Global Warming

 

 

 

More Stuff People Say

Some more banalities and absurdities came to mind, so I thought I would do a sequel.


11. “The government is a business.”

The government is not a business. The government is not a business. In other words, the government is not a business. It is a government. It has a Treasury. It prints money. It has a GDP. The economy does not work like your family’s budget. When the money’s tight, you hit the breaks on spending. The country needs money in the economy. It needs people making and buying things. Everyone understands war is beneficial to the economy—because of the spending. Why does the understanding stop when war does?


12. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Gun violence is a problem unique to the United States. It happens here. It is a national health problem, and it should be treated as such. The more guns in a society, the more gun deaths in that society. Conclusion: guns kill people.


13. “Terrorists are promised 72 virgins in the afterlife.”

This is Islamophobic nonsense. When Muslims die there are virgins with supposedly beautiful eyes (called houris) who keep you company. Paradise is a sensuous place in Islam. And women get them, too. The number 72 is debatable, depending on sources. Does the Quran say if you murder infidels, you get 72 prostitutes? Um, no. Besides, killing non-Muslims is forbidden in the Quran. “There is no compulsion in religion” (Quran 2:256).


14. “All lives matter.”

This is tribalism: Cops kill Black people. Black people speak up. The “Black Lives Matter” movement begins. Whites get sensitive and seek to change the subject by saying “All Lives Matter” (how adorable), thus making it about “people” and not about White people killing Black people. Instead of “All Lives Matter,” just say “I—and my White tribe—didn’t do anything wrong! We couldn’t have!” Yeah, just say that. And then proudly display your Thin Blue Line flag.


15. “Capitalism is the best system.”

The point is to improve systems, not to praise them. Capitalism is a system of political-economy. It has a violent, one could say horrifying, history. Has it produced impressive results like medical technology? Yes, but this does not outweigh the body count and misery. Capitalism is anti-democratic, concentrates power, and holds the worker in contempt. The firms we are told that represent the height of capitalist achievement despise it: Google, Amazon, Apple. They want nothing to do with a competitive free market. Nothing.


16. “People are naturally greedy.”

I have written about this. You can just read the book. It comes up on the blog quite a bit as well. If humans were [insert negative thing] we wouldn’t be here. We are naturally compassionate and share a universal moral core. This doesn’t mean we’re angels, but we’re not demons either. Just read the bloody book.


17. “That’s just your opinion.” / “It’s subjective.”

This popular protestation simply says, “We all have views, and yours is of no greater value!” This suggests that the playing field is level, we all know the same amount, and then we exchange opinions—all of which are of equal value. But is the world-class chef’s opinion of equal value with the college student who thinks chicken nuggets are the greatest thing? This is not to say that the student should stop liking chicken nuggets, only that the chef’s views are far more informed and therefore not equal to the student’s.


18. “I made something of myself!”

Why is it every time I hear this declaration, it’s an affluent White male? Right around 100 percent of the time. Does the Honduran woman who has three jobs work hard? I have never heard it over the noise made by White men. This does not mean the White male didn’t work hard; he just did not factor in the good fortune he enjoyed along the way. He didn’t spend his formative years in a refugee camp, for a start. Oh, and he’s White and male. The list is quite long.


19. “The poor are lazy and stupid; the rich are smart and work hard.”

Okay, people don’t say this one out loud, but they sure as hell think it. Affluence is by and large the byproduct of privilege. That is not to say the person didn’t work hard (see point 18), but they had a tail wind. The working poor likely did not enjoy such a tail wind, and the bills under those circumstances are nigh impossible to overcome. The economy is not configured to help the working poor; it is, however, quite friendly to the affluent. So, next time you congratulate yourself, do some accounting—the kind that makes one uncomfortable.


20. “The Democrats give all the money away.”

This is not-so-thinly veiled racism. It is also fiction. The Democrats do not tend to the needs of the working poor. They might support more aid programs than the GOP does, but they give money away?? Obama, who was labeled a socialist, was as Wall Street-friendly as they come. Did he give money away hand over fist to Black Americans? No. Do racists and conservatives get tired of being wrong?

Stuff People Say

 

I chose ten things people say a lot and are wrong. Though I have touched on some of these in the past, I wanted them all in one post. Enjoy.


1. “Everything happens for a reason.”

