Liberty Drip

  I don’t remember it firsthand but there was surely a time in this great country of ours when we had culture. There was surely a time when men of all social strata took their wives to the theatre (live theatre, not the movies) or to the opera. I’m sure there was a time when museums were relevant. I’m willing to bet that books were discussed. I bet ideas were shared and dissected. I’m sure there were spirited debates around water coolers and on construction sites. I’m sure there was a time in this country when people could tell you who the first president was or who the speaker of the house was. I don’t remember such marvels, but I have no doubt they were real. It’s impossible to believe that we always sat in waiting rooms or in restaurants staring at devices, at street fights and clever cats, at the same stale jokes being repeated over and over again. There was a time when we engaged one another in conversation. This cannot be the stuff of imagination. This was real. I’ve heard ab...

 It's early morning and the gray is giving way to what will be a clear but muggy South Florida day. I am the eleventh person in one of lines formed on the sidewalk outside the Pembroke Pines DMV. I have business inside and although I have arrived two and a half hours before the office opens, I know there is a chance I won't get in. Readers who live in South Florida will understand that not having a driver license and a car is just not an option down here. I need to drive to feed my family, to run my business. Our lousy, unreliable public transportation system just doesn't cut it. I stand out there for close to two hours. Luckily, I brought my iPad and I'm reading to pass the time. Others are watching videos on their phones or listening to music or striking up conversations with their neighbors. I like to read. So I read. Around 8:30, I am now standing outside the building and a Very Mean Woman who works for the DMV is yelling at people, telling them they'd better ha...

  For the longest time, I’ve said that if you want to lose what little faith in humanity you may still have, spend a little time on Twitter (X.com). As I subjected myself to this torture this morning, I was reminded of why I say this. Sure, there are positive things on the platform, the occasional cute puppy or funny cat video, and some other stuff, but I gravitate toward the political. My hope for the future of my country erodes every time I log on. After President Biden’s abysmal, but not at all surprising, performance in last week’s debate against Donald Trump, many on the left have called for his resignation, hoping he will be replaced by someone more capable of defeating Trump. I think at this point, they’ll settle for someone capable of stringing together enough words to complete a sentence. As if to add more pressure to the candidate, they want the words to all come out in the right order. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be such a tall order. These are interesting ...

In Florida, our preferred grocery store chain is Publix, "Where Shopping is a Pleasure." The stores have always been bright, clean, and well-stocked. The employees were always friendly and helpful. They smiled when you spoke to them. They cared... these people are a memory.  Publix was the last best hope for people like myself, who worked in customer contact positions all their lives and were trained to treat customers well, to underpromise and overdeliver. We were trained to be good to our customers, or we were shown the door. I miss those days. I miss walking into a place of business and not being treated like an inconvenience. I'm here to spend my money and help you keep your job so you can have money, too. Don't be so ungrateful about it. I was aware of a steady, subtle decline in the quality of not only Publix's service, but the quality of their products, too. I was prompted to sit down and write this because the half & half I bought from Publix not a wee...

 My generation was among the last of the free-range kids. We played outside. Our parents had no idea where we were unless we were hungry, hurt, or in trouble. We were out with the sunrise and in with the streetlights... sometimes. We were free in a way my kids can only imagine and my grand-kids will never believe possible. Times were different, they were simpler. We really were free. All in one lifetime. All in one lifetime. We didn't know it but we were bobbing in the wake of the 60's counterculture revolution and Vietnam and Watergate. I remember the Iran Hostage situation being on the TV at night and on the front pages of newspapers and the covers of magazines. I remember the image of a blindfolded man and each day, the number was higher. And then there's Ron. He turned it around, didn't he? Well, maybe not but he got the hostages back and gave America hope again. He put us on the path to prosperity. At least, that was how it felt. Reagan was cool. He was happy and o...

  A pharmaceutical company creates a drug. They spend a lot of money to do this. Millions. Tens of millions. Sometimes hundreds of millions. All this before they have a single customer. Not a single pill sold. They’re operating in the red on this particular product. It’s a problem. A corporation exists to make money. It is not tasked with making the world a better place. Sure, there are many socially conscious entrepreneurs out there and there is no denying that they are doing more to make the world a better place than the governments they are regulated, taxed, and restricted by. Pharmaceutical companies are not among these kinder, gentler corporations. They are an enemy of humanity. Back to the development of the latest miracle pill. Big Pharma creates a pill without a single customer existing for it. They need customers. Lots of them. Fast. So they advertise. They produce high quality commercials depicting people enjoying their lives with friends and families. These people go wat...

Ravi Kopparapu and Jacob Haqq-Misra's thought provoking opinion piece in the Washington Post May 26, “We’re asking the wrong questions about UFOs,” suggested a redirection of the recently piqued public interest in answering the question of what unidentified aerial phenomena are, to how we can figure out what they are.  I concur that the latter question is more immediately important than the former; however, two more peels of this onion are necessary. The questions which must come before all others are whether we can figure out what they are and so what if we do? The reason these questions are so important is that the authors and a number of other leading thinkers are advocating the dedication of public resources to the matter of answering the how question. Were they merely putting their own time and energy to the question, I would gladly cheer them on.  Bravo!  After all, who doesn't root for the underdog?  But betting money on the underdog is a different matter, esp...

