Monthly Archives: September 2011

Do Ask and Do Tell: Gays in the Military

By some estimates, 2% of the U.S. military personnel are gay. Today was the first day after the end of the

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A U.S. President Cannot Have a C Grade in U.S. History

Rick Perry got a lot of C’s and D’s in introductory courses that are frankly not at all “college level”. For example, as the following transcript shows, he got a D in trigonometry, a C in U.S. History, and a … Continue reading

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Dysfunctional Government is Honest Government

I was listening to CSPAN which luckily does not feel the need to “entertain” and thus provides some of the most objective coverage of how the sausage is made in our government. Two guests were on, discussing tax reform. One … Continue reading

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People Killed On and After 9/11

First and foremost, I would like to honor our soldiers: the men and women who have fought and are fighting for this country. Many of them have been killed, and many more have been wounded. From my experience, so many … Continue reading

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A Short (500 Page) History of America

America, Empire of Liberty is a single volume history of the United States. I just finished reading it today. Frankly, I’ve never been a fan of American history by itself, (as opposed to in the context of world history). However, … Continue reading

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Presidential Candidates in a Nutshell

Prior to president Obama’s speech on “jobs” tonight, I thought I’d jot down the most representative cynical statement that pops to mind about each of the candidates for president in 2012. Barack Obama: Compromise means you have to be willing … Continue reading

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Half of the Children Are Below Average

The title of this post is one of the simple truths that the author of Real Education outlines. Actually, it’s a trivial fact stemming from the definition of “average”. Yet, I bet many people when reading “half of the children … Continue reading

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Why Do We Kill?

A former Baltimore homicide detective and a reporter discussed their book Why Do We Kill? on a C-SPAN program. It’s not clear to me that the authors ever answer the question that is posed in the title of their book: … Continue reading

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Enough Steel Cut Oats to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

I’ve eaten oatmeal pretty regularly throughout the past 10 years. In fact, doing a quick calculation I’ve eaten approximately 800-1000 lbs of oatmeal in my life. Strange to think about a human body processing so much food. I would venture … Continue reading

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U.S. Mortality Statistics

Watched part of the program on U.S. Mortality Statistics. Some stats that stood out on sex and race were: Per 100,000, women have a death rate of 643 and men a death rate of 906. White persons live on average … Continue reading

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