Motes in a Jaundiced Eye

The Grand old Party

2011-09-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

The GOP leadership's visceral aversion inter alia to closing loopholes in the tax code such as those which enable Warren Buffet to pay less in income taxes or permit General Electric to get a tax refund despite substantial profits, leads one to believe that they have degenerated into the party, "Of the wealth; by the wealthy; for the wealthy."

The Party of Lincoln

2011-07-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

The aborrence of the Republican Party leadership of any kind of regulation of financial markets and total absence of reason with respect to raising the debt ceiling demonstrates once again that it represents government of the wealthy, by the lobbyists, for the money changers.

A Man of Principle

2010-12-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

The Saturday, May 28, 1994 issue of the New York Times reported the execution by hanging of Charles Rodman Campbell, 39. The report stated, "Mr. Campbell was convicted of murdering Renae Wicklund, her 8 year old daughter, and a neighbor, Barbara Hendrickson, in 1982. He slashed the throats of all three nearly beheading the child. He had been imprisoned in 1974 for raping Ms. Wicklund and was on a work-release program at the time of the slayings. Prosecutors said he had murdered Ms. Wicklund and Ms. Hendrickson for testifying against him at the rape trial."

In the state of Washington condemned murderers may choose lethal injection as an alternative to hanging. Mr. Campbell refused to choose on the grounds that by so doing he would be violating his religious principles. It is comforting to know that he wasn't a completely depraved individual. Perhaps he would have made a choice had the Biblical method of public stoning been an option.

Neologisms

2010-12-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

Fartitude: n, the demeanor to be maintained when one’s companion is severely flatulent.

Gismoid: n, A small useful device with no moving parts.

Frustacean: n, a lobster unable to find a mate.

Gadgitation; n, the state of mind of a person who has just acquired a new PC or Blackberry or similar item.

Gmail is Free

2010-09-13T07:57:00.001-07:00

Google’s Gmail is free, has virtually unlimited storage and the user interface is well designed for efficient mail handling. There is, however, a slight catch. Because it is free, it has no support. If trouble occurs, the user is directed to a Q & A site where he becomes involved in a seemingly endless regression. A further recourse is a forum devoted to the particular glitsch. These forums have upwards of 100,000 entries apiece. The worst problem though is the refusal by the login page to accept a password. This has been a recurring headache. The protocol for resetting is a time-consuming nuisance. Far more serious is the sudden inability to reach the login page. Instead of the login page I get a site inviting me to try Gmail. That my Gmail account is active is attested by the fact that mail addressed there does not bounce. To solve that problem I skipped the forums and retained professional help. It was to no avail. Yes, Google is free, but that is too high a price.

Salmonella

2010-09-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

The full-page advertisement by America’s Egg Farmers in the August 25th NY Times suggesting that eggs be cooked so that both yolk and white are firm implies that eggs may well be salmonella contaminated. To eat scrambled or soft-boiled eggs is to play chicken with your health. The necessity for much tighter regulation of the industry is obvious. The use of the British protocol for elimination of salmonella from all poultry products should be mandatory.

Egg farmers want the same rights are hog producers, all of whom sell pork which is trichinosis infected..

HP-35s is a Pain in the Ass

2010-08-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

The HP 35s: How do I hate thee, let me count the ways.
     1. Two keystrokes are requiired to turn it off.
     2. Two keystrokes are required to recall a stored number.
     3. Too many functions require 3 keystrokes.
     4. It has more bells and whistles that a circus calliope.
     5. The users' manual is supplied on a CD.  A several hundred page manual on line cannot be read efficiently. It is not possible to extract the section of interest.
     6. If a PC is required to read the manual one does not need the 35s. One may have access to  packages such as Maple or Mathematica. If not, MACSYMA is now a free download.
     7. It is inferior in ease of use to the HP 15c which it replaced.

The sole improvement over the HP15 is the display of the "y" register in addition to the "x" register,

The Chase

2010-03-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

In the East, Night rises inexorably
     in relentless pursuit of Day.

In the West, Day, as ever, slips away
     silently beyond the horizon.

Billions of years have passed with
     billions more to go.

Night is patient; the Chase will end.
     This much is certain; it Will end.

A Letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (September 2009)

2010-03-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

The effort to achieve health care reform is in serious, perhaps mortal difficulties. The reason is that too much was attempted. The target presented to opponents of was so large and varied, that any attack, however malicious or misleading was certain to obtain wide support. Too much was attempted. The entire effort should be terminated. Recognizing and exploiting the fact that many parts of the problem are disjoint can achieve reform. It can be accomplished step-wise. Present each piece of the assemblage sequentially. In that way, much of the misleading propaganda can be refuted forcefully. Instead of the enemies of reform being able to ride into battle with impunity, their warhorses could be easily hamstrung. A useful sequence might be: enable Medicare to bargain with pharmaceutical companies in the same way as the VA; establish a government insurance plan to serve as a benchmark.

Democracy in America

2010-03-10T12:32:00.000-08:00

For years, I have believed that the most serious threat to democracy in the US was the Supreme Court. In recent years, that threat has been widely surpassed by the Senate. It has established rules strongly reminiscent of those which led to the demise of the Polish-Lithuanian Commenwealth in the 18th century - the right of any member of the parliament to veto any legislation it had passed.

Beware What you Search For!

2010-02-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

I went onto the Internet to find the web site of the London Philosophy Study Guide. To save time I entered acronym LPSG. What I got was the "Large Penis Study Group". Clearly, the Google search engine knows what is really important.

Lite Beer

2009-12-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Ever since it was first introduced, the intensity and volume of TV advertising of "Lite Beer" has been monotonically increasing. It can now properly be characterized as a public nuisance. The motivation for this obsession by the brewers is probably two-fold. Firstly, it may be cheaper to produce than beer. Secondly, it is an appeal to the increasingly large intersection of the class of beer drinkers with that of the weight conscious.

For the person who drinks occasionally and then only a bottle or two, the caloric difference between lite and regular is trivial. This difference may be important for people who drink too much at a sitting, but, these deserve what they are getting.

The fundamental problem with lite beer is that is that it does not have a decent taste. It has no body; it is thin and usually bitter. It simply is not beer. It should be poured back into the horse.

Predator Drones

2009-12-06T14:40:00.000-08:00

In the New York Times of December 4th, there is a long report on the use of predator drones to track down and slay members of the Taliban an al Qaeda. The use of such weaponry was very disturbing to Tom Parker, policy director for counterterrorism at Amnesty International. He is reported as saying, “Anything that dehumanizes the process makes it easier to pull the trigger.” It is not clear precisely what disturbs Mr. Parker. Killing in any form has been a common human activity since Cain became annoyed with Abel.

Mr. Parker implies that anything that emotionally detaches the shooter from the shootee is objectionably dehumanizing. High-level aerial bombardment or cannonade by long-range artillery would fit his criteria for emotional detachment. Low level strafing of troops, a sniper blowing a man’s head to pieces, or a suicide bomber on a bus full of people, is the proper way to kill.

Sometime, somewhere, someone must have observed that mankind’s supreme stupidity is the practice of war. The Geneva Convention attempts to delimit both the extent of the stupidity and (if this may be forgiven) its inhumanness.

What doesn’t Mr. Parker understand about waging war? Von Clausewitz stated it succinctly, “War is the continuation of policy by other means.” History tells us that ‘other means’ entails killing. It is not a chess game in which one acknowledges defeat by resigning. The entire point in pulling the trigger of a rifle, the lanyard of a fieldpiece, or pressing a bomb release is to kill someone. The ultimate governing principle is the (apocryphal) address by General Patton to his troops, “It is not your duty to die for your country; it is your duty to make the enemy die for his.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

2009-12-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

The New York Times, December 3, 2009, reports that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $50 million to be spent in China over a 5 year period to combat a variety of sexually transmitted diseases. The aim of the program is certainly laudable but is it really necessary for an American based foundation to be supporting a health program in China which has foreign currency reserves estimated to include as much as $1 trillion? Would that money not be better spent to create jobs in Pontiac, Michigan where the unemployment rate is 33% ?

What is it that we are not seeing?

