The threat of toothpaste and gel-based insurgent attacks on flights to and from the Sochi Winter Olympics could have an interesting twist. What if, in the process of protecting flights by removing predominantly safe products in travelers’ bags, a different sort of threat is actually put into motion? What if the intelligence gathered and disseminatedContinue reading “Sochi Games”
Category Archives: Grits: Social Commentary
The Root Cause of Divisiveness in American Culture and Politics 2020
The Battle for Dominance
Alternate Futures
We could continue along what seems to be our current path, exhausting the resources on earth and colonizing other planets in the same way we have colonized this one. We could do that and be scientifically thrilled and justified in our behavior from a particular point of view. Alternatively, we could skip into that infiniteContinue reading “Alternate Futures”
All means ALL!
To whom does the right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness belong? Citizens, non-citizens, certain classes of citizens or non-citizens, certain countries, only the chosen by whatever definition is prevalent at the time? What about the rights, if any, of the unconscious, unaware, and even inorganic, such as the planetContinue reading “All means ALL!”
Many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip…
“Resolve” is such a heavy word. No wonder we avoid it like the plague, peeking in once a year to see how far we have fallen or strayed from our good intentions, from our last year’s dreams and last decade’s desires. The very word itself feels like punishment: public humiliation for being weak and imperfect.Continue reading “Many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip…”
Choice With a Lower Case “c”
One would think, considering the headlines of the day, that the most significant choice facing us today has to do with elected and appointed leadership of the few over (or for) the many: dictatorships, democracies, courts, political parties, religious expression, economic and territorial imperatives, and varying definitions of terrorism. These apparent choices, however, are justContinue reading “Choice With a Lower Case “c””
Election Accountability With a Twist…
[First published 25 October 2012] I have an idea. What if before electing a President or Senator or Congressional Representative, say every 10 years, we were required to spend every 9th year trading places with someone – ANYONE else – in the country, or better yet, in the world? There would be no loopholes, noContinue reading “Election Accountability With a Twist…”
A New Voice: “Tea Party” to “Arab Spring” to “Take Back Wall Street” to…???
The following was written on 16 November 2010 about the emerging Tea Party Movement, now On The Record. Hindsight renders a natural “of course” response to these thoughts now almost two years later, but at the time of writing none of this was clear yet. The ramifications of this primarily domestic movement continue to reverberateContinue reading “A New Voice: “Tea Party” to “Arab Spring” to “Take Back Wall Street” to…???”
Insights Leading Up to the October 2008 Stock Market Crash
The following are excerpts from a series of private emails I wrote during the period December 2007 through September 2008, foreshadowing major events of global proportion that would impact the financial markets. The “Crash of October 2008” officially began on October 6th of that year, but some accounts state that the crash actually began onContinue reading “Insights Leading Up to the October 2008 Stock Market Crash”