Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
The full title is “The Case of the Disappearing Beaune: A Sherlock Holmes Christmas Story” by J. Lawrence Matthews. Beaune is a French wine (I had to look it up). It is pronounced like bone and that leads to a few jokes. I found this to be a good short story and one very suitable for Christmas.
Continue reading “Sherlock Holmes: a short Christmas story”
We do live in interesting times. You could also call them dangerous times or very bizarre times.
We learn that the guy who wants to terminate the Constitution not only thinks he would be a good candidate for President but supports the werewolf candidate in the Georgia US Senate runoff.
Continue reading “Say NO to Tex”
Do you like Nazis or allied groups such as White Supremacists? Do you think they are good for America? If you answer “yes” to both questions you probably won’t like this book. But it might open your eyes if you decide to read it anyway.
Personally, I don’t like Nazis. They were bad for Germany. We fought them in World War 2 at tremendous cost. These hate groups were fringe in the United States but are becoming more mainstream.
Continue reading “Nazis are not Nice”
Jon Meacham has provided us with a great biography of Abraham Lincoln. It is especially good and timely because of the many divisions in the United States. Our country is more divided than any time since the Civil War. And learning about Lincoln and the evolution of his beliefs could yield a few useful lessons that could help us through the current situation.
Continue reading “Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle”
Just Security has done it again. This memo lays out the case of why Donald Trump should be prosecuted.
I believe Donald Trump should be prosecuted for many crimes but this just lays out the case for the crimes related to removing and keeping national security documents and obstruction of the investigation into his handling of these documents.
Here it is – Mar-a-Lago Model Prosecution Memo
https://www.justsecurity.org/84168/mar-a-lago-model-prosecution-memo/
I am now reading And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham. And enjoying it as a wonderful biography. I’m only a little past Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 now but so far I’ve been very pleased with the book. I also think it contains important lessons for us.
The insurrectionist Wing of the Republican party is something to fear. Beware of allowing them to take charge.
Should our political leaders be chosen by other politicians ? For example, should the state legislatures be able to override the will of the people as determined by an election ?
Should violent factions choose our leaders as they tried on January 6, 2021 ?
Or should elections determine the results ? I would think most Americans would prefer that.
Republicans Have sponsored a bill that would raise your Medicare costs. With Democrats in the majority, the bill would probably not ever get out of committee. With a Republican majority, you will likely face higher costs.
What are Senators Mike Lee [R-UT] Cynthia Lummis [R-WY]. James Lankford [R-OK], and Marco Rubio [R-FL] thinking?
Benjamin Franklin was asked after the Constitutional Convention what type of government we would have. He replied “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Back in 2018 I posed the same question ‘ “Can we keep our republic ?”.
Continue reading “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
I am an independent. I feel neither party represents my views fully, although the extremism and pro-insurrection stance of the Republican party is moving me away from that party so I do support Democrats almost exclusively. To be clear, not all Republicans share those views but the party seems to and so do most politicians.
One controversial area is the abortion issue.
Continue reading “Pro-choice is the conservative position”
Richard Dreyfuss argues passionately and convincingly in “One Thought Scares Me…” that a major problem in our educational system is that schools gave up civic education about 50 years ago. I first though the argument was flawed. After all, I think I had a pretty good civic education.
Continue reading “One Thought Scares Me…”
I do not understand what Republicans are thinking.
Recently President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which includes several provisions to reduce prescription drug costs for people with Medicare and also lower drug spending by the federal government. Sounds like a win-win; the people on Medicare save and so does the government.
Continue reading “I do not understand”
I have often thought that our representatives in both the House and the Senate should think independently about the good of the American people and the good of the county when voting (see More RINOs and DINOs needed). Our 2 political parties have become too powerful. The uncompromising party loyalty is the problem.
I had thought the answer was to elect more independents. But the recent appearance of the Forward Party suggests a possibility I had not considered. Independents often have a hard time being elected because of lack of logistic and financial party support. Here there is party support and no pressure to conform to an ideology.
Continue reading “New Political Party”
Welcome to 1989. This is the second novel in Val McDermid’s series featuring journalist Allie Burns. I liked the first one (https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/2021/10/04/1979-by-val-mcdermid/) and now it is 10 years later and there have been quite a few changes in 10 years.
The full title is The Evolution of Charles Darwin: The Epic Voyage of the Beagle That Forever Changed Our View of Life on Earth by Diana Preston.
And it is an extensive story of that journey which was so important for our understanding of the development of life and how life and the Earth changed over time. At almost 500 pages it is rather long and detailed for the casual reader. There are extensive quotes which made the book enjoyable for me.
I thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read it in advance. The book was published October 4 so It should be readily available at you favorite source