Rogernarc

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 numbers of combatants. So much so that we needed a draft to fill ranks. Although the Army was the only service which utilized this recruitment method, the other services were filled with volunteers seeking to avoid the draft (present company included). The draft largely ended in the 1970’s. As a result, a much smaller share of the populace currently serves. Will we need a Wall of Honor 20 years from now?

No, I don’t see us turning arms into plowshares any time soon. What seems more likely is us humans blowing up this beautiful haven. Or rendering it uninhabitable through our insatiable greed.

I worry for the little kids in the war zones, starving, maimed, hearing and witnessing stuff nobody, at any age, should. How many PTSD cases are out there?

Speaking of PTSD, one thing I have noticed: The guys who have experienced the worst, that is those who were shot at, are least likely to talk about it. I was just a kid after WWII ended. My Uncle Alfred, one of the most significant people in my early life, went through OCS and got a commission. He served in the infantry after D-Day. He never talked of his experiences, and developed a problem with alcohol. He may well have been a PTSD victim. I think it was called “shell shock” at the time. I’ll never know.

I haven’t seen Oppenheimer. Just as well. I might be reminded that we developed, in the last century, the means to end our species once and for all. Along with most of God’s creatures. Again, during the Memorial Day Concert, I noticed a new service added to the Armed Forces Medley – the Space Force. A new capability for our elimination?

No, Mr. Putin. War doesn’t solve anything.

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 humble opinion) OJ ended up doing time for other offenses later in life. Who of us living at that time can forget the lengthy chase up the freeway? “If it fits, you must acquit ”.

In this century, we are experiencing several trials of a former president, which has never happened before. The defendant has teams of attorneys handling trials in Miami. FL, Washington DC, and state cases in Atlanta, GA and New York, NY. At this writing, they have managed to kick the can down the road on all but the New York case. Expensive stuff, these !legal fees. Wonder who’s paying them. Although he is probably not a billionaire, he seems to be able to afford whatever representation he needs.

Then, there is one Joe Morelli. Joe has mental issues and lives in Endicott, NY. Joe’s crime? Verbally harassing Marjorie Taylor Greene, via text. For this crime, Joe served an 82 day sentence in a federal prison. Joe was defended by a public defender, for which Joe was one client among, probably, several hundred.

So, we have one from the last century who probably did two murders, one from this century who (to take the most serious crime) fomented a coup on the U.S. capitol, and some poor soul who vented on a congressional gadfly. The only one who did jail time. EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW. Indeed.

How many Joe Morelli’s are out there? Thousands. How many are incarcerated simply out of inability to pay court costs, raise bail money or get a “speedy” trial? The Home of the Free (because) of the Brave has the highest per capita imprisonment in the free world. Meanwhile, we have a so-far unconvicted felon walking around. His crimes? Fomenting a bloody insurrection. Stealing of numerous classified documents – for what use? These are only the federal raps.

Yes, it’s complicated. What logistics must be accomplished to imprison someone with Secret Service protection, among other issues. Don’t know, but it’s not rocket science.

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 current trends continue. The nation is becoming increasingly “mongrelized”, as younger generations increasingly mate and marry across racial lines (in my view, this contributes to strengthening the human race). I have blogged in the past about the growing marginalization of males in general. Are we entering the Golden Age of Women? Sure seems that way.

I remember vividly, in the early 1990’s, my recently graduated daughter coming back to live with mom and dad. No, it wasn’t supposed to happen that way, but the economy had soured, and jobs for recent grads were not forthcoming. To say that Jen felt badly about this is putting it very kindly. We were pleased when, in the space of several months, she had gotten into a graduate program and landed her first professional job…and then moved out. I don’t have any stats on this, but it sure seems like a lot of guys have moved back with M & D and are going nowhere – in a time when the unemployment rate is, effectively, zilch.

As an old goat living in what used to be called a nursing home, women greatly outnumber men in the resident population. Sure, some of this can be attributed to the tendency of men in my generation to marry younger women, but the morbidity/mortality stats tell us that women live longer. I’ve pointed out that the majority of graduates from colleges, law and medical schools are female, and the gap seems to be widening. In the upper levels of corporate management, the so-called glass ceiling is cracking more and more. Even Congress is beginning to close the gap between the genders, albeit too slowly. We are among the last holdouts in advanced western democracies who still have not elected a female head of state (or, have we? In 2016, the female candidate outpolled the male by somewhere north of six million votes), but we are getting closer.