No, it doesn’t. I guess technically, yes. But when people say this, they are not speaking about biology or physics. They have something more cosmic in mind. God killed that little girl with leukemia to … why did he do that? The thinking tends to go one of two ways: (1) God is mysterious and we’ll never know, and (2) maybe God was teaching us a lesson. Both are juvenile.


2. “Those people have been fighting for thousands of years.”

This is what many people reflexively say about the Middle East. I guess it’s supposed to make one sound deep and sophisticated. They are neither. The tensions and violence in the Middle East are a modern phenomenon. Much of it has to do with European and US manipulation. And how many Arab states are at war with one another? Zero.


3. “There’s no black and white, just shades of gray.”

This is part of “the truth is in the middle” nonsense. There are Democrats and there are Republicans—and the truth is in the middle? The halfway point between wrong and wrong is wrong. CNN and Fox? The halfway point between crap news and crap news is crap news. Sometimes things are black and white.


4. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”

This is not a law. This is not anything. Yet, people love to say it. Again, it’s supposed to make them sound deep and sophisticated. There is a similar principle in ancient Roman law; and early Scotland comes up a lot. But if I steal your watch, and then I wear that watch, it is not automatically my watch.


5. “America is a republic, not a democracy.”

[sigh] I hear this one a lot. A republic is a form of government where representatives govern for the citizenry. A democracy is a form of government where the power of governance resides with the people—with the demos, meaning “people.” The United States is best characterized as a democratic republic. The either-or is misleading. When I hear this, it’s like the person expects dramatic music to accompany their announcement. More depth and sophistication.


6. “Colonialism improved Africa (etc.).”

It. did. not. Colonialism spelled hardship, death, and misery for millions of people—and not just in Africa. The European powers deployed soldiers, projected economic power, killed, and tortured people. In the Belgian Congo alone, as many as ten million dead. All the while, the colonized were spoken of as animals. Read Aime Cesaire or Frantz Fanon. Read something, just stop saying this.


7. “Religion started all the major wars.”

Even the wars that were explicitly about or inspired by religion—the Crusades, the Wars of Religion—were about power politics. I struggle to think of a war that was a legitimate theological dispute. This piece of nonsense is a way of condemning religion; it would be better if people condemned ignorance instead. 


8. “If you love your freedom, thank a vet.”

I have family who are vets. This one is not about the military. I have defended the military for years and how they have been mistreated time and again. The United States has been attacked twice in its history: (1) in 1814 by the British and (2) 2001 by al-Qaida. We spend about a trillion dollars a year on defense for what exactly? And the “thank a vet” message has more to do with Lockheed Martin and less to do with the rank and file.


9. “The Bible has been translated so many times.”

Wrong-o. The Bible has been translated once maybe twice. It was written in Greek, Aramaic, and ancient Hebrew. It was then translated into Latin. Then it was translated into English using the original languages and the Latin translations. So, once and in some cases twice. How many people were involved in its writing? Now that’s a lot.


10. “Tomatoes are a fruit.”

They are vegetables. Not fruit. “Fruits” and “vegetables” are culinary concepts. Biologists and botanists do not deal in fruits and vegetables. Plus, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, bell peppers, okra, and egg plants are all fruit?? And strawberries are not?

Josie Long

 Josie Long is an English comic of some renown. This is a 2013 show she did entitled “Cara Josephine.”

The show is charming, very funny, and delightfully odd. I take in a lot of stand-up, but this one is remarkable. No one is doing what Long did in this show. I believe she’s still at it—and if she ever comes to Chicago, I will be going. I hope the club has handicap access.

People have asked me on numerous occasions: “Greg, do you think you’ll ever get married?”

I have two stock replies to this question:

Stock answer #1: “No.”

Stock answer #2: “Why on earth would I do that to myself? The number of times I have seen a married couple and thought to myself ‘That looks nice; I feel like I’m missing out’ is zero. Most times I shudder and think ‘Better you than me.’ The horror."

However, if I ever crossed paths with someone like Josie Long, y’know ... I’d consider it.

EPISODE 23: ADAM SMITH

I talk about my man, Adam Smith. And briefly, Alice Cooper. And … yeah, that’s it.

 

The Death Penalty

Christa Pike’s case has been in the news quite a bit. Everyone seems to be talking about her “botched” execution. Many of the discussions seem to revolve around better ways to execute someone. Much less energy is spent on whether we should be executing human beings in the first place.

The DOD put another log on the fire. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed. Hasan, a former Army major, was behind the Fort Hood murders in 2009. Execution by firing squad has not taken place in the United States in a century.

