There are thousands of people, from undergraduate students of foreign relations and political science to world class experts and statesmen, who know more about the complexities of Israel and the Middle East than the president. But we ve got what we ve got. Most nations think that Israel is on a wrong path. Most Americans think Israel [ ]
There are a lot of adjectives we attach in describing people, some commonly, some not so much. The same applies to our description of the American president. Watching his obsession with prosecuting a decent man, a former Olympian, for the made up crime of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, brought another word to mind. Petty. It [ ]
The upcoming Jewish New Year 5787, which begins with Rosh Hashanah on the evening of September 11, 2026, is declared the Jewish Year of Compassion. This obviously has no formal or official effect. I have no position and very limited influence. It is just urging the Jewish communities to focus more on compassion this coming [ ]
I consider the heart of the problem of human existence is to fight against mendacity, against lying. I would like to use a word which may be too often used, but it’s still the most important word—and that is “honesty,” or “sincerity,” or “trust.” I am against the word “politician.” I have great respect for [ ]
I am ambivalent about the benefits and effects of unstoppable technological progress. It is nearly a force of nature. Rain helps our plants to thrive, our food to grow, our rivers to flow, our thirst to be quenched. But it can also overwhelm and destroy, so that we seek shelter from it in a flood [ ]
The best remedy is a sense of humor. Don’t take your self-centeredness so seriously. Undermine the whole process by laughing at yourself. Recognize the irony: “I want happiness so badly, but my self-cherishing just makes me suffer. Even though I know this, I still can’t abandon my attachment to this self!” It’s very funny, when [ ]
Note: The immediately previous post explains who David Dennison was. This post, also from 2018, is more philosophical. The final line, at least we will have the open-eyed, open-hearted hope of getting it right the next time , can be seen as an ironic dagger. The point about karma, about reaping what we as Americans sow, [ ]
Note: This is the first of two posts exhumed from the wayback about David Dennison. The other, which requires knowing who David Dennison was, is next. Update: Following this post, I realized that DD are also the initials of Dirk Diggler. Diggler, the main character in the movie Boogie Nights (1997), is a well-endowed male [ ]
“I am going to build a church someday. It will have a holy of holies and a holy of holy of holies, and in that ultimate box will be a random number table.”Gregory Bateson Randomness rules. Our attempts at order and control, intelligent or less so, benign or malignant, only go so far. Then randomness [ ]
As you ll see below, I was pretty excited when General Mills added magical unicorns to Lucky Charms in 2018. In 2018 they said the unicorns were permanent . Yeah, that s what they told the hourglass. I just went back to check. Not only are the unicorns still in the box, but just this year General Mills [ ]