I can’t help wondering whether this recent push to restrict abortion rights isn’t the old guard’s final, last gasp attempt to put women in their places. The last gasp of (white) male supremacy. After all, science hasn’t figured out how to get men to give birth yet- thank God! My views on abortion: it’s homicide, it’s sinful, but in the final analysis (yes, I was a chemist once), it’s really none of government’s business.

When I first joined DEA in the late 1960’s, there were no female agents (nor, for that matter, forensic chemists). At this writing, at least two of the most recent DEA administrators have been women. In November 2023, Admiral Lisa Franchetti became Chief of Naval Operations. Even March Madness seems to have been usurped by women. Need I say more?

So, what to do about the other gender? I think that guys need to bond more, at the very least. Even in my generation. At the “home”, we have a breakfast of sorts. I go downstairs a couple days a week to feed. When I come off the elevator, I am greeted by a table of women in lively conversation. In an adjoining room, however, a table of men sit around a table in relative silence. Younger guys interact even less. Many people trace this to the advent of smartphones. Why talk, after all, when you can play games?

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 its estimated four billion or so years of history), this seems to have coincided with the ascent of Homo sapiens in a very short timeframe.

Humans are probably the only warm blooded creatures lacking a fur coat. To help us out, God provided brains so that we could devise means to keep warm. Fire. Combustion of carbon-based stuff: plants, wood, anything that burns. Chemical reactions that are exothermic (big word meaning they give off heat). They can all be summed up as:

C + O₂ —–> CO₂ + [HEAT]

Feeling warmer?

Unfortunately, CO₂ accumulates in the atmosphere. Being heavier than air, it basically hangs around for centuries, and interferes with heat being released into outer space. For this reason, they call CO₂ (carbon dioxide) a greenhouse gas. To make matters worse, the stuff is chemically unreactive, which makes it harder to get rid of by converting to something else.

Already, the increased energy in the atmosphere has had major impacts on climate. Hurricanes are more frequent, and more severe, to the point where some climate scientists are suggesting that Category 5 is no longer sufficient to describe the worst storms – we need a Category 6! Polar ice is melting rapidly, causing ocean levels to rise. Calendar year 2023 was the hottest on record. A decade ago, climate scientists set out an average increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius as the point of no return, so to speak: we are just about there, already.

What can we do about this? We, obviously, can start by burning less “fossil fuels” (named for all those carbon-based forms of life buried beneath our surface). There are technologies being developed to “capture” carbon dioxide and store it….someplace. We also need to derive energy from alternate sources. A great deal has been accomplished, but so much more needs to be done, with very little time left before a good part of the planet becomes uninhabitable.

With time running out, numerous issues remain unresolved. In this country, we like our creature comforts. We consume, per capita, many, many times the energy used by the rest of the world…because we can. At the same time, we lecture to the rest of the world that other people need to consume less energy. What about those who extract oil, gas, coal, etc., for fun and profit? And get rich as a result? Developing other non-fossil fuel (solar, wind, fusion) substitutes costs lots of money. Are the rich willing to part with some of these ill-gotten gains to pay for this?

Speaking of time running out, mine is almost up. I’d like to think none of this is my fault. But I know better. I feel for my grandson and his generation who will be around to deal with the mess we have made of this beautiful planet God created for our enjoyment.

More Random Thoughts

Did you know smoking pot can make you sick to your stomach? I didn’t know, either, until I read a piece in The Washington Post the other day, by Leona Wen, who made her bones as Baltimore City Health Commissioner. Dr Wen has written a number of articles in media since the start of the covid pandemic. She describes something termed Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, which affects a small percentage of marijuana users. Puking in excess while high – who knew? Dr.Wen did not suggest that most, or even a significant number of users are going to suffer bouts of vomiting, only one wonders what else can surface as cannabis products appear in greater amounts on the market. We tend to oversimplify pot as two substances: CBD which alleviates seizures, and THC, which gets you high. I’ll spare you the chemistry; suffice it to point out that there are a plethora of substances native to the pot plant, about the vast majority of which little is known. No, it’s not FDA to the rescue. Marijuana is not currently approved as a drug.