I taught the death penalty for years, until I switched the segment to the prison system in general. I felt that once you understand the prison system, you basically have a grip on capital punishment.

What I learned in those years is that there are zero valid arguments in support of the death penalty. Zero. They are either wrong or amount to revenge and blood lust.

Here are three:

• The death penalty deters crime.

Wrong. There are no criminological data suggesting crime goes down in areas where the death penalty is used. According to Amnesty International, US states that have the death penalty have higher rates of crime than those that do not have it.

• The death penalty is cheaper.

Wrong. Capital cases are more expensive than non-capital cases. Legal costs, jury selection, specialized incarceration, and appeals all add up to costing the tax payer 2.5 to 5 times the cost, reports the Death Penalty Information Center.

• The death penalty is justice.

Wrong. The death penalty is revenge, plain and simple. The thinking goes: you have committed a crime so heinous that you have made it clear you should be removed from society. So the response to murder is murder? That, and the families of the victims want closure. “Closure” here means satisfaction. They want the perpetrator to experience fear and death. This is not justice. Justice is treating people like human beings and, yes, maybe removing them from society so they cannot harm others—but to get them care.

Another issue concerning the death penalty—and this applies to the prison system in general—is that it is racist and classist. Some 40 percent of those sentenced to death are Black (1977-present). Black men, however, make up 6.5 percent of the population. And those on death row are typically poor, to the tune of 95 percent of them. The numbers are clear: the death penalty applies more to brown and poor people than anyone else. And again, this can be said of the entire prison system. It is basically a storage facility for people we don’t like.

Plum Suit

 

I gotta say, I look pretty snazzy in my new plum suit. I sent this photo to some close peeps, and my father’s wife—who maintains it’s aubergine, not plum—responded to the photo with an egg plant emoji. “Oh dear.” I then urged her son (my step-brother) to explain to her what an egg plant emoji means. Hilarity ensued.

Rebellion

I was wrong for so many years: for basically the entirety of the 1990s, I had an immature, unsophisticated sense of what rebellion was all about. It’s embarrassing now, but I spent my fair share of time at punk and industrial shows. I wore a biker jacket. Long hair for a time. Lived in bars. You get the idea.

I was taken with various symbols of defiance: Keith Richards, Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits, and Hunter S. Thompson. These were my go-to references—especially Kerouac. I was taken in by the aesthetic put on display by these men. It all felt a bit rebellious, which was very attractive to me. They all offered, in their own way, a middle finger to the Establishment. They didn’t adhere to orthodoxy or convention or established standards. 

Punk, too, was rebellious. I discovered the Dead Kennedys in my teens. Lead singer Jello Biafra’s lyrics turned my suburban upbringing upside-down. The DK’s were … well, rebellious. They took a hammer to the vase of conformity.

Then it turned out the Ramones were Republicans, Johnny Rotten was an aging clown, and my beloved Jello Biafra also became a caricature of himself. Punk’s mask fell off. It was not rebellious at all. It was artistically rebellious at the time, sure. But actually rebellious? It was a mode of dress—one that was highly uniform and consistent. Conformist?

By this time I had started to grow up. The year was 2002—age 29, mind you. I ceased to care about all that stuff. I began reading human rights reports. My attention was instead centered on unnecessary human suffering, the mechanics of power, and the writings of Noam Chomsky.

Many “heroes” became buffoons, gave up the hard living, or were dead (Kerouac died a pitiful drunk in 1969, Thompson died a cartoon of himself). Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with hanging up the booze and the smokes (Waits and Richards are both clean living). Nelson Algren was never a hard drinker; he did, however, spend time in bars talking to the defeated and the downtrodden.

And I’m a bit incredulous about the whole hard-living myth anyway. Thompson was seriously well read and wrote a ton; one cannot do that and be, um, compromised. Richards spent an enormous amount of time in the studio and on stage.

They did engage in unwholesome behavior, for sure; but I think much of it is more legendary than anything. We love talking about it. We relish the thought of people having fun, being famous, and getting drunk or acting crazy all the time. We delight in lives we cannot live.

An example of this is Prince. I saw an interview with one of his sound engineers after he died. I think it was Susan Rogers. At any rate, she said that women did show up to the studio a few times. But Prince would start working, and the ladies would get bored and leave. Not quite the lifestyle we hear about.

It’s the mystique of these people. The image is a seductive one. I fell for it: the chimera, the illusion.

