steinharterm

What is a conservative, anyway?

Allow me to oversimplify the world for a minute…let’s divide the world into conservatives and progressives. Progressives tend to downplay the importance of traditions and existing (old school?) institutions, calling for change, claiming they know how to remake social structures for the better. Conservatives tend to be more cautious. They say that things are moreContinue reading “What is a conservative, anyway?”

We have a mafia boss in charge

Here’s what it looks like to me….Trump is acting like a mafia boss trying to carve up the world with Putin the way heads of crime families operate. We can have Greenland, Canada, and Panama and Russia gets Ukraine and who knows what else. Russia can have the oil in the Arctic but in returnContinue reading “We have a mafia boss in charge”

The Populist Assault

This is the title of one subsection of a chapter in Yuval Noah Harari’s latest book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. The book was published last year, before the latest presidential election in the USA. However, this section about populism scares me….some excerpts from the book below:Continue reading “The Populist Assault”

I can’t stand the news any more

I start my day looking at the news, both online and by reading the NYTimes, when I am home to get the physical paper (i still enjoy that), These days it just gets me upset. For a while it was just the first section, with all the incredible things coming from the White House. NowContinue reading “I can’t stand the news any more”

What If We Get It Right?

I just finished this wonderful book by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. It caught my eye late last year given the vital importance of the impact of climate change, and all the hand-wringing over it. I bought a copy for my son, for Christmas. Last month, the President of Island Institute (Island Institute) sent me a copy,Continue reading “What If We Get It Right?”

I can’t work with her!

…and she can’t work with me. And we have learned that this is okay. Let me explain… Shortly after we were married we bought a house. Like many a young couple we thought getting a ‘fixer-upper’ would be a good investment and good fun for us. It was a good investment. It was not fun.Continue reading “I can’t work with her!”

You think this is funny?

I had dinner with an old friend recently. Inevitably the subject of Trump came up, and I shook my head at the most recent noises out of the asshole’s mouth, about taking over a couple of independent countries – Panama and Greenland. My friend said he thought it was all just funny, not even aContinue reading “You think this is funny?”

4 dogs

The above photo is of my wife (thankfully she never reads my blog so won’t yell at me for posting her photo) and two of our four dogs. During Thanksgiving we adopted a new pup, Gracie. She’s the black and white one – maybe some corgi, maybe some jack russell, who knows, who cares. SheContinue reading “4 dogs”

What is conservatism?

I was speaking with a friend of mine (who is still a friend) who asserted that he was planning to vote for Donald Trump “because he’s a conservative.” I decided not to explore what he meant by that but I ponder it now, assisted by Heather Cox Richardson’s book “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the StateContinue reading “What is conservatism?”

Why people vote for Trump

I am not voting for Donald Trump for President. I didn’t last time and wouldn’t consider it this time, for many reasons. I like nothing about this man. My reasons for not voting for Trump are not the subject of this post, however. I do know people who are voting for him and so IContinue reading “Why people vote for Trump”