Speaking of which, STOP THE PRESSES: Just this week, DEA has initiated action to reschedule marijuana, at long last. The drug is currently listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which lists other bad actors such as LSD and heroin. The reason? The drug has no accepted use in medicine. No, it’s nowhere near as dangerous or habit forming as other drugs listed there, but it has no accepted use, yadda, yadda. Catch 22. Well, maybe it does – or at least some of its components. Its new legal home would be in Schedule III. This would enable research into its effects, among other things, which is sorely needed.

Immigrants and migrants. The terms are used interchangeably. Outside of “indians” as we used to call native Americans (among other pejoratives), we are all either immigrants or descendants of immigrants. I realize we can’t fit all who want to live here, in here, but without them, who is going to do our scut work? Surely, we can develop a humane, fair process for letting people in (don’t tell me they would take jobs from Americans, especially since large portions of our male population seems to have dropped out).

We have at least two major active war zones going. Did you ever consider what the kids in these places are going through? Have you ever been around an explosion ? The noise, and shock, are major contributors to PTSD in adults, as we know only too well. What about small children? I’m not talking about injured or wounded kids, just ones hearing blasts, perhaps watching their dwelling fall apart. Most of them will never get therapy. Are we to cope with pathologies in future? Might some become terrorists?

What’s the most serious form of cancer? Arguably, it’s cancer of the pancreas. While it’s not, perhaps, as bad as some (none of them are any damn good, anyway), but most are treatable if discovered early. Unfortunately, no tests are available to detect this one. By the time symptoms are observed, it’s already too late. This cancer claimed the lives of Alex Trebek, Steve Jobs and numerous other luminaries – and my father. Whenever I have a physical, I always ask the doctor whether a test has been devised. The answer is always no.

You Gotta Be Kidding

I have written posts on both of the (probable) major party candidates for 2024. I wrote one entitled, “The Worst Ever” a few weeks before the 2020 election, and one (Bookends) a few months after Joe Biden took office. Since that time, Biden’s predecessor has been indicted in several jurisdictions for various crimes and misdemeanors, in at least two states (Georgia and New York) and Federal courts in D.C. and Florida. Biden, meanwhile, has passed sweeping infrastructure initiatives, has brought about a major effort to engage NATO in helping Ukraine fend off Russian aggression, tamed inflation and avoided an almost certain recession. On the date I’m writing this, the NYSE has had the highest closing ever. All of this with a slim-to-none majority in both houses of Congress during the first two years of his term. A widely predicted Republican wave in the 2022 midterms turned out to be a trickle, at best.

Yet, with about 11 months to go before the 2024 election, Biden is several points behind the former president in the polls. I know, I know it’s very early in the game, so to speak. Yet, it borders on the unbelievable that this decent, relatively successful chief executive is even close to this turkey. Age undoubtedly has much to do with it, but the GOP front runner is only a few years younger. Unfortunately, I believe much of it can be summed up in lyrics to an old song: “There’s No Business like Show Business”. One of the few things the guy did well at was his stint in “The Apprentice”. He is a superb actor, and the MAGA crowd eats it up.

Meanwhile, we keep hearing of additional aspects of his behavior, almost on a daily basis. The New York Times ran a piece yesterday (December 15) detailing how a “folder”, reportedly as thick as four reams or so of paper, and containing very highly sensitive classified material went “missing” in the final day of his term, and has yet to be found. Who took it, and why? Was some of the stuff to be sold to pay legal bills? Fortunately for the former president, one of his appointees to the federal bench is in charge of the trial. And will probably slow walk it until well past the election. The strategy? Reelect him, and he can make it go away via a pardon.

Ok, have fun with pollsters. You may not really mean it. But consider:

Will we experience a day (or more) of retribution?
If you are a member of a minority group, is this who you really want?
The man seems to admire dictators.
Do you really want a convicted felon in the White House?

Yes, America, we survived four years of sheer incompetence. Do we want to roll the dice again? Ben Franklin perhaps framed the situation best in 1776: Yes, gentlemen, we have a republic. If we can keep it.

On January 6, 2021 an insurrection took place at the Capitol. There seems little doubt that the man set it up and encouraged the mob. He continues to walk around free. If you, or I, had done this, we would be in prison for a long time. How do I know this? There are scores of foot soldiers (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers) already doing time. While I know it takes a lot of “due process” to convict and imprison a former President (after all, it’s never been done before), does it seem fair to you?