I will admit I am not with the times. I am no pop culture expert. I don’t go to the movies. I don’t stay up late to watch either of the Jimmys. I rarely watch TV. A couple of hours per week is my limit and it’s usually a movie or documentary. But every now and then, I turn on the TV and watch a movie or binge on a National Geographic series. (Yes, I pay for cable even though I never watch it and neither does anyone else in my house.) Yesterday, I came across a film called Red2 starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and some other big names I can’t recall. They are spies or government assassins or something, all older and well passed their prime, and they (gasp!) find themselves in the middle of Russia with only a few hours to save the world from a bomb that has been hidden under the Kremlin for decades. Bruce Willis’ character takes the crew to an old safe house that he hadn’t used since the bomb had been lost in the 1980’s. The apartment is a dusty museum full of relics ...

2020 has been the year of the new normal. Masks have become such a part of our lives that seeing someone in a public place such as a grocery store seems wrong somehow. Signs on the floor and tables in restaurants barricaded by chairs or crime scene tape are expected. But our story begins in 2000. Right here in Broward County, FL. It’s the story of the Chad family. There was Hanging Chad, Dimpled Chad, and all the other little Chads. Broward became the focus of the nation and indeed the world as the charming but incompetent Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant and her department fumbled the presidential election. You know the rest. The 2000 fiasco changed the world in a lot of ways. It made both of the legacy parties aware of the advantages of having an army of lawyers at the ready come election time. The parties also learned to use electoral disinformation more effectively to convince people of the outcome they desired and to get popular opinion on their side. Now, with social media...

  The voters of the state of Florida passed a law which will result in a $15 minimum wage by 2026. The bill passed with just over 60% of the vote. Some will say this is a victory for workers’ rights, and equality and fairness and all that blah blah blah. I am willing to bet it will be the opposite. Full disclosure: I am a business owner. I have hourly employees. All of them make more than the current minimum wage. Not all of them are at or above $15 per hour. I have a problem with the minimum wage that has nothing to do with how it may affect my business. See, I will treat payroll as I treat every other expense. I will pass on the additional cost to my customers. I hope they will benefit from the wage increase as well, because they’re going to pay more for everything they buy and every service they contract. Actually, I take that back. I hope they don’t benefit from the wage increase. I hope they don’t see themselves as minimum wage people. I hope they believe in themselves a littl...

No, not the lockdown. In some ways, that will never end without a serious uprising, and when I say serious, I'm talking about the real people in the world, not the basement-dwelling Ivy League commies pooping in the streets of Portland. But I digress. I mean, when are we going to cancel the cancel culture? Every day we hear more stories about a celebrity or a CEO or even some poor schmuck being cancelled because of something he said or did a lifetime ago. A museum curator was fired for saying he would collect the works of white painters. He didn't say he would exclusively collect white painters, he mentioned that he would buy Caucasian canvases in addition to the works of oppressed minorities. That's it. His crime was to say he would do what the Cancel Commandos claim to want to do: include all people regardless of race or whatever other labels these no-labels hypocrites stick on people. I have to wonder if anyone has really looked into who the cancelers are. I wonder if th...

There is more than one way to burn a book. - Ray Bradbury I recently listened to a conversation between authors Michael Chabon and Neil Gaiman. The talk eventually turned to the issue of banned books. Chabon asked Gaiman if he'd ever had a book banned. Gaiman said he nearly did. Where did this happen? In America.  Of course. The land of the free. Sad how we take that freedom and waste it on ignorance. Gaiman explained that the uproar was over a book he'd contributed a short story to. He had written a story based upon a gruesome Old Testament passage. The religious wrong right wanted the book banned. He, of course fought it. Eventually, the wrong right relented and the book was not banned. What changed their mind? Someone actually took the time to read the bible passage. Gaiman's story was faithful to the source material. I have always been amazed that there is such a thing as a banned book anywhere in the world but particularly that such a thing would exist in the United St...

July 18, 2020 Last night, during the July Executive Committee meeting, I lost my temper. Twice. I’m not writing this letter to try to justify my behavior. I’m old enough to know better. I should not have yelled. I should not have cursed. I should not have left the meeting. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I want to apologize for losing my temper.  There, now that that’s out of the way, I want to address the issues that set me off. But first, a little history... I became involved in national and local politics seventeen years ago. I volunteered for the Bush campaign. I worked for local republican campaigns. I worked for several republican organizations. I learned a lot during those years. I learned that my beliefs are not in line with he republican philosophy, particularly with how it is now interpreted. I also learned how an effective political organization is run. I witnessed this operational efficiency, par excellence, at the county level, and at the ci...