The media seems to have ignored Judge Clarence Thomas’s comments during a recent libel case before the Supreme Court.  He referred to a 1964 landmark decision in New York Times v. Sullivan,  saying he thought it should be overturned.  That ruling made it difficult for public offi

A Facebook friend sent me a video in which a pop star proposed we  create a new organization to “take back our government.”  My reply, I’m afraid, was jaded.  We don’t need another political organization to which we can write checks.  We’re up to our ears in those, the A

“When it’s impossible to distinguish facts from fraud, actual facts lose their power.”  So writes Zeynep Tufekci in his insightful article about identifying  falsehood in the media. (“Don’t Trust, Verify: Finding the Facts in A World of Fakes,” Wired, March 2019, pgs. 18

I know what it’s like to slam my finger in a car door.  The pain is intense.  Yet, at the same time, I curse myself for being stupid. That’s how I feel whenever I watch the 45TH American president on television.  I suffer when he lies; I curse the embarrassment we’ve heaped u

On March 11, 1483, Charles VIII (the l’Affable) became king of France.  Only a handful of historians will remember the fact.  Far worse, to my thinking, is that a smaller number will note  I published my first blog, March 24, 2010.  Even so, I feel chuffed about the 9 year accom

The man I succeeded in public office liked to say, “Figures lie and liars figure.”  I won’t speak about liars but figures can be slippery. After 8 years of grappling with a county budget, I gained a healthy understanding that numbers have a plasticity.  Many assumptions are bu

My activities on the internet have expanded to a degree that I require 3 email addresses, not counting messaging on Facebook.  Initially, I hoped different addresses would make storing my correspondence easier to find later.  My experience has proved the opposite. Of course, I shoul

While I’ve been thrashing around for a transgender pronoun, it appears the transgenders have solved the problem.  The preferred word is they. (Brain Nonbinary,” by Virginia Heffernan, Wired, March 2019, pgs. 11-13.)  Writer Virginia Heffernan posits they is appropriate because i

Sometimes, the good old days were just that: good. Doctors made home visits — a blessing when the weather was frightful and you had a temperature of 102.  In the good old days, when the thermometer hit triple digits, a kid like me could grab shards from the back of an ice truck

I admit it.  Some mornings, I dedicate time to cursing my computer.  Overnight, some dark magic has rendered my passwords useless or an old blog has risen from the grave to republish itself on Facebook.  On those days, I call my guru.  Usually, he’s good at sorting out the probl