Chomsky taught me what a rebel actually is. It’s a person who is not afraid to apply the same standards to his or her own country. It’s a person who asks, How am I contributing to this problem? It’s a defender of the underdog.

Rebelliousness is thinking or behavior that actually runs counter to power’s narrow interests. Monitoring and speaking out about the banks, the Defense contractors, US foreign policy—this all indicates a truly rebellious orientation. 

The centers of power do not want people becoming better educated and talking about what they have learned. And they do not want us caring about one another. Power benefits when people are divided and alienated. Power benefits when people are distracted.

In the 1990s I was distracted. I was preoccupied with the image, the mystique, the pose, the posturing, the persona, the affectation of rebelliousness. There is nothing rebellious about drinking, or smoking, or loud music, or tattoos, or various modes of dress. None of these perturbs power one bit. They are merely activities.

Rebellion is fighting for justice, speaking out for those who cannot defend themselves, and standing up to power. Socrates was put to death because he was a threat. Bars and loud music and hard drinking and black leather do not pose a threat. Power does not care about you engaging in these activities. The FBI has never infiltrated a group based on their record collections.

The 1990s are in a deep hole under much dirt. Rock-n-roll is a balloon that has lost half of its air. The post-WWII concept of “cool” no longer has cultural currency; it is a goner. I for one, am less distracted. I have literally and figuratively sobered up. I desperately hope the culture joins me. Many defenseless, voiceless people need us to actually be rebellious.

Gaza

 

This series by the Guardian, “Gaza: A Week in the Life,” is a heartrending portrait of life right now in the Gaza Strip. The series now features three Gazans and what their days are like.

We forget that this is happening. That these people are suffering badly. And that this savagery was all committed with US authorization. Biden and Trump should spend the rest of their lives in orange jumpsuits; they both allowed these crimes to happen.

Moreover, most Americans are not in support of it. The vast majority of Americans are supposedly concerned about civilian deaths and starvation in Gaza. But I do not detect any concern in my personal experiences with people in general. I just don’t feel any at all.

Our presidents have authorized the leveling of an occupied territory housing over 2 million people. Israeli operations since the Hamas attacks in Oct. 2023 have claimed the lives of over 70,000 Gazans. According to the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, “Gaza ha[s] become home to the largest group of child amputees in modern history….” Meanwhile, Americans post their vacation photos on Facebook.

I have posted here some photos of kids I met in Gaza in 2002. They are adults now, and I shudder to think how many are dead—or their children.

Note: That's me in the Mediterranean with a bunch of jokers. Why I am standing like that we will never know.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/series/gaza--a-week-in-the-life

It Won't Wash Off

This track, “The Fletcher Memorial Home,” is off Pink Floyd’s post-Wall 
album, The Final Cut.

I find this song haunting. I have not heard it for a long while. When I listened to it today, it got me thinking about Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Now, if I’m honest, this doesn’t require much. I think about Rousseau often. But there it is. I almost teared up listening to Roger Waters’s voice. There’s such delicious contempt and desperation in it.

Specifically, I thought about Rousseau’s conclusion regarding modernity. Rousseau argued that humanity had done itself an immense disservice. We lived in relative peace and tranquility in the “state of nature.” And I think he was right. As foragers or hunter-gatherers we were healthier, stronger, ate better, and did not suffer a list of diseases introduced by modernity: many cancers, obesity, heart disease, etc.

We also brought back alpha males. We allowed ourselves to be lorded over by men who had their own priorities. These tribal chiefs, emperors, kings, sultans, and pharaohs became heads of state. They became prime ministers, presidents, dictators. And they started wars. A lot of wars.

Just keeping to the early twentieth century, and just keeping to wars (not including colonialism and imperialism, etc.):

The Boxer Rebellion, the Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War, the Mexican Revolution, the First and Second Balkan Wars, World War I, the Armenian Genocide, the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, the Irish War of Independence, the Chinese Civil War, the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Spanish Civil War, World War II.

Humanity brought this on itself. None of this would have happened.

And I also got thinking about American ignorance, and what it has allowed. Korea, Vietnam, various acts of savagery in the Middle East. US foreign policy has depended on the population being out to lunch, so it could carry out its programs (Cold War, etc.) all over the globe. The body count is incalculable. The fear, pain, and suffering staggering.

I agree with Rousseau there is no going back. We must forge ahead. But it is worth knowing all this. It is worth bringing these thoughts to the voting booth. Because we keep committing the same errors. At the very least, Bill Clinton and everyone after him should die in prison for war crimes.