Public Editor -The New York Times

2009-11-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

In the Sunday, December 10, 2008 issue of the New York Times, Clark Hoyt, the Public Editor agonizes over "... what to call people who pursue political, religious, territorial, or unidentifiable goals through violence on civilians." There does exist a well-established rule for deciding. It comes from Hoyle's rules for poker. Simply put, it says that cards "speak for themselves". A player may not call two-pair a full-house. By analogy, these individuals should be called what they are, homicidal sociopaths.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

2009-11-12T09:42:00.000-08:00

Several days ago I received a communication from my college alumni association (City College of New York) concerning the 70th reunion of the class of 1940. Some personal data was requested. I referred to the graduation yearbook and found something that brought back very sour memories. The yearbook bore the dedication, "To the fight to keep America out of the war." It was prepared during the months leading up to June 1940. This period was was squarely in the middle of the era of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It lasted from August 24, 1939 till June 22, 1941, the date on which Germany launched its attack on the Soviet Union. The pact established spheres of influence in Eastern Europe that led inter alia to the divison of Poland between them.

Up till the signing of the pact, Nazi Germany was anethema on campus. The day following the announcement of the pact, communist students and their adherents had an epiphany. The Nazis immediately became enlightened nationalists and the Jews in Germany were troublemakers and deserving of all the trouble they were having. There was also the chant, "To hell with England; let God save the King." The campus was plastered with posters bearing the same legend. On June 22, 1941, there was a new epiphany. Germany reverted to its previous status of vileness and and England became noble and worthy of total support.

The comunnist cohort of students had much more influence on campus they should have. They were vocal and well organized. There was, however, one goup of students beyond their influence or control: The members of the ROTC. In the class yearbook, Microcosm, the graduating seniors were grouped in separate sections according to their School: Liberal Arts, Engineering, etc. The communists had their revenge by segregating the ROTC graduates into a separate ROTC section.

The ROTC no longer exists at City. When it did, it was the largest voluntary ROTC in the country.

Purity of the Doctrine

2009-11-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

A "Committee for the Preservation Of the Purity of the Doctrine" has been established by the
Republican Party. An Executive Sub-Committee comprising

Ann Coulter
Glen Beck
Rush Limbaugh
Sarah Palin
Tim Pawlenty

has ben appointed. TV Channel Fox 5, in the New York tri-state area is the sanctioned media
outlet for authorized pronouncements.

The first order of business of the Committee is consideration of a proposal that when the Republican Party retakes control of the Congress, an Auto-de-Fa will be held on the mall for the purification of deviant members of the Party of Lincoln.

Rembrandts in the Hermitage

2009-10-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

Portraits by Rembrandt In the Hermitage July 30, 1996

Rhea and I like to travel and, after many excursions through Western Europe, Russia became very attractive. St. Petersburg is an obvious item on a Russian itinerary and in due course, we arrived there. There is much to enjoy and we quickly found the Hermitage. We were enthralled and overwhelmed by the huge collection of first-rate art. It was so enjoyable that we returned, primarily to spend time at the Hermitage.

The Hermitage, is one of the worlds greatest fine arts museums. It contains the priceless of Imperial Russia. The splendor of its collections is superbly complemented by their presentation in what is unquestionably the finest setting for fine arts in the world - the Winter Palace on the River Neva that Catherine the Great called her Hermitage.

Peter the Great was the initial collector. His observations of princely establishments during his peregrinations in Western Europe persuaded him that the embellishment of a royal palace required lavish application of the fine arts. Paintings were a necessary part of the decor. But, he was hampered by not being a connoisseur so his earliest instructions to his agents were to "buy only good stuff". They did and in so doing laid the foundation for the present collection.

His daughter Elizabeth, after several intervening rulers, became Czarina in 1741. She commissioned the building of a palace on the Neva River to be her winter residence. This was a sumptuous structure and became the nucleus of what in the hands of Catherine the Great became the Winter Palace that she called her "Hermitage". Catherine was a connoisseur and she actively collected the best of western art her agents could find. And find, they did.

Among the present day holdings is the second largest number of Rembrandts of any museum in the world even after the sale of ten Rembrandts during the 19th century. Only the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam today has more. Jay Richard Judson in his Encyclopedia Britannica (15th Edition) article on Rembrandt includes six of those in the Hermitage in his list of "major works". That portion of the list dealing with paintings has three categories: Portraits, Religious, and Allegories and the first contains only one entry, Portrait of Saskia as Flora. It is one of Rembrandt's early mature works and represents his wife as the Goddess of Flowers. It is a splendid work and I would be disinclined to say it should not be on the list.

