Here's a thought: If you want news, don't turn on the TV.

April 15, 2012:

Well, it's two years later and the war in Iraq may be over. I'm not sure what's going on there, but, for sure, we are still in Afghanistan, proving that we are dumber than the Russians who were there 10 years with no benefit and we have now outlasted them. Damn, Orwell was right again. I hate that part.

April 15, 2010:

It is hard to believe that another year has come and gone and I have, once again, paid my taxes without having any idea where my money is going. I suppose I am mostly paying for the endless wars in the East and for innumerable junkets for congressmen on a bender. I guess that's democracy. It is hard to believe that we recently ended a year long debate about whether Americans should be healthy. Let's hope something constructive comes out of that madness. It is hard to remain optimistic. Well, 2010 is the end of the decade and maybe all's well that ends well. Personally I am hoping the Mayans are correct and an asteroid destroys all life on Earth two years from this December. I say enough is enough. The recent eruption of the volcano in Iceland has given us a small taste of what is to come.

June 12, 2010:

With state after state on the brink of financial ruin the federal government continues to funnel hundreds of billions of much needed dollars to a war far away that has no purpose other than to make a few people very, very rich and to save face from having to admit that we could do no better than the Russians. This month the escapade in Afghanistan has become the longest war in American history because the American people don't see it on the TV and only a few poor families are asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. In Orwell's book 1984 there was a never ending war in Eastasia that sounded like the stuff of fiction until life in the 21st century. The current madness will endure because we do not have a fair election system and most citizens see no value in getting involved in civics. Jefferson's informed and educated electorate is a two hundred year old dream that has yet to become a reality. One can only hope that we, as a people, will eventually wake up and smell the pungent mix of gunpowder and bullshit.

June 13, 2010:

I just read that they have discovered the world's largest deposit of lithium in Afghanistan and you know what that means––we ain't ever leavin', so unpack your bags boys and girls. We are here to stay!

August 26, 2010

Today is the first day of classes for the Fall 2010 semester, the beginning of my 46th year of teaching at City College and my 9th year as chair of the department. I also heard that last week was the end of the Iraq War and it ended with our combat troops sneaking out in the middle of the night. I am old enough to remember that we did win a war in my lifetime and I can still envision the Japanese in defeat on the deck of the Battleship Missouri. But that was 1945 and we've had a lot wars since then, but we didn't win any of them. The picture of the people hanging on to the last helicopter to leave the American Embassy in Saigon said it all. I will be waiting to hear about the victory parade for our Iraqi veterans as they march up the Canyon of Heroes. I hope it is soon because we could use a little boost of morale around here.

January 1, 2011

I have two hopes for the new year that seem quite trivial but speak volumes about the dishonesty of the world in which we currently live. First, I would love people to stop using the word "awesome" for insignificant events, and secondly, I would love the movie theaters to stop saying "and now our feature presentation" when there is nothing preceding it but coming attractions. I am old enough to remember when for 50 cents you got to see  six cartoons, a travel log, Movietone News, a B film, and a feature presentation. Of course, it was Saturday afternoon and the Irish matron constantly pointed her flashlight at us rowdies and told us to shut up.

Of course, what I would really like is for people to get real and stop the endless wars that H. G. Wells warned us about in his prophetic 1984. We could sure use those hundreds of billions of dollars to heal our sick, teach our children, and fix the bridges over which I travel every day.

Summer 2011

The dysfunctional government in Washington DC has proven once and for all that since January 2001 we are all residents of the Age of Bullshit. This new age is characterized by elected officials who have no respect or concern for truth or justice. They can say or do anything they want and will never be called to account. They can make up facts and deny science to their hearts content and the media will never report that the Emperor Has No Clothes. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has recently written a memoir that spotlights this Brave New World. First he made up stuff, like WMDs, while he was in office and now has rewritten history to prove that he was the infallible genius who guided this nation through troubled waters and everyone was a moron. He has been on every TV talk show known to mankind and no interviewer has challenged his veracity, only because this is The Age of Bullshit, and the deeper it is piled the better. I pray that the Mayan prediction of the end of civilization in December 2012 is correct because this has got to stop and we mortals seem incapable of pulling the plug. I will not be unhappy to hear the an asteroid is headed towards Earth and the mad dance we all find ourselves in will end in a blaze of glory.

In the mean time, how about term limits for everybody inside the beltway?