And we the voting citizenry should feel shame and remorse for having given them that job. I relish when Trump supporters aver, “He promised no foreign wars!” How smart they must feel now.

How smart we all must feel.

This post would get more likes if I posted a picture of a cupcake.

Twenty Points on LGBTQ (repost)

Um, just so we're clear, what is "gender ideology"? And who is this left wing?
 

[sigh] I guess I'll repost this:
 

June 12, 2026
 

I have heard on many (many) occasions over the course of my life, folks say things like this about homosexuality: “They can do whatever they want, just keep it away from me.”
 

This is brainless.
 

As a hetero, White, cis-male, I have little business speaking on these matters. All I’m doing here is clarifying terms. Much of the mistreatment, hate, and ignorance of the LGBTQ community comes from people who fit into my demographic. This makes it my problem.
 

This is not about being PC. It’s about being C—and a better human being.
 

Twenty points:
 

1. Most of those “folks” mentioned above are Baby Boomers. Few of them will read this. They’re too busy knowing everything.
 

2. Being gay is not a choice.
 

3. Neither is eye color.
 

4. If you’re heterosexual, you did not choose to be attracted to the opposite sex.
 

5. Therefore, “they” are not doing “what they want.”
 

6. And do gay people really want YOU on the team anyway?
 

7. I have had gay friends, and have spent my fair share of time in gay bars. Number of people who tried to recruit me: zero.
 

8. Gender is a social construct. It is not related to sexual orientation.
 

9. People are assigned a “sex” at birth based on one’s anatomy.
 

10. What we consider ”masculine” or “boyish” is something humans made up. Likewise, for “feminine” and “girly.”
 

11. There is nothing inherently “male” about trucks. Or cars. Or mud. Or blue. Or pipes & cigars. Or guns. Or grilling.
 

12. Trans people commonly feel they do not fall anywhere in this polarity: male or female. Or they identify with the other gender. The former are called “non-binary” (or “gender neutral”), whereas the latter are simply “trans.” Some are “gender fluid” and float between the two
 

13. Again, this is not a lifestyle choice. This is part of how the person feels and how they view themselves. No one is going to “make you trans” any more than they’re going to “make you gay.”
 

14. “Queer” used to be a slur. Now it’s a badge of honor and a term indicating political defiance, e.g., “gender queer.” You do not have to use it. It’s probably better if you don’t. I don’t.
 

15. “Hetero-normative” is the cultural dominance of heterosexuality. Like, being straight is normal and being gay is something else, e.g., “homosexual sex.”
 

16. “Intersex” people are those born with a wide variety of differences in their reproductive anatomy. “Hermaphrodite” is an outmoded term.
 

17. Oh yeah, LGBTQ is an acronym for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.” It often features a plus sign after it indicating the numerous orientations and gender identities out there.
 

18. Gallup reports 9 percent of Americans are LGBTQ.
 

19. The term “sexual preference” is stupid.
 

20. My pronouns are: break up/the/banks. I also use universal/health/care. And sometimes I use lower/income/inequality. I state this not to diminish the concept of identity; I just tire of academics and intellectuals fixating on the smaller problems instead of the larger ones. They prefer cosmetic alterations.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/07/hhs-report-trans-support-authoritarianism#img-1

Lecture

Just want to give folks plenty of notice—if you're in the area.

I'll post it again just prior.

AOC

Do not be distracted by the Democratic Socialism business. AOC is as much a socialist as Bernie, which is to say, she is not. Neither of them are. They’re centrist politicians whose positions track with the majority of Americans.

I know America prefers her presidents male, White, and rich, and who cater to the class they come from. But having someone on Pennsylvania Avenue who is for things like Medicare for all would be nice, no?

I’m not distracted by tokenism. It would be nice to have a female Puerto Rican-American in the White House, for sure. But I do not think being this or that has inherent value. One can be White and rich and be an excellent executive. Likewise, one can be Black and be an awful human being (talking about you, Clarence and Condoleezza). That said, AOC would indeed bring a breath of fresh air to the position. 

As for her politics, anyone who has read this blog for a few minutes knows that what gets branded as “progressive” in this country is not. There is nothing progressive about everyone having healthcare. Nothing. Most of the developed world has universal healthcare. Borrowing from German chancellor Otto von Bismarck is progressive?

