Category: Society

The Congressional Circus was in Town Last Thursday

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Welcome to Benghazi II. The sequel was as bad as the original, maybe worse. One thing about this one definitely was worse.

In case you somehow missed it, there was a circus in town last week. The combined House Judiciary and Oversight Committees conducted a “hearing” (or something…). Much was written while the hearing went on, into the early evening, and much immediately after. I decided to let things marinate a bit and see what I thought about all this with a little time for reflection.

To be fair, I did not watch gavel to gavel coverage.

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It’s Friday! Let’s Have a Drink

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Reflections on one of humanity’s finest inventions -wine.

My friends will tell you, I enjoy wine. I like everything about it. I like the taste, the processes involved in production, storage, presentation, and consumption. I like the history and how it can change a meal or a meeting into something special.

At one time I had a 400+ bottle cellar. These days, I am at around 80 bottles at any one time. When one downsizes, everything takes a cut.

I like it all. And yet – I will observe that many of us make too big a deal of wine and make it too intimidating for others.

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The Unforeseen Consequences and Untapped Potential of Drones

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Part of our Hey! Look at That! Technology series

Drones (or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – UAVs) are a prime example of what often happens with developing technologies.

  • First, the new technology appears, and the possibilities seem unlimited. Everyone gets excited, money gets invested, manufacturing begins –
  • Then, the new toy on the block fails to deliver. A lot of people involved at this point get disgusted (or go broke) and drop out.
  • Not much later, the kinks get worked out. The technology takes off further than anyone anticipated.

There are exceptions of course.

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The Pruitt Syndrome – What Do You Value?

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Scott Pruitt is gone, finally. A lot of people lost bets on this one, figuring about 10 ethics investigations would be his end.It took half again as many. This might be a good time to think about what – or in whom- we invest our support.

There are people who support the policies that Pruitt & Company purveyed. Fair enough; people can argue policy with passion and substance. Challenge reasoning and call out  facts from opinions. Anything less would be downright Un-American.

Some also defend Pruitt and others whose conduct or performance fall short.

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We Stand With Four Rivers All Around Us – Sink or Swim, America?

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In every period of history, people living at that time feel “We have never had so many challenges.” We are no different today – many of us have that exact feeling right now.

We have had great divisions in our past (we did have a civil war, after all). Still, one could make the case that critical factors are now coming to bear in dangerous ways.

It feels as though we as a nation are standing on a piece of ground surrounded by four mighty “rivers.” Rivers are powerful and full of potential to nourish, clean,

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Happy Birthday, America!

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Today is the United States of America’s 242nd birthday. Much is not well on this occasion, but let’s take a moment on this day in particular to celebrate much that deserves our attention and offers us some reassurance.

For the first time since they began asking the question, a major poll found that there is not much of a majority of Americans that are proud to be Americans. Even among those who remain proud, a majority is “not proud of America as it stands today.”

Still, there is much to celebrate on this day. This is a democracy well into its third century,

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July 1st is One Busy Day in History

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calendar-1847346_1280.pngMore than most calendar days, it seems like a LOT happened in this date throughout history. 

Thanks to the This Day in History site and other assorted sources , we note the following events among those that took place on JUL 1:

1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte captures Alexandria, Egypt. People named Napoleon probably should stay focused on places other than Russia…

1804 – George Sand is born. Still great reading!

1838 – Charles Darwin presents a paper on the theory of evolution to the Linnean Society in London. Science was about to be turned on its head –

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Left-Handed Presidents and Wine Grapes

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Challenge Often Brings Strength – Beware the Easy Choice

Challenge.jpgWhile attending a wine dinner recently, the sommelier expounded about the conditions in which the grapes that produced the wine we were enjoying that evening.

One group was grown in dry, chalky soil and the other in soil with heavy clay properties. In other words, not very good conditions by standard agricultural standards.

It is a story I heard often while living in California and in France – the vine needs to be challenged a bit, to suffer and overcome some challenges to produce wine of great character.

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