If the man has any talent, it lies in performance, as in acting. As little use I have for him, I find his shtick quite entertaining. Of course, what he says cannot, by any sentient person, be believed. The Washington Post stopped counting after several thousand whoppers. The truth, however, is that most listeners know it’s BS, but don’t care. Maybe we need to start caring.

Computers – A Senior’s Journey

Being In my mid-80’s, I was born in the age of the abacus. Processors (UNIVAC comes to mind) needed whole rooms, special ventilation, etc., all the while having considerably less computing power than today’s cellphones, or, for that matter, with most calculators. My first brush with the big ones was in a course in grad school. We were to have the computer analyze data from a chemical kinetics experiment. We had to type stuff onto individual cards, which were sorted and loaded into the device. Every card had to be totally correct, or the whole exercise would be aborted. For someone like me, no way!

Fast forward a couple of decades. I needed to enter data from real stuff, on cocaine potency, or some such, into a PC, a Leading Edge processor (remember those?). This thing had a core memory of 512 kilobytes: Imagine that!

At this point, I need to get technical. A byte is a measure of data. 1,000 of these equal a kilobyte (or something like that). Sort of metric system lingo. 1,000 kilobytes equal a megabyte. 1,000 megabytes amount to a gigabyte. At this point, we’ve about entered the 21st Century. A couple of decades into it, we’re talking terabytes (1,000 gigabytes), with, seemingly, no end in sight.

Near the end of the last century, I retired from civil service and got a (real) job teaching high school and college chem. Since I no longer had access to the powerful Leading Edge gizmo, I had a neighborhood kid build me one. It had 512 kilobytes! State of the art! On my first Open School night (1994) I asked for a show of hands of people who had Internet access at home. About 10% did. The following year: About 30%. By the fourth year, about everybody. This was, of course, a Catholic high school in one of the wealthiest suburbs in the Washington, DC area.

I tried getting my students to process data they had acquired in chem lab, with mixed success, at best. The process was much easier than my experience in grad school. We entered data, for example, on a keyboard directly into a PC. I also got them to do Internet searches. I tried to impress on them that just because the Internet said something, it was not an excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount. For example, kids, the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws website is not an unbiased, objective source on pot legalization. How much simpler it was to teach in those days!

Unfortunately, fifteen years after retirement, I find myself falling further and further from the mainstream, so to speak. We recently had to bid farewell to a 10-year old laptop. Our son bought us a replacement, which turned out to be a tablet. I still haven’t been able to get it to talk to my printer. I have learned a few things, however. Seems tablets are designed to work better with the cloud. The what???

We are bombarded with them as long as we watch TV, listen to radio or otherwise participate in American life. Even public radio and TV have begun allowing them, albeit in abbreviated form. Though ad copywriters have jazzed them up to reach the younger generations (who spend most of the money, after all) there are recurrent themes which are still used, which, as a public service, I will attempt to deconstruct for you.

“Clinically Proven”. Used mostly with drug ads. “Clinically”. Conjours up some kind of medical facility. When I was a kid, “clinics” were places where poor people went to be treated. Nowadays, it sort of means a facility or process where products are tested on people to see if they work. “Proven”. Implies that efficacy has been confirmed. Absolutely. No question. As a scientist in an earlier life, I would ask, where’s the data? Who conducted the study? More than likely, it’s just a throwaway line. Is anybody convinced?

“Fight”. We hear this a lot during election season. “I’ll fight for you. I’ll fight for your right to (fill in the blanks). How? Fisticuffs? Pistols? A rasslin match? More than likely, just empty words (except, maybe, for the U.S.House…). Didn’t people once fight duels? Seems to have fallen out of fashion.

“Pure”. I remember an Ivory Soap ad from childhood. “Ivory Soap is 99 and 44/100% Pure. It Floats!”. Lots of things would if they had air blown in during the manufacturing process, but how is this indicative of purity. Here again, chemistry gets in the way of understanding a simple concept. To a physical scientist, a mixture is defined as two ore more substances blended together. A “pure” substance is one consisting of a single entity. That’s all, Folks!

