make profound changes in the way Americans look at the world.  1. Pope Francis – As usual, the new pope’s tenure is severely constrained by his age, therefore the amount of real change he can bring to the church is also limited. His proposal to change the emphasis of the church from personal morality to compassion and service is a good one, but already there is grumbling among the bishops and other hardliners. However, among the rank and file members, as well as n...

Rite (r ī t), n. Any customary observance or practice. (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary.) Rite, n. A religious or semi-religious ceremony fixed by law, precept or custom, with the essential oil of sincerity carefully squeezed out of it. (Ambrose Bierce – The Devil's dictionary.) The local newspaper recently announced that our district representative to Congress is scheduling a series of “town hall” meetings with his constituents in order to discuss his plans for creating jobs, and to listen to the participants' ideas on the subject. He holds these meetings several times throughout the year, so I feel justified in considering them “rites” under the first definition above, and it has been my experience that they also satisfy the second definition. His ideas for creating jobs are not really ideas - they are ideology: (1) cut taxes, particularly on higher income taxpayers, and (2) cut government spending. These are the same trite recommendations which he ma...

     The decision to raise the debt limit of the United States Government should be a no-brainer, but the idiots in Washington seem to be unable to rise to that level. When a person, organization, and especially a nation makes a promise to pay, one should be able to expect that promise to be kept. Is it asking too much to assume the United States will pay your government bond when it comes due?      I find it hard to see the difference between demanding concessions for keeping one's word, and someone who takes a hostage and demands money for a safe return - both are bandits! This whole thing reminds me of little boys holding a pissing contest behind the barn.      I know there are legitimate arguments concerning government revenues and expenditures, tax reforms, entitlements, discretionary items, jobs, recession, wars, and a host of other subjects, but whether or not to throw the government into default is not one of them. Mo...

     The numbers being bandied about in Washington these days are so big that most non-mathematicians, especially politicians, can't conceive of their magnitude. So let me see if I can give you some idea of what these guys are talking about.      There are thousands of web sites one can visit in order to visualize large numbers, but for my purpose I wish to focus on just one number: $10B. You can either do the arithmetic or take my word for it: this would be a stack of one-dollar bills approximately 678 miles high.      Now let this $10B be represented by a standard pack of playing cards. The question is: If we piled up packs of cards to the height of the Federal Budget (Note 1) , how many packs would we need? The answer is 345 packs, or a 17.4-foot-high stack! Keep in mind: each pack represents a 678-mile-high stack of one-dollar bills!      But of that 368 pack budget, 211 packs have been set aside as ...

     Of all the wise politicians (another oxymoron) in Washington, who do you think made the following remark: “Government has to start living within its means, just like families do. We have to cut the spending we can’t afford so we can put the economy on sounder footing, and give our businesses the confidence they need to grow and create jobs.”? Rep. John Boehner R-OH), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) or Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).      Although it could have been any of these, the quote is actually from President Obama's last weekend address to the nation. Apparently he was either joking, taken leave of his senses, or joined the Republican party. This is the same old gibberish the GOP has been mouthing since the days of Herbert Hoover. Let's look at these suggestions one at a time.      “Government has to start living within its means, just like families do.” The government is not a family – one excel...