Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

      Today’s blog is an excerpt from my book, The Spirit Runs Through It , which is available through my  bookstore . The book is a discussion of “a spirit [that] is manifest in the laws of the universe.”       ―ALBERT EINSTEIN, The World As I See It.       That there are unseen actions behind visible events is a fact familiar to everyone. For example, we see leaves flying about and bushes shaking, and since we know that these events do not happen through the internal efforts of leaves or bushes, we attribute them to the action of the invisible wind.       Likewise, when we drop an object to the ground, we know that the object did not fall of its own accord; we say it fell because of the invisible “pull of gravity.”       Sometimes we even attribute a visible event to the action of an invisible entity when we know there is no invisible en...

      In his State of the Union address on Wednesday night, President Obama asked anyone with a health care plan that would cover all citizens, control costs, etc. to come to him; he wanted to hear from them.       I am guessing he will not get many suggestions from either side of the aisle. The Democrats and the President seem to be copying an early 20th century comic strip: Alphonse and Gaston, a pair of overly polite Frenchmen, whose "After you, Alphonse.", "No, you first, my dear Gaston!" routine entertained readers for more than a decade. Nobody seems to be in charge.       As for the Republicans, apparently the only plan they can think of consists of 2,000 pages covered with the word “No!”       Will the real leader please stand up?       Granted, any health care plan will be expensive, will probably cause doctors’ waiting rooms to overflow, at leas...

      Congress adopted The Star Spangled Banner as our national anthem in 1931, although it had been recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889. For most of the 19th century, Hail Columbia was used at official government functions, and My Country, ‘Tis Of Thee was also used prior to 1931.       Originally a poem written by Francis Scott Key after viewing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814, The Star Spangled Banner was later fitted to the melody of a drinking song written for The Anacreon, a men’s social club in London. The following are the words to the first of six verses comprising the Anacreontic Song: To Anacreon* in Heav'n, where he sat in full Glee, A few Sons of Harmony sent a Petition, That He their Inspirer and Patron wou'd be; When this Answer arriv'd from the jolly old Grecian, "Voice, Fiddle, and Flute, No longer be mute, I'll lend you my Name and inspire you to boot, And, besides, I'll instruct you li...

      In spite of the fact that we have been in a recession since early in 2008, it is apparent that the cost-of-living for post-youths has been increasing over this period. So why is my Social Security check less this year than it was last year?       Actually, the amount received for Social Security has not changed because of the way the Social Security Administration computes it, but the deduction for Medicare has increased.       In order to measure general price increases, the Bureau of Labor Statistics constructs an imaginary "market basket" of goods that an average family needs to lead an average life. The market basket includes specific items relating to housing, food, transportation, medical care ( not including health care premiums paid by the employer ), clothing, entertainment, education and communication. Currently, there are approximately 80,000 items in the "basket."     ...

      Republic : n. a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. (Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary.)       That sounds very much like what we are supposed to have in the United States. It is also in keeping with the response of Benjamin Franklin to the question asked by a Mrs. Powell on the last day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787: "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"       “A republic if you can keep it," responded a prescient Franklin.       In order to keep a republic, it is important to have a “body of citizens,” or electorate, that has access to all available information concerning any event to be decided by their representatives. The electorate need not be particularly sophisticated or super-intelligent – it just needs to be i...

      Last night Barbara and I watched the 1960 movie Inherit The Wind starring Spender Tracy, Fredric March and Gene Kelly. Although based on the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, names and some of the plot were changed somewhat from the original event. But we enjoyed it – as we expected, the acting was superb.       The original case was sparked by the ACLU, which wanted to test the constitutionality of the state’s Butler Act, which decreed "That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."       A further contention was that while the Butler Act prohibited the teaching of the ...

      Barbara and I just got back from lunch at a new restaurant with a busload of people from Luther Acres. It got me to thinking back over various adventures I have had while eating out. They were not all fun when they happened, but thinking about them now brings up a bunch of pleasant memories. I hope you will also get some enjoyment out of them.       My earliest experience with restaurant meals occurred just before I moved back to Manheim in 1940. Until that time I was living with my grandparents while my parents were trying to find work. They had found an apartment, and not wishing to transfer me to a new school during the school year, they had me stay with them on weekends.       Since my father had finally obtained a permanent full time job, we could afford to walk to Scheaffer's restaurant on Saturday nights for dinner. The depression was still going on, so the three of us could eat for about a dollar...

      In 1951 the Manheim Central football team was picked by the local pundits to soundly defeat the team from Manheim Township. The game was to be played at the old Stumpf Field on the Fruitville Pike in Lancaster. The local newspapers played it up big.       Manheim Central lost – 51 to 7. Numerous clichés come to mind: Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched, there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley, and so on ad nauseum. The point is that things don’t always work out according to plan.       Fast forward to 2010. Republican Scott Brown is running against Martha Coakley for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat representing Massachusetts. Kennedy held the seat for 46 years. As a Democrat, Coakley was a shoo-in, or was she?       For starters, she ran a somewhat lackadaisical campaign: not advertising on TV until the la...

      On January 16 I listed alternate definitions of the word “theory”: 1.) A coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena. 2.) A proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of fact.       At that time I suggested that Joe Sixpack distrusts scientists because certain interests have inundated him with the second definition, and downplayed the first. Actually, with a caveat, both definitions apply to the scientific mindset.      Every scientific “theory,” e.g., theory of gravity, theory of relativity, etc., is understood to be conditionally covered under the first definition. The caveat is that thousands of scientists all over the world are diligently trying to disprove any such theory. In the event that an example can be found that is contrary to the theory, the the...

