Three Rights Make a Left

I had just read an op-ed piece in the New York Times from John Tierney and sat down to ingest a small breakfast topped with this statement: “Hence his famous warning (Adam Smith’s) not to rely on the kindness of strangers outside your family: if you want bread, it's better to count on the baker's self-interest rather than his generosity.” If one accepts Webster’s definition of cynic, “…one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest”, then this is a purely cynical statement. However, this thought has become tantamount to an axiom of neo-conservative logic – once the conservative debater, masquerading as a libertarian, reduces the argument to this point, he cries, “QED” and the discussion ends, at least in their minds. Like many dangerous statements, the error of Smith’s admonition, propagated by Tierney, is subtle and elusive. Certainly, if not too much is put in this bucket, it will hold water. Let’s look at a simple thought experiment to see how the p

Late in the 19th century, the great thinker, Thomas Henry Huxley, eloquently coined the word, agnostic, and proposed an agnostic philosophy. He was attacked by both atheist and theist. One outraged Anglican cleric suggested Huxley should be called by his true name, “infidel.” Perhaps this simply shows that fundamentalism has remained unchanged through the intervening years. From the other side, atheists accused Huxley of indecision and lack of commitment. However, Huxley had at least one avid young reader who not only found his writing intellectually stimulating, but spiritually deep – an outline for an examined life. I still return to my little blue Huxley book as a reminder or to bolster my “faith” as some would their Bible or Koran. How can I consider agnosticism a faith? After all, the very word comes from Greek roots which mean “without belief.” Like that sorry-assed country song says, “You’ve got to believe in something or you’ll fall for anything.” Right? Wrong!!! Agnosticism as

There are several things you need to consider about bathrooms and the need for these facilities. It may seem trivial to those who have not delved into the subject sufficiently, but I hope this discussion will help launch lavatorial learners on a path to a deeper understanding. This discussion will deal only with "Number One" since Number Two is more complex and the mathematics would likely involve functional analysis. We can examine numero uno  using only simple arithmetic, and at most, basic differential calculus which, in this case, is math related, but could also refer to a mineral deposit in a pitiful powder room. There are three items that I'll attempt to quantify in this article: 1) the urgency, rated on a scale from 0-10 (even though only 1-10 have practical use); 2) the rate of change of urgency also scaled from zero to infinity; 3) the acceptability of a restroom (public or private) also an integer from 0 to 10. So, let's dive in. Er... maybe not the right te

This is something that I posted as a reply to a rather bullying comment to another post -- but I hope you'll read it here.  I think this is not the time for bullying and name-calling. Think back to what you may have heard at sometime in your life: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." We'd better start looking at the bigger picture and we'd better do it soon. Emotional outbursts may "feel" good, but they don't solve anything. Nobody "won" or "lost" this election. The only way in which we MIGHT lose is if we can't arrive at some common ground... if our election process is destroyed. So... here's what I wrote earlier (edited a little) after he questioned how I can call my music "country" (by the way, I now call it "Blue Country"). I should probably call this, "What Makes Me A Liberal". I was born in Ft. Sc

 Ok... first, a disclaimer. I don't often expose this, because, for some reason, guitar players, and musicians in general, are not supposed to have brains. Though my own brain is probably not even close to the most educated in the musician sphere*, I do have a degree in Math/Computer Science, with a minor in Philosophy and emphasis in statistics. Advanced statistics is VERY difficult. The whizzes in stats become actuaries after passing a series of tests, largely known for their insane difficulty. I'm NOT a whiz... in fact, I fell asleep in statistics class and fell off my chair one day. This blog entry doesn't touch on advanced statistics and you don't need more than a 6th grade education to understand this. In other words: Donald Trump -- just stop here. You'll be lost after this point. Today, I'm writing about how politicians -- or their corporate sponsors -- like to quote statistics to support their spin of the day. However, in many instances, the exact sam

  This writing is a reaction to this article from someone's web site: 40 Uncool Things that Boomers Won't Give Up Disclaimer: I know this author is trying (accent on try) to be funny -- and I'm as capable as any boomer of taking a little ribbing -- which is to say, if I were in the same room with this person, I'd step on their cell phone. And since they did not have a "comments" section, I'm forced to pierce their thin little skin with my rapier wit on my own blog site. Before I proceed with my skewering -- at least my feeble attempt, given my advanced age -- I do want to make a generalization about articles like this, in all seriousness. To me, an attempt at satire that demonstrates,  " ... obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction; in particular, prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group " is, by dictionary this definition, "bigotry".  If you were to substit