The Chase

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)

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

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 Commonwealth in the 18th century - the right of any member of the parliament to veto any legislation it had passed.

Beware What you Search For!

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

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

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

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?