We all know we need to eat more veggies. You may not care for the taste, texture, etc. of vegetables. But hey Good news!. You can now get these diet staples in a chewable form! Just like candy! Goody, goody gumdrops (I mean that literally)! “Balance of Nature”: Doesn’t that sound healthful?

“Not your father’s Oldsmobile”. A catchphrase from back in the day. Cars going in all sorts of terrain (dirt roads, mountain passes, sand dunes, beaches). More likely, stuck in traffic, but they don’t show this in ads. BTW, Oldsmobiles are no longer made. In case you didn’t know.

Ads seem to come in seasons, so to speak. We just got through the election season. Didn’t know how evil my candidates were. No wonder we are in such a state! Now that political ads have abruptly ended, we came into Open Season. No, I don’t mean hunting. It’s time to reexamine your healthcare options! Ads seem to be aimed (fired?) at seniors. Guess we need more help. Must be profitable for insurance companies. Aren’t some literally offering a free lunch? Next, the Xmas shopping season. Can’t hardly wait.

Then we have the cruise ads. Wouldn’t you want to “explore the world in comfort”? At least one version of Viking’s commercial offers child-free sailing. Might appeal to the Bill Maher types; to me, no kids is kind of depressing.

Another ad targeted at seniors. Seems like a substance first detected…”in jellyfish” could protect us from, er, being less sharp (or make us more sharp)? No, it is not being touted as an over-the-counter cure for dementia, but who knows? Has prevagen been clinically proven? Not yet, but stay tuned.

Just a few examples. I’m sure any of you could come up with more.

Mail, News and T.V.

Prior to my retirement from DEA, the powers that be sent me to a retirement seminar. We learned many useful things, but the one which sticks to this day – do not watch the news. It’s too conducive to depression. The U.S mail is also a major contributor. On any given day, I receive numerous entreaties to contribute (some are legit, others…..who knows).

A recent missive from the Christian Appalachian Project (I’m pretty sure it’s for real) introduced me to “Lisa, a mother of two, who knows what it’s like to scrape together enough to buy healthy (sic) food and essential clothing for her little girls”. The plea goes on to say that “[s]adly, she’s not alone. In fact, one in five children in Appalachia is hungry”. Where is Appalachia? Don’t know, really, but it seems to expand to more and more of the USA between the oceans. If it is true that the oceans are about to rise to claim increasing amounts of seashore real estate, that leaves less and less Lands of Plenty in these United States. Are you nervous yet??

Then there are homes for abused and abandoned children. We give a small pittance to ones in New York City (Covenant House) and Chicago (Mercy Home for Boys & Girls). Homes for unwanted, inconvenient children. Were any of them conceived as a result of rape or incest? Ya think? Yes, abortion is evil, sinful and a form of homicide, but those who advocate for its prohibition should consider what to do with the lives they save. All too often, after birth, yer on your own, kid.

If that doesn’t grab you, The Washington Post’s October 21^st edition carried a lengthy article concerning a decline in life expectancy in these United States. Apparently, on average, a Japanese person, as well as a Portugese citizen, live about five years longer that an American of a similar age. Causes include bad food habits, widespread opioid and other drug and alcohol abuse, suicides, gun violence and inadequate medical care.

We get numerous letters similar to the ones described above. Teens and childen kicked out of abusive homes in big cities. Not to mention the rest of the world. But the U.S. is the richest nation the planet has ever seen. Can’t we do better than this? If you are Christian, consider the words of Jesus: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.

Hardly a day goes by without hearing of another unprecedented event in our climate. July was the hottest month on record. Pakistan and Greece have been flooded almost apocalyptically. A Category 5 hurricane just slammed into Apoculpo, Mexico. Never happened before. This morning’s Post (October 30) published a front page piece on the effect of climate warming on little kids in Yemen, a war torn nation on the Arabian peninsula. Yemen sits cheek-to-jowl with oil rich (filthy rich) nations such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia. So, why can’t they just go cool off in the air conditioning? Just like the oil barons. Was it St. Luke who observed that the pursuit of money is the root of all evil? Is climate change for real? Ask the babies and little kids of Yemen who are being parboiled.

And, yes, we have two major wars going down. Just what we need, not to mention people in Palestine, Israel, Russia and Ukraine. As a former president observed (in a somewhat different context), there are fine people. On both sides. In the case of the Middle East, there are sins on both sides.

