We subscribe to Epoch Times, the paper newspaper. Even so, I immediately delete almost all of their emails, as they stack up and are mostly about Trump, and are mostly unread by me. They contain a lot of tease headlines, as in “shocking” news and court rulings and such. I regard Trump as a false leader, put in place to prevent the rise of a real one, not that I see any on the horizon. I was shocked to find out the guy is 78 years old – Reagan’s age was an issue when he was elected – he was 70 at the time. Biden was 78, now 82. What are we, the geriatric republic? (Asked the 74-year-old.)

But then I realize that at that level they don’t count votes. It’s all a dog and pony show. Trump might go to jail, we are told, perhaps creating an insurrection, another January 6, if you will. If sentenced he might have to move to Santa Catarina.

I dropped my subscription to Epoch Times maybe a year ago, and then my wife said she enjoyed it. I called them to reinstate the subscription, and they said it had never been cancelled. I regard that as an excellent customer retention program.

Often enough ET will run a story that resonates with me, such as Climate Change being a hoax – this week they had no less than three stories that grabbed:

Continue reading “Epoch Times … and other matters” →

If you think that you as readers and commenters have trouble with WordPress, so do I. I had a couple of typos I wanted to fix in the piece below, and so called it up for edit, fixed them, and then WP offered me not “Update” but instead “Publish”, but I thought it was normal and pushed the button. The new piece now sat on top of the old, but all comments and likes had been stripped. I was able to recover the original from trash, make the fixes and then not “update” but rather “publish” one more time, but this time the comments and likes were intact.

Each time I did that a new email went out to the blog followers, who if they still follow the blog wonder what in the hell is going on, the same post being republished three times. Me too.

Now to publish a comment, since I have been involuntarily signed out of my own blog, I must reenter my login info, even as every time I do that I tell it to keep me signed in. I’d like to move this blog to a new venue, but fear 1) censorship (WordPress leaves us alone) 2) my own ineptitude that might destroy the thousands of posts, one or two of them pretty good, that reside here.

I am open to suggestions.

I have often wondered how it would turn out if I sat down to write here with absolutely nothing on my mind.

OK: Here goes.

Continue reading “Nothing to say” →

We’ve been traveling for over a week now, Wilmington, Delaware (as opposed to Wilmington, North Carolina), and Long Island.

In Wilmington I have a cousin and her spouse, two very gracious hosts who put up with us for four nights until we left via Uber for a flight out of Philadelphia. During our time there we saw much of the DuPont estate as enhanced by various stewards, the most remarkable that of Pierre, who in the 1930s opened his estate (Longwood) to the public. The whole area is beautifully managed, flowers and trees of every imaginable variety. We walked in the rain among the vegetation and fountains, barely aware of the precip.

Most impressively, left behind at Longwood is a pipe organ of massive size, surely among the largest in the world. There are more than 10,000 pipes varying in size from less than a pencil to six inches in girth. The instrument can reproduce sounds from a bass drum to a very high pitched piccolo. We were treated to a concert put on by the controlling computer. Once every year organ players of all levels of talent are given five minutes each on the beast. My cousin, an accomplished organ player, has not taken advantage, but she should. While at their home she treated us to Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Memories from the stage play Cats, and did not miss a note. Her husband gave us a polonaise, a complicated Chopin piano piece played with intensity and great skill. I watched as his eyes, half closed, guided his fingers racing up and down the keyboard, all without benefit of sheet music. (He is also an accomplished trumpet player.)

Last Saturday we attended a concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra, some unusual pieces by way of intro, and then the Fifth Symphony by Finland’s Jean Sibelius. I suggested we attend, hoping for a rendition of Finlandia, often proposed to be Finland’s national anthem, but no such piece was played. The Fifth we were treated to was gripping, with several interludes of great power from the entire orchestra at once. My cousin and her husband had more in-depth criticism than I can manage. I can only say I was moved.

Our Uber drive to Philadelphia Airport was early morning, and I sat in the front seat with the driver. The night before at a pizza joint I watched bits and pieces of the Phillies vs the Marlins, so I broached the subject, and for the entire trip we talked sports. He knew not only Phillies and Eagles, but Packers, Broncos, and even some Cincinnati Reds. Make note when in Philly, it is a rabid sports town, so that you’ll never be at a loss for words if you know even a bit of the Philadelphia teams. (We did not cover the Flyers.)

That morning we flew to LaGuardia, and the next four days were spent doing family business, which leads to my sitting here at Aloft, a hotel run by Marriott, waiting for a shuttle to LaGuardia. My impressions of Delaware, Pennsylvania and Long Island: Lush vegetation and birds. Northern Long Island is especially charming, narrow roads through beautiful well-kept-up homes with views of Long Island Sound. As we moved closer to LaGuardia, the buildings got more run down, and where we are staying, the streets are lined with litter. Many of the hotel staff know no English, not that they should, so it is a veritable Tower of Babble.

That’s New York, a mixed bag from lush wealth and beauty to run down areas where the native language is a mixed bag. Our first morning here was in Flushing, and the population is largely Chinese, strong and accomplished people who are a credit to our melting pot, a work in progress.

Back today to Colorado and our high-elevation life, Douglas Firs and aspen and very little in the way of bird variety save a few migrants passing through on their way to the Boreal Forrests of Canada. Each place has its unique charm. Ours only lacks the persistent precipitation seen here. We get our share, and what the ground does not absorb makes its way to Denver reservoirs. Without them, Denver would still be a small remnant of a gold rush town.

“The global climate change debate has gone badly wrong. Many mainstream environmentalists are arguing for the wrong actions and for the wrong reasons, and so long as they continue to do so, they put all our futures in jeopardy. (Political philosopher Thomas Wells)

I ran across the above quotation at a talk given by Dr. Judith Curry at the Global Warming Policy Foundation. I had never heard of Thomas Wells, and so looked him up. I like the idea that he is a philosopher, as his mission in life is to think, possibly even to think better than the rest of us. (Alex Epstein, who is in the links on this blog, is also a philosopher. At the end of this piece I am posting a video exchange he had with former Senator Barbara Boxer, using just a few words to tear her a new one.

Continue reading “Political Correctness as an intimidation tool” →

The above is not an active video, just a screen grab. The reason – it is on Ab’s Fakeotube at Fakeologist. Use this link to access the video. I have watched it, and posted about it too. I encourage others to do so too.

Continue reading “Ends and Odds” →