I am, as you readers know, something of a musician. I can no longer play anything but the radio (tee hee). Although I listen mostly to classical stuff these days, I have long been a fan of American popular music. In my dotage these days I kind of dig the lyrics. Oscar Hammerstein had a …
Author Archives: rfcan
An Eye for An Eye
One of the 10 Commandments I learned as a child was phrased, “Thou shall not kill”. Most of us understand it to mean that homicide which is not justified by self defense or other mitigating factors is a grave sin, a mortal sin in most religions. Does the government have the moral right to execute …
Go, Joe Go…..or should Joe Go?
A short resume: Born in 1942. Served as U.S.Senator representing Delaware, from 1972 until becoming Vice President to Barack Obama. He sat out POTUS 45’s single term, then ran for, and was elected President in 2020. Joe Biden has not had it easy. Shortly before being sworn in as senator, his wife and infant daughter …
A Sting
Early in the last decade of the last century, I was working at the DEA’s Mid-Atlantic Lab, in The Nation’s Capitol. We provided analysis of FBI’s drug exhibits. One evening just before quitting time, a couple of agents came by. They needed some “crack” cocaine to use in a “sting” operation. I identified an exhibit …
Miscellany
Random thoughts and trivial concerns: Ever listen to a commercial (I’m sure you have) where the advertised stuff is claimed to perform better than the leading brand? Ever wonder why is it still the “leading brand”? Then, there is a product which has been “clinically proven”. What does that mean? When I was a kid, …
Jose Can You See
Taken from a cheesy joke I heard back in the day: A spanish speaking immigrant is taken to a ballgame. Asked how he felt about the experience, he replied that he was touched by the concern expressed by fans for his well being: they all sang, “ Jose, Can You See”? Told you it was …
War is Hell
Title is taken from remarks by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman during the siege of Atlanta during the American Civil War. Here at THE HOME, we have a Wall of Honor, with photos of men and women veterans. Most of us are, at least, in our seventies. We come from times when we needed large …
Trial of the Centuries
Trial of the Centuries Orenthal James Simpson recently passed. His trial, for the murder of his former wife and a friend of hers, consumed much of the years 1994-1995. He was aquitted of the killings after hiring (assembling?) a “dream team” of some of the most famous defense attorneys of that time. Fortunately (in my …
The Fair Sex
Is this the beginning of the end for my persona – the White man? I don’t think there is any doubt. Some other foods for thought: as a former colleague at Bishop O’Connell High School (a Cuban immigrant) observed a few decades ago, the USA will be a majority Spanish-speaking nation by mid century, if …
Inconvenient Truth Revisited
At the beginning of this century, former VP Al Gore began to blow the whistle on what was then called “global warming”. By that time, climate scientists had begun to notice that average temperatures on Planet Earth had begun to rise. Although this is hardly an unprecedented phenomenon (the planet has warmed and cooled through …
Rogernarc 