Into the bargain, she is for workers’ rights—including a $15 federal minimum wage—poverty reduction, and sound policy on the environment. She also has a reasonable approach to immigration, but this is not a priority item for me; concern is generally racist and ultra-nationalist. I advocate for open borders, but I’m not so naive as to think this will catch on anytime soon.

We have already tried a president who makes sexual remarks about his daughter, ridicules people with disabilities, and talks about women like they’re property. Don’t get me wrong: I do not think for one second criticizing Trump is a political position. Medicare for all is a political position. It’s high time Americans voted their interests and not the interests of people who wouldn’t wipe their shoes on them. 

Do I think AOC has a chance? That is entirely up to us.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/aug/15/will-aoc-run-for-president

Episode 22: Death

Michael and I discuss death. And Potsie Weber, and Spinal Tap, and proctology, and Chevy Chase, and Alice Cooper.

 

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn was a national treasure. He was a historian who wrote the immensely popular A People’s History of the United States. When I read it years ago, it took me a long time, because I kept giving my copy away: “Here, you really need to read this!”

I’m not sure how many copies I went through, but it was a few. And it’s that good. It is American history told from the positions of the slaves, from the factory worker, from those who suffered racist policy.

Some might roll their eyes and assume this is just a bunch of leftist mumbo-jumbo. It is not; it is careful scholarship. The version of history we are accustomed to is told from the perspective of power. Many Americans know we lost 58,000 service personnel in Vietnam; most do not know, or even consider the fact, that Vietnam lost 2-3 million people.

Yes, change has occurred. We have rethought Christopher Columbus. But most of our thinking is oriented toward power. An educated population is a threat. Therefore a palatable version of the country’s history is presented in the classroom. Is this a conspiracy? Teachers are presenting sanitized versions of the history under the watchful eye of secret police? No.

It starts when we’re children. A certain way of thinking is absorbed by children. This thinking was provided them by adults. Why do you think America got “sucked into” Vietnam? Because that is what was drilled into your head. Because we do not want to think of our country committing crimes. And that is the issue.

We conflate the population with the machinery of state. We look at the flag, thinking “I am America.” Children in droning unity, hands over hearts, say the pledge of allegiance every morning. “[W]ith liberty and justice for all.”

“I am America.” The flag means “me.” If the flag does something bad, I did something bad. If the flag kills innocent people, I killed innocent people. “And I’ll be damned if someone’s gonna accuse me of bad things. I am a good person! And therefore American must be good!”

Tribal thinking runs deep in American culture. If people get angry about police brutality? The Thin-Blue Line flags come out, saying “Leave White people alone!” If gay people, who have been treated like dirt for forever, have a pride parade? We begin seeing straight-pride parades cropping up. Black Lives Matter? All Lives Matter.

Why cannot people get on the side of those being abused and oppressed and killed? Why does the switch get flipped to a tribal reaction? “No one criticizes White people!” The thinking here is “I am White, I must be the one being criticized.” “I don’t have privilege!”

Zinn even goes through the history of how the power elite saw common cause being found between Black slaves and White indentured servants. Can’t have that. Solidarity? That had to be prevented. And it was. Many racist concepts used by White people today can trace their genesis to this chapter in America’s past.

Reading Zinn’s book can, dare I say, help encourage you to become a better person. We all need to be better people.

Why do I get the feeling someone just read that and thought, “I don’t!”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/06/howard-zinn-the-peoples-historian-book
 

Groceries

 

I guess I’ll just keep saying it. The nation is not divided, and most Americans want the same thing.

The polling data reveal that about two-thirds of Americans are in agreement on just about all political issues.

According to this Guardian article:

“When asked to describe what a better life in three to five years would look like, 60% of Americans said they wanted greater financial security … with 90% of respondents listing [groceries] as their top cost-of-living concern….”

Most Americans are in-sync with the Progressive Caucus. Most Americans are “liberal.” Most Americans are progressive.

Yet, they vote for the wealthy being handed free money. They vote for the working class and working poor getting squeezed.

The current president has spent $40 billion on the war with Iran. He seems disinterested with the plight of the working class and working poor.

According to the Silver Bulletin, “21 percent of Americans strongly approve of the job [Trump’s] doing.”

Almost 60 percent disapprove.

Why, might we ask, did you vote for him? You’re disappointed now?

Did something change?

https://t.ly/qhjlh

Frozen Binomials!

 

I have recently become obsessed with pairs of words that appear in a specific order, called frozen binomials. There are lists of them online; I just wanted to do my own. I have come up with an inventory of frozen binomials, which is in no way comprehensive.