      While we Americans may not be the most prudish people on earth, recent news stories indicate that we have gone far beyond the “tsk, tsk“ stage of disapproval of some forms of behavior. Legislatures, school districts and law enforcement officials have been very active in trying to curb inappropriate or dangerous behavior. Unfortunately, there have been cases which, while punishable under the letter of the regulations, seem to be way outside its spirit. Let me give you a few examples: 1.) School officials in Washington County, Maryland have written up a student for sexually harassing a little girl by pinching her buttocks. He was five years of age – she was four. The boy's father, who received a written notice about the incident, said he's at a loss to explain to his son what sexual harassment means. "He knows nothing about sex," the father said. "There's no way to explain what he's been written up for. He knows it as playing around. He doesn'...

      Millions of years ago, in a galaxy far, far away, i.e. high school in the 1940s, I developed my first concept of the word “old.” Old people were those who were slightly older than I was. When I was a freshman, seniors were old, and when I became a senior, college students were old, or at least older.       The idea hardened at the annual alumni banquet, an institution which has long since been discontinued. At our banquet, three members of the class which had graduated 50 years previously were in attendance. We all decided they were “really old fuddy duddies” (ROFDs). Over the years I haven’t thought much more about the subject.       Now however, I am nearly ten years older than those ROFDs were when they attended our banquet, so I have decided to rethink my definition. In addition, for several years my class has been having monthly breakfasts at a local restaurant, and I have found that my long-time (I...

      Along with many others, I am beginning to lose faith in the ability of the U.S. Government to solve the nation’s problems. As long as politicians and their constituents continue to wage a war between the major parties, effective action remains at a stalemate.       I was hoping the 2008 election would overcome this problem, but if anything, it seems to have exacerbated it. Prior to the election of Ronald Regan, democratic and republican liberals would vote together on a given program, as would democratic and republican conservatives. A given program passed or failed because its followers thought it would be good or bad for the country.       But those days seem to have passed, for the electorate as well as for the politicians. If a given program is sponsored by a democrat, the republicans will vote against it, and vice versa.       And I believe it has grown worse since Barack Ob...

      In Shakespeare’s play, King Henry VI, Dick the Butcher says, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” In the play Dick was a follower of Jack Cade, who planned to overthrow the government and install himself as king. Taken out of context the quote appears to denigrate lawyers; coming from disreputable characters such as Dick and Jack, the quote is actually a compliment to those who are the first line of defense against disorder in society.       But over the past few decades the same sort of attitude seems to have become popular about scientists, and it comes from people who should know better. One of the drawbacks of the information explosion is that everyone thinks his or her personal opinion is as good as the next person’s. And perhaps it would be if not for two problems: 1.) Not all the information received over the internet is accurate, or even true, and 2.) Not everyone is trained to correctly or logically proce...

     My late mother-in-law used to say, “Nothing surprises me anymore.” Having been exposed to continuous, random, gratuitous acts of violence in the headlines and on television, she, along with most Americans had grown blasé. Insensitivity to violence seems to have permeated society.             But lately a new phenomenon has been quietly appearing: the random, gratuitous act of generosity. Let me give you a couple of examples that I am familiar with: The writer of a letter to the editor of the local newspaper wanted to thank the person ahead of him in the checkout line at a local supermarket. The writer noticed that the leading person was buying a gift card. When the writer went to pay his bill, the cashier handed him the gift card and told him that the preceding customer had asked her to pass it to the next person in line. The second incident happened to Barbara and me last Saturday at a restaurant where...

      Deniers to the contrary, there is no rational doubt that the globe is getting warmer. Dramatic pictures of cracking and shrinking polar ice caps at both poles, the poleward migration of warm water animal and vegetable species, and the gradual submersion of islands testify to the fact. Already natives of Papua New Guinea's Carteret island are being moved to Bougainville island as their homeland disappears under rising seas.       No one can say for sure how long the seas will continue to rise, but it is estimated that a rise of 50 centimeters, about 19 inches, would overflow the heavily populated coasts of countries such as Bangladesh, and cause low-lying island states like the Indian Ocean's Maldives and South Pacific's Kiribati and Tuvalu to disappear. Two uninhabited Kiribati islands, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, were engulfed in 1999, according to the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, and the island of Tepuka Savilivil...

      It seems to be the popular opinion that the U.S. medical system is broken. Try as I might, I can’t seem to find anything wrong with it. We have the most advanced equipment – ultrasound and MRI machines, PET and CT scanners, x-ray machines, monitors, ventilators, etc. – the finest medical schools, and world-renowned doctors. But the medical payment system is in sad shape.       Medical insurance companies have two functions which are opposed to each other: 1.) pay medical bills for insured customers, and 2.) pay high salaries to executives and return maximum dividends to shareholders. Both functions are supposed to be paid out of premiums.       The question arises: Why is function two necessary in order in order to perform function one? The simple answer: It’s not.       If I perform a service under the assumption that I will be reimbursed, I don’t care who writes the check as l...

      Although nothing went the way we had planned, we had very good New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations. We had planned to go to Tony’s Mining Company with Barbara’s sister, Cathy, and her husband, Tom, for our Eve celebration, but the weather forecast called for a winter mix of rain and snow, so we decided to call it off.       Fortunately we had a plan B: a few weeks ago we decided to get the free tickets to the celebration at the Muhlenberg in the event we couldn’t go to Tony’s. We had a good time with friends there.       If the New Year would have rung in at 11:00 pm, we could have had the toasts, hugs and all that stuff; as it was, by midnight we probably snored through it.       We had also planned to go to Cathy and Tom’s house for the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch New Year good luck meal of Pork and Sauerkraut. About 10:00 am Tom called and told us Cathy had got s...