First Blog

To be "liked" is the ephemeral goal of all weak leaders.  A powerful nation cannot be liked.  It will never be liked.    Even the ancient Romans, though co-opting hundreds of principalities were not liked.  They were tenacious, not weak.   These principalities had become vessel states with duties and tributes to be exacted.  These states gained security, but they did not like their "benefactors."  The Romans well understood this, and made agreements so accommodating this exigency. However, they were feared and respected by their masters.  This is fact. Other ancient powers simply destroyed or totally subjugated their opponents.  This is another model, not quite suited to this day. In the more modern world the aspects of fear and respect are the concomitant twins of international relationships.  There is no master state, but there is the master of circumstance.  There is no dominant force, but there is a po...

My Italian in-laws are arriving on Friday.  We plan to have a big BBQ on Sunday with 40 people invited. It will be quite an affair.  I'm making stuffed jalapenos.  They are good.  I even remove some of the heat of these babies.  The catering is being done by a family friend and also winner of the Houston BBQ contest - ribs category. They are great!!    The crowd arrives about 3, and the party goes to 8. Looking forward to this event, but 40 folks is a lot. Lots of fun for all.  Hope to be in bed by 10.  Probably not.

I'm sure this one will get me in trouble.  It is offered only tongue-in-cheek,  total accuracy not implied.  It seems to be differentiated on both sides.  I'm sure some of them will offend some of you, but I don't than any of you will be offended by all of them.  Enjoy. ·          Pelosi: I'd love to pass more laws I haven’t read. ·          Schumer: I’ll do anything I’m told. Also, you note I'm an intellectual. ·          Boehner: I don’t like it. ·          Paul: This is unjust for the people and for the government to enact. ·          Christie: I am for my state no matter what I need to do. ·          Obama: I’m no Dick Cheney. ·          Durbin: I'm a tody from Chicogy. ·...

Have recently completed the historical text: The Ghosts of Cannae : Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic by Robert L. O'Connell.  As I usually do, I look for some fundamental principle.  It applies in this case, but as always, I generalize. Exhaustion must be a strategic tool of warfare.   One could even argue it is a tactical method, though I know of few examples.   One could argue this is the point of a siege.   Exhaustion at Cannae meant that tens of thousands of Roman soldiers could not continue the fight and died on the very hot day in summer by lack of water, leadership, and tactics.   Exhaustion was an important tool of Hannibal on that dreadful day 23 centuries ago.  Exhaustion in the modern sense is more mental, perhaps political, certainly for the aged.   It implies an opponent that simply tires of the battle, having given so much for so little.   Exhaustion applies to corporate conflicts, to governments...

This is the first of several parts. The first part is a bit grim, but I think accurate. A. Warfare of this century will take at least three forms.   (a) The classical battle between opponents in an open death conflict.   (b) The terrorist war of subterfuge and secret demolition.   (3) The electronic war of information, deceit, and deception.   This later new warfare is unlike that of the entire history of humanity.   It is disjointed, distanced, disconnected, and distributed in nature.   Leaders accustomed to confronting their opponent on the field will be surely defeated.   They cannot conceive of a battle without visible personality or at any rate a hidden lethal opponent secreted in a cave.   They cannot survive an unknown and unseen and undiscoverable enemy.    Such are the enemies of the great powers of the day.   Hidden, intelligent, vicious, subtle, disconnected they all are.   It is conducted on a twenty-four ho...

The time has come to seriously consider the implications of all the data the US government is collecting and consuming about its citizens.    For the first time in all of history, a government can peer into the private communications and by deflection the private thoughts of its citizens.   First, with the full neural net of information of interconnections between people, it must now be assumed to be known the full interconnectivity of persons of note.   Not just potential terrorists but politicians, would-be politicians, authors, commentators, newscasters, executives, even pundits, and more are swept up by this net.       If you have “arrived” you are known and fully analyzed.   Your habits are known, your pleasures are known, and so also are your friends.       A little background comes first. About Edward Snowden, the now high profile leak in the NSA snooping scandal.   It is not what he did at this point, it is a...

John F. Kennedy, in his Presidential inauguration address on Friday, January 20, 1961 declared, " my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country ." President Kennedy may have been prescient but in an opposite way. It seems to be somewhat ironical that since that day, that statement, and that moment in history, Americans have responded  by asking "What can my country can do for me?"  This is the mantra of contemporary convenience.  This is where we are.  Pealing off the riches of a nation that has given so much to humanity,  so much for human freedom, and so many sons and daughters sacrificed, it now rejoins by saying... "Gimme more."  

Here's a math riddle, but an iffy one.  Let me know what you think? Twice as thin?  The lady down the street claims that on her new diet plan, her waist became twice as thin as before the diet.  If her waist was originally 40 inches, what is her new waist line? Answer: You  may think and perhaps correctly that her new waist line is 20 inches. (Not bad!)  But the idea of "twice as thin" implies you really think half the the original.  But the predicate is vague and requires an interpretation.  Actually, the "twice as thin" requires a mathematical interpretation as "half the previous."    There is no math here; you have just come to this by habit.   This is a general problem of how vague mathematical-like statements are commonly used.    What would you do if she has said her waist was now 1.5 times thinner? Now for more practical matters, my blueberry yogurt advertised it that one third fewer calories than their regu...

In this world we have laborers, professionals, researchers, and practitioners - not to forget politicians, which are ignored for the moment.  Let's discuss the practitioners, those who practice a profession.  These include accountants, psychologists,  lawyers, and doctors. This implies they use an extant body of accepted knowledge and make arguments and prescriptions on what to do in the various circumstances.  They have no need to think beyond their sandbox of this knowledge.  Indeed, thinking beyond is discouraged.    BUT... This may be a good thing.  You don't want your doctor simply manufacturing new medicine when you are under care.  You don't want your lawyer inventing legal precedents when you have some grievance or other situation.  Thinking inside the box, in these cases, is just plain OK.  But the practice does entertain and in some cases slavishly follows the leads of others.  Case-in-point is ADHD, attentio...