I did not include sequential pairs, e.g., search and destroy. One searches then destroys. Same with smash and grab, catch and release, divide and conquer.

I also did not include smaller-to-greater pairs, e.g. nickel and dime.

Friend Michael did a few during a brief phone call.

Feel free to suggest some I missed—of which there are many.

• Apples and oranges
• Biscuits and gravy
• Black and white
• Bread and butter
• Brick and mortar
• Brother and sister
• Cars and trucks
• Cats and dogs
• Cinnamon and sugar
• Coffee or tea
• Cook and clean
• Cookies and milk
• Cops and robbers
• Country and Western
• Cowboys and Indians
• Cuts and bruises
• Dollars and cents
• East and west
• Fire and brimstone
• Frankincense and myrrh
• Fruits and vegetables
• Good and evil
• Ham and eggs
• Hammer and chisel
• Hammer and nails
• Hammer and tongs
• Hands and knees
• Hit or miss
• Horse and buggy
• Hot and cold
• Hugs and kisses
• Ketchup and mustard
• Left and right
• Lemon and lime
• Loud and clear
• Man and wife
• Meat and potatoes
• Moan and groan
• Mr. and Mrs.
• North or south
• Oil and water
• Paper or plastic
• Peanut butter and jelly
• Pen and pencil
• Pipes and cigars
• Piss and moan
• Pots and pans
• Salt and pepper
• Sand and surf
• Shoes and socks
• Sick and tired
• Soap and water
• Song and dance
• Stars and stripes
• Sticks and stones
• Surf and turf
• Tea or coffee
• This or that
• Thunder and lightning
• Tooth and nail
• Up and down
• Vinegar and oil
• Vitamins and minerals
• Wear and tear

Intelligence

 This keeps coming up lately. I continue to bump into the subject of intelligence and IQ. In personal conversation, in shows I am watching, etc.

I wrote this essay last year and wanted to share it again (see below).

As I tell my students, IQ is three inches on a twelve-inch ruler. It generally means you’re good at math, chess, standardized tests, and so on. There is then intellectual intelligence. This means you can read Plato and have something to say about it; you can navigate concepts and come up with insights.

There are other types of intelligence, such as moral intelligence. One can have more than one. For instance, one can have a high IQ and a high moral intelligence.

This is not a case where everyone gets a trophy. Intelligence is biological. Some people are tall. Some people are strong. Some people are good looking. And some people are “smart.” Some people are not tall. Some are not good looking. Take my meaning?

But do not despair: Everyone is good at something. All have talents and abilities, and some things just come easy.

IQ is not the measure of intelligence. It is a measure of intelligence. In this culture, if you do well on the SAT, you’re smart. Congratulations! Those clowns in MENSA would love to have you. The rest of us are dummies? [wrong-answer buzzer]

And I find this interesting: What makes one smart is the ability to excel at what is presently being pushed. STEM has basically become a religion. So, to be able to excel at STEM-related subjects is to be smart. What those hippies are doing in the English Department? Poetry has no value, biochemistry does. Therefore, it’s concluded that an aptitude for biochemistry = smart. An aptitude for reading poetry and producing incisive analysis = not smart.

This culture has interesting priorities.

https://www.gregoryharms.com/essays-20251121 

Funeral Parlor Etiquette

 

 

 

Wakes and funerals are hard. Losing those we love is a painful experience for all involved. I have unfortunately been to many, many of them. I could not give you a number. 

And with my extensive experience has come a few observations. I thought I’d share a few (four) etiquette suggestions to help maybe make this difficult experience smoother, easier, and more refined.

1. Please put on a collared shirt and maybe iron it. I know Americans are not fussy about clothing and appearance, but when there’s a dead body in the room, perhaps dial it up a notch. I have seen people at wakes who looked like they were going to a beach party. Make an effort, FFS.

2. Keep the line moving. You’re not there to tell your life story. You’re not at a cocktail party. Share your sadness and move along to paying your respects. This is why you’re there. The world does not revolve around you. And chances are, your conversation is vapid anyway, because you’re trying to be either entertaining or deep. You’re likely neither.

3. Don’t try to be deep. You’re probably not. Please, do not say things like “Everything happens for a reason.” It does not. There is nothing cosmic or preordained about the person being deceased. Does God kill people because he’s bored? I rather doubt it. Of course, some will say “God works in mysterious ways.” When I hear this, I think of Roman statesman Cicero: “Mystery is the wisdom of blockheads.” Just say your sorry, that you feel bad, and keep the line moving.