While all this goes on, Congress is stymied by a lack of a Speaker. Well, no, the GOP finally selected a backbencher. Now we can get serious about government shutdowns and all the useful things the House gets to do. Don’t you feel better already?

Finally, to break the monotony, we have had our (un)regularly scheduled mass shooting event, this time in Maine. At last count, only 18 lives were lost. The perp had an arsenal of legally purchased weaponry. He had recently been hospitalized for mental problems, hearing voices, etc. Apparently, some of the I’s had been dotted,T’s crossed, but to extend the cliches, dots were not connected. The system worked, until it didn’t. When will we realize that the best armed citizenry in the world is too well armed? The ultimate solution? Get the guns off the streets!

There you have it. I watch the news. I’ve only myself to blame.

Merry Minuet

They’re Rioting in Africa,

They’re Starving in Spain

There’s Hurricanes in Florida,

And Texas needs rain

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.

The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles

Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch.

And I don’t like anybody very much……..

You get the drift. In a quote attributed to Rodney King, “Can’t we just get along”? The little ditty, recorded by the Kingston Trio in the 1950’s, only illustrates the old French saying, “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” (the more things change, the more they stay the same). Why do people prey on others?

A very few examples: White European settlers vs “Indians”. Yes, I know, the settlers wanted land. As children, most of us were taught that the indigenous people got along with the settlers (the myth surrounding the first Thanksgiving comes to mind). The reality, however is starkly different. For starters, the Europeans wiped out numerous natives from disease. Over the next centuries, the natives were routed from their lands and herded onto “reservations”. It is little wonder that diseases of despair: poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction and other pathologies have all but wiped them out as a functioning people.

Then we have America’s Original Sin: Slavery. Although I’m not an expert in the field, it appears that wealthy (upper class?) Africans worked with the British and other maritime powers to buy “lower class” people to sell for a large profit to (wealthy) settlers in the New World. These folk needed the help: they were usually “gentlemen” who had never worked manually at anything.

Jews. Israel is very much in the news lately, while Hamas (proxy for Iran?) ravages the “Jewish state” for all it’s worth. Since its founding in 1948, Israel is the hands down success story in the Middle East. Its military can likely pound Hamas into the stone age. This is, however, an old, old story, ranging from progroms in the 19^th Century (think Fiddler on the Roof) to the Holocaust in the 20^th. Why? The Jews are too damn successful. The culture values education. Their people are much more likely to be professionals. Or shopkeepers. Or other business owners. This engenders envy on the part of less successful cultures.

I well remember going to college with numerous Jewish students, many of whom were trying to become MD’s. Med schools back in the day actively discriminated against them. Competition for grades was, to say the least, cutthroat. For example, (caution: chemistry lesson coming up….) I took a course in qualitative organic analysis. To determine which other elements were bonded to carbon, one conducted a “sodium fusion” test. Using a disposable test tube, we would heat sodium metal with the unknown and then plunge it into cold water, thus breaking the tube. Obviously, numerous test tubes were broken. Long before the semester ended, the stock room ran out of them. At the end of the semester, one student was found to have hoarded the whole supply. A Jewish kid looking to claw his way into medical school.

How about women? The “weaker sex” that outlives men, can endure much more suffering (check out childbearing, guys). Our groundbreaking republic didn’t allow them to vote for the first century of its existence. On the other hand, our British forbears had heads of state from the 17^th Century (Elizabeth I), the 19^th (Victoria) and Elizabeth II in the 20^th and 21^st. Israel had Golda Meir in the 1970’s. India, the world’s largest democracy, was ruled by Indira Ghandi. Then, the U.K. ‘s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, prevented Ronald Reagan from “going wobbly” in the last decade of the 20^th. Perhaps it is in the arts where humankind has mostly been deprived of female accomplishments through male chauvinism. Music has benefitted from the talents of Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Amy Beech and others who have never been recognized, or performed, nearly as much as men of inferior talent. The situation is changing rapidly in this century, as a consequence of male slackerhood. WAKE UP, GUYS!

Why do we hate so much? St. Luke proposed one solution: “The pursuit of money is the root of all evil”. Maybe so.

They’re Rioting in Africa

There’s Strife in Iran

What Nature Doesn’t Do to Us,

Will Be Done by Our Fellow Man