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Category: General

Let’s Pretend

Let’s Pretend

It can be fun. Children do it often. Let’s pretend to be doctors and nurses. You get to be our patients. These games can become rather elaborate, with costumes and various props. It is (usually) harmless and educational – a trying out of potential roles. Very rarely these games turn dangerous. Perhaps some of mother’s pills are found and prescribed to a patient. Perhaps an operation is attempted. These have real consequences – life altering or ending consequences. Consequences Should…

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Biden’s Chance

Biden’s Chance

Early in Biden’s presidency, we read about him becoming a second FDR. This was largely about the ambitious program to change much of America’s domestic economy and government. Political realities made this an illusion (for better or worse – I will not go into that now). Now he has a second chance to become an FDR. In the long period where England (or rather the British Empire) faced the power of Germany (and Italy) alone, the US, under FDR’s leadership,…

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America’s Long Wars

America’s Long Wars

Right now, much of our energy seems to be going towards blaming someone (take your pick: Biden, Trump, Bush, etc.) for the current Afghanistan debacle. What we really should be doing (and I am sure that there are people quietly doing this) is figuring out why we, the country known as America, have been in these long, drawn-out wars since the middle of the 1950’s (think Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan). I know that there have been some successes (e.g.,…

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Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Everyone is writing about Afghanistan now. I do not have any special expertise in the situation there, but it is now obvious that much of what we (the US and other allied nations) thought we had accomplished there was a mirage. The main question for us now is why did the experts seemingly buy into believing in this mirage for so long? An important subsidiary question is what kind of structural changes do we need to make to prevent this…

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Basic Concepts – Complexity and Simplification

Basic Concepts – Complexity and Simplification

The universe and everything in it are staggeringly complex. This complexity is somewhat displayed in the range of scientific specialization; no one person can possibly master what is known about anything but a small part. And, if they are honest, they will quickly acknowledge that the mysteries within their specialty are vastly larger than what is known; that is what draws good scientists to investigate further and farther. A simple sketch – stone If you are walking along a beach…

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The Nation’s Debt

The Nation’s Debt

Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, in his second inaugural address, wrote: Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true…

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Monopoly – A Bad Choice

Monopoly – A Bad Choice

There are thousands of articles and books written about monopolies – almost all of them about private monopolies. Here I am going to consider state-owned monopolies as well as privately owned ones. As a matter of definition, when I say “state-owned”, I am referring to government ownership at any level (local through national government) and any legal structure. Similarly, when I say “private”, this is usually a corporation, but it includes all other legal structures as well. Natural Monopolies Many…

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