4. Do not start talking about the person you just lost. The day belongs to the family and the bereaved. No one wants to hear “We just lost my aunt.” Nobody—in that context—cares. Again, just say you’re sorry, that you feel bad, and keep the line moving.

Conservatism

This blog essay was done in collaboration with friend Michael Slager. I created the armature and he fleshed it out.


[Read time: 3:30]

This article that appeared in the Guardian last week got me thinking. I began pondering conservatism. Now, my area of philosophy that I specialize in is political philosophy. My competence would be in question if I had not read my Edmund Burke—which I have. 

His Reflections on the Revolution in France is the founding text of political  conservatism. And while I do not agree with him to the letter, I do agree with him occasionally; he makes some good and compelling points in that book.

What is called conservatism today bears no resemblance to what Burke was talking about. What is meant by conservative anyway?

This is what had me thinking. What does that mean? More to the point, what do they want?

This is not to suggest that all conservatives are the same. Of course, they are not. To some degree, I am a conservative. I’ve read my Burke, I believe children should have good manners, and so on. So, you can count me among the conservative set.

But is this what is meant? Is this the agenda? Is this what we see on Capitol Hill and the legislative program pushed by congressional Republicans? (And no, I am not in any way suggesting the blue team is wonderful. I feel Clinton, Biden, and Obama should all die in prison, in case you were wondering.)

I think it’s worth taking a look at the major ambitions we see (and hear) over and over again.

One seems to be tax cuts. These apply to corporations and the rich. What does that mean? The top marginal tax-rate cut applies to earners bringing in over $640,000 a year. Savings are usually in the tens of thousands—not much for someone who makes over a half-million a year. Estate tax cuts, on the other hand, apply to multi-million-dollar estates. 

Moreover, the top 10 percent will see total tax savings of $1.4 trillion over a decade. On average, they would gain an additional $13,600 every year. For those in the lowest 10 percent of the income distribution, they lose $1,200 in benefits. One fails to see the fiscal conservatism in funneling resources from impoverished people to the already well-off. 

If we didn’t give $140 billion away to rich people every year in tax cuts (1.4 trillion dollars over a decade) and got back the additional estimated $160 billion in tax money that wealthy people hide every year, we could do the following and have over $100 billion left over.

Four points:
 
1. We could make a huge dent in homelessness. It would cost an estimated $9.6 billion to get individuals and families out of shelters and into stable housing, complete with decent follow-up services.
 
2. Child poverty could be eliminated. It would cost around $180 billion every year to lift all kids currently living in poverty out of it. The benefits would pay for themselves. Alleviating child poverty today would greatly reduce the chances of future homelessness, boost school attendance, decrease lost economic productivity in adulthood, and decrease the chances of health problems. Some estimates put the downstream costs of child poverty at one trillion dollars a year.
 
3. Millions of people are uninsured. Medicaid expansion to the 10 states that did not accept earlier expanded coverage would cost about $30 billion every year and cover approximately 3 million people. Providing preventative care can save billions more in healthcare costs down the line.
 
4. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) makes up about 1.6 percent of the total federal budget. That’s not a lot when one considers it keeps human beings fed. Children can grow and learn well thanks to good nutrition.
 
So, if we add all this up, what are we left with? Handing out free money to the wealthy, and taking away support for social programs relied upon by the working poor. This and contempt for caring of any kind? Global warming? Trans rights? Women’s rights? Rights? 

Is this how these politicians stay in office—and entities like Fox News stay in business? 

Conservatism seems to be based on an ethos and the assumption that “I made something of myself. And anyone with problems I do not have is at fault for those problems.” Is this conservatism?

Corporate power. Wealth. White supremacy. Disgust with anything that smells like sympathy. Have we seen anything like this before in history? I believe we have. And it could happen here tomorrow. This country is ripe for the pickin’.

I suspect most Americans do not know the details. I suspect most Americans are not familiar with what we review in this essay. Like US involvement in the Middle East, I have said for years if Americans could really see what is happening they would not stand for it.

The same goes for conservatism. If Americans actually knew the agony suffered by those with nothing while people with multiple homes buy a new horse, they wouldn’t stand for it.

And like I’ve said before, you can be a White supremacist and support progressive legislation at the same time. Most of the working poor are White. No one’s saying you can’t still be a racist; just be a smarter one.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/25/food-stamps-children-trump