At his best a critic (of the fine arts in this instance) is an educator. He places the object under consideration in perspective with respect to others of its kind. He points out its essential features and how they fuse to create the whole that in any great work of art is more than the sum of its parts. Palladian villas are much more than their fenestration. But, that student is neglectful who suppresses his own judgment. If the teacher is never questioned a substantial portion of the education will be lost. It is in this spirit that I would respectfully question Mr. Judson, whose illuminating article added much to my education.

In the Hermitage collection are three oils of overwhelming power. One is the Sacrifice of Abraham that is included in the religious category and two portraits that are not. It is their omission that I would question. They are titled Portrait of an Old Man in Red and Portrait of an Old Jew. Surely, these two must be among the finest portraits Rembrandt ever painted. Both are products of his later years, fairly large and like many of his later works these have the typical deep chiaroscuro. Except for the face and hands, which glow in a soft light, the paintings are thick with shadows.

The Sacrifice of Abraham was painted the year after the portrait of Saskia as Flora and has the raw power of youth. It has the impact of a blow, literally. Isaac lies on the ground, arms bound. Abraham holds Isaac's head back with his hand fully covering his face. The knife is held aloft ready to fulfil the command of the Lord. It is just barely stayed by the angel. The unwavering brutality of the manner in which Abraham forces Isaac's head back while hiding his face is central to the concept of the painting and is awesome. Unless the artist has left notes one can never know with certainty precisely what he had in mind. Perhaps what Rembrandt meant to portray was the steadfastness of Abraham's adherence to the mandate of the Lord yet trying to avoid looking at the face of the son he was about to sacrifice. Whatever the intent the emotional impact is naked and direct.

Of a different order entirely are the Portrait of an Old Man in Red and Portrait of an Old Jew. The impact is not as immediate; if one is distracted one might easily walk by. If one stops, however, one is seized - transfixed. The impact then builds like a tide and becomes overwhelming. One has no choice but to remain.

Over the course of his lifetime Rembrandt painted many self-portraits and as he grew older the face he depicted evolved from that of a confidant, vigorous individual fully in control of his destiny to one who has suffered the injuries that life can inflict. A certain weariness, sadness, and, above all, resignation becme more and more pronounced. It is precisely these characteristics that are the poignant, central aspects of these two portraits. One can only conclude that both are self-portraits. The first is obviously a psychological self-portrait and the second, the Portrait of an Old Jew, is the same with the added burden of the Eternal Outcast.

Because Mr. Judson's article was simultaneously so impressive and pleasurable to read, I found that the disparity of judgment of these two portraits by Mr. Judson and myself puzzling. It would seem to reside in an essential limitation of the critical art.. The impression these portraits made on me was clearly very particular and private. They had a lesser impact on Mr. Judson. Anyone experiencing a work of art is constrained by a personal and private template. No two templates can be alike. Each is constructed by one's life experience to that instant. If, for instance, it is a painting that is being viewed, every painting he has ever seen and everything relevant he has ever read or heard or seen have preconditioned the viewer. He judges, evaluates, measures, likes, or dislikes within the confines of this background. The personal template varies dramatically as one ages. A teenager, not possessed of musical talent will probably be seriously bored by one of Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello and some years later, suitably conditioned, might sit entranced through its complete performance.

OED

2009-02-05T13:50:00.001-08:00

Asshole December 21, 1996

My word processor has a dictionary which I use regularly
to compensate for a less than perfect memory. I'd prefer
to have something more extensive than the one provided.
The OED would seem to be overdoing it, but it would be
nice to have something more elaborate than the one
I have. This lack impressed itself while I was writing a
letter to a friend of some 40 years or more. One is not
formal with such old friends so it was that while discussing
the current brouhaha about the young man at Cornell
who had infected virtually every computer connected to
ARPANET, the noun "asshole" suggested itself most
strongly. Later, when checking the letter for spelling,
the dictionary informed me that it was ignorant of the
word and offered me inter alia the option of adding it to
its store of knowledge if not wisdom.

I reflected on the sorry state of the world. I thought about
such matters as the Kosovo-Serbia fratricide, the Chinese
brutalization of Tibet, the conversion of the White House
into a big business lobby, the occasional police officer who
seems to be part of the problem rather than a piece of the
solution, cheap-shot cornerbacks in the National Football
League, and soon came to the conclusion that the dictionary
would be less than useful if it were not included.

2008-12-14T12:18:00.000-08:00

In the Sunday, December 10th issue of the New York Times, Clark H0yt, the Public Editor agonizes over "... what to call people who pursue political, religious, territorial, or unidentifiable goals through violence on civilians." He need not be so concerned. There does exist a well-established rule for deciding. It comes from Hoyle's rules for poker. Simply put, it says that cards "speak for themselves". A player may not call two-pair a full-house or ry to identify a straight as a flush. By analogy, "people who pursue political, religious, territorial, or unidentifiable goals through violence on civilians" should be called what they are: Homicidal Sociopaths.

Sarah Palin

2008-09-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

Last week, Governor Palin had occasion to spend an hour or so with a half a dozen medical specialists ranging from gynecologist to otorhinolaryngalogist. Her admirers feel she is now equipped to dispense sound medical advice.

T. Boone Pickens

2008-09-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

Mr Pickens has recently recently purchased time on tv to promote a scheme for ensuring energy independence for the United States. Whatever else his scheme is designed to do, it is structured to make Mr. Pickens richer than he already is.

A Pox on them All

2008-08-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

Egg producers whose eggs are infected with salmonella.

Members of Congress who denounce pork.

Defense attorneys who confuse vigorous advocacy with lying.

Supermarket managers who make all prices end in 9.

Taxi drivers who a) roar through rainwater puddles at curbside or b) become creative in finding their way from A to B.

CNN, PC Magazine, IDG Connect, and all the other Sites which load my emailinbox with spam and are totally impervious to my entreaties to cease and desist.

Wolpe

2008-07-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Some time ago Rhea and I attended a concert presented by the Juilliard String Quartet, a truly superb ensemble. The 2 numbers before the intermission were the Mozart D-minor quartet, K.173 and Stefan Wolpe's Quartet (1969) in that order. This particular Mozart is not one of my favorites and I promptly dozed off. I awoke in time for the Wolpe. By the time intermission arrived I had long since concluded that my dislike for the Mozart, notwithstanding, I had slept through the wrong quartet.

On the program it was noted that the Quartet was dedicated to his mother. The music was so raucous and dissonant that I concluded that he must have disliked her intensely.

Jet Propelled Aircraft

2008-07-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

Near the end of World War II the German Luftwaffe introduced a jet-propelled aircraft, the ME-262. It quickly became a topic of intensive and wide discussion in allied military circles. Shortly thereafter in the Pentagon a memorandum was circulated to the effect that in correspondence, "jet-propelled aircraft would not repeat not be referred to as blow jobs".

Environmentalists

2008-07-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

It sometimes seems that:

On Mondays environmentalists picket nuclear power plants in the hope that they will be shut down.

On Tuesdays environmentalists picket utilities in the hope they will stop using coal or oil.

On Wednesdays environmentalists picket oil companies in the hope that they will stop drilling oil wells.

On Thursdays environmentalists picket coal companies in the hope that they will stop mining coal.

On Fridays environmentalists picket lumber companies in the hope they will stop cutting trees down.

On weekends environmentalists sit around by candlelight shivering in the cold worrying if they have overlooked something.

2008-06-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Oh Brave New World!

Thursday, March 2, 1995 may well be the most important date of the last decade of the 20th Century. Often has it been said that our young people are the future the nation. With their idealism, industry, and intelligence they will forge the entry into a bright and shining 21st Century. Away with cynical politicians and slimy lobbyists, away with incompetent judges and sleazy lawyers, away with corrupt police; away with biased, agenda driven news media. Our young people are speaking out. They are providing leadership. It will be a dream fulfilled when they take charge. Even now they manifest the insight and sensitivity needed to accomplish the daunting task of shaping our future.

Recently, in Patterson, New Jersey, Lawrence Meyers, a 16 year old student at Eastside High was killed by a rookie housing police officer while attempting to arrest him during an undercover narcotics operation. Mr. Meyers was killed by a shot in the head and the matter is now under formal investigation. Twenty three grams of crack cocaine were recovered at the scene. Mr. Meyers had a police record for drug dealing. His death was followed by several days of sometimes violent and felonious behavior by fellow students. This included incidents of vandalism and looting. Public officials and community leaders including the always helpful Reverend Al Sharpton managed to bring a measure of calm to the situation.

To generate a more reasoned approach to the students' grievances an assembly of Eastside High was called. Among the suggestions made by students were those by:

Angel Gonzalez: "Thursday [March, 2] will be a drug free day in memory of Lawrence. The streets will be quiet in memory of Lawrence to show we care."

Skeeter Warren said that the ideal would be for all drug dealers and students to impose a ban on sales and use for the day.

Wesley Thomas, with broader vision, suggested a wider area for the moratorium on dealing and usage, "Maybe it can be a nationwide drug-free day."

UNESCO

2008-06-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

The United Nations

The June 24th New York Sun reports that "Bowing to pressure from Palestinian Arab activists in America, the United Nations Children Fund is cutting ties with an Israeli billionaire donor, Lev Leviev, in response to allegations that one of his companies is financing the constructions of settlements in the West Bank." UNICEF acceded fully to the request.

That the Palestinians and their supporters have a legitimate complaint concerning West Bank settlements is not to be gainsaid and they have a right, even a duty, to do everything they can to have new ones stopped and old ones removed. But, how can UNICEF possibly be a suitable vehicle for this crusade. UNICEF, in statement on its website says it is an organization that is the "driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality. That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young." One of the principal functions of UNICEF is to provide food to hungry children.

That reducing the financial base of UNICEF will punish Israel for the settlements is obvious nonsense. Perhaps the whole point of the decision of UNICEF is less the issue of the settlements and more the aim of delegitimizing Israel. If dying children can be useful pawns in the game - why not?

In the following day’s mail was a solicitation from UNESCO. It contained the sentence: “We invite you to join with UNESCO to do whatever it takes to save children’s lives”. [Unless, of course, you are Israeli.]

A Hawke

2008-06-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

Some years back in the course of work I met a man whose family name was Hawke. When our business was completed I asked him, if he were related in some way to Horatio Hawke the distinguished British naval officer of the early 19th century. Mr. Hawke responded in the negative and told me that the name was that of his paternal grandfather, a Native American. I was puzzled and asked about the final 'e'. He answered that his grandfather had added the 'e' in the belief that this would make his name more American.

An Exaltation of Larks

2008-06-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

One of the glories of the English language is its seemingly endless plasticity of style and felicity of phraseology. Among many examples are such usages as "an exaltation of larks", "a pride of lions", “a pod of whales”, or "a gaggle of geese". Experience in a university setting suggests the following:

A byzantine of chancellors.
An evasion of deans.
A timidity of professors.
An opacity of students.
A deviousness of trustees.

From a wider domain, one might add:
A corruption of lobbyists, and
A sty of congressmen.

Flotsam

2008-05-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

A dirty old man is a normal young man grown somewhat long in the tooth.

The vacuity of much of Philosophy of Science is manifest in its irrelevance to the practice of science.

A frustacean is a mateless lobster.

People who live in Klein bottles may throw stones.

Any academic discipline with science in its title is probably not.

The difference between a glitsch and a transient is that the latter does have an explanation.

Someone once characterized psychoanalysis as surgery without anesthesia. Quite appropriate. What should be noted is that the patient wields the scalpel.

The difference between a gizmo and a gizmoid is that latter has no moving parts.

Any problem can be solved promptly provided one can determine which variant of Murphy's Law is operating to frustrate a successful resolution.

The reason an old dog can't be taught new tricks is that he has acquired a dense, impervious crust of too many preconceptions.

An activist is a person who, for whatever reason, is incapable of controlling his own life, and thus devotes himself to controlling other people’s lives.

The process which begins with the conception of a human infant and terminates with its birth was not provided by the Lord with a warranty as to the workmanship of the final product.

Should a Jew forget who he is, someone will remind him.