Notes From My Journal
560 articles filed under Notes From My Journal.
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Notes From My Journal
Back in LA, and Happy to Be Here
K and I were in LA this weekend visiting four of our grandchildren and their parents. Every time I come here, I have the same thought: Despite everything that’s wrong about LA (high cost of living, high taxes…
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Notes From My Journal
Scary: Palm Tree Experts Visit Paradise Palms
I spent most of last Saturday at the botanical gardens, hosting a group from the Palm Beach County chapter of the International Palm Tree Society. For the first time since we started the project ten years ago…
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Notes From My Journal
Why I’m a Conservative, Part III
In Part I and Part II of this longish essay, I tried to make two points. In Part I, I pointed out that one of the reasons humans have survived for 160,000+ years is that they became sapient. And, as Yuval…
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Notes From My Journal
Israel! Go to Hell!
In response to the attack on Israel by Hamas, Bari Weiss introduced Tuesday’s issue of The Free Press by saying: “On the one hand I think: Surely this will be sufficient. Surely this amount of blood will be…
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Notes From My Journal
A Crisis You Probably Never Knew Existed!
I came across this in my reading yesterday: Hormel Foods is once again sponsoring what it calls the “10 Under 20 Food Heroes Awards” to honor young people working in the fight against “food insecurity.” What…
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Notes From My Journal
An Embarrassing Answer to a Simple Question
“I know this is a strange question,” JW wrote, “but how do you like to spend your weekends? I’m sure it has changed as you’ve gone through different seasons of life. But how did you handle weekends during your…
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Notes From My Journal
Why I’m a Conservative, Part II
I’ve always admired the way some traditional cultures value the elderly. The older women are depended upon for advice on matters that were traditionally handled by women, including feeding, clothing, and…
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Notes From My Journal
Why Cowboys and Not Cowmen?
I don’t know why cowboys are called cowboys in America. But it makes sense in the cattle country of Western Nicaragua. There, most of the ranches produce beef. And almost all the cows are free-range. Which is…
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Notes From My Journal
Why I’m a Conservative, Part I
Bill Maher, who has identified (and been identified) as a typical Hollywood Liberal for most of his career, has, in recent years, felt the need to explain why he sometimes makes fun of Woke ideas and Woke…
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Notes From My Journal
Good Deal or Dangerous Political Gambit?
The US and Iran executed a deal on Monday – the return of five incarcerated Americans in return for the release of five Iranians. That sounds fair. But the Biden administration threw in some glicken by…
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Notes From My Journal
Doubling Down on My Predictions for 2024
The 70 million to 80 million voting age people in America that hate Trump – whether they be journalists, lobbyists, pundits, or voters – have always found it difficult to believe that Orange Top would ever get…
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Notes From My Journal
Here I Am in London Again…
With Secrets of Direct Marketing and More Generalizations I flew here from Poland on Monday to meet with some former business partners and colleagues and give the keynote presentation at Fix Fest, a seminar on…
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Notes From My Journal
Pleasure Before Business, Part 2
Ms K has been treating me like an idiot on this trip. I resented it at first, but it’s working out quite nicely. Yesterday, for example, we traveled from Krakow to Zurich, where I was to hop on a flight to…
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Notes From My Journal
Pleasure Before Business
Chopin monument in Warsaw’s Lazienki Park Poland wasn’t on my bucket list. Apparently, it was on Ms K’s. Next week, I’m in London for business. I get crushed by jet lag to Europe, so Ms K agreed to spend the…
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Notes From My Journal
How to Write a Book About Your Family History
For the past few years, my friend (and coeval) HB has been thinking about writing down his family’s story. His parents and many of his uncles and aunts were holocaust survivors. He began collecting information…
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Notes From My Journal
My Three Favorite Pleasures
There was a time, when I was young, that I thought the only sensible objective in life should be to get the best ratio possible between pleasure and pain. Put more simply: to avoid everything that was…
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Notes From My Journal
The August 23 Debate: Two Perspectives
I didn’t get to watch the debate, but I watched several dozen clips and a half-dozen retrospective reviews. This one from The Dispatch highlighted something that so many people on both sides of the aisle don’t…
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Notes From My Journal
The Growing Problem of Homelessness in the US
The US experienced an astonishingly large increase in homelessness in 2022. It went up a record-breaking 11%, That’s the highest it’s been since 2019, when the increase was a comparatively modest 2.7%. Some…
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Notes From My Journal
The Economics of Illegal Immigration
Since Trump first promised to build a wall, immigration into the US via our southern border has become a costly and amazingly stupid political slugfest. First, there were Trump’s “kids in cages.” After Biden…
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Notes From My Journal
Shameless Self-Promotion!
K and I are spending a quiet week at our place in Rancho Santana after a very busy week in Cancun with 40+ members of our extended family. I mentioned on Aug. 11 that we call these biannual events Cousin Camps…
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Notes From My Journal
Little but Not Brittle
Someone once told me – and this may be 30 years ago – that the secret to making great ROIs in rental real estate is to “go small.” By that he meant that buying three small houses at $200,000 each will bring…
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Notes From My Journal
Cousin Camp, 2023
I’m writing this at Club Med in Cancun, Mexico, where our extended family of 46 (including spouses) has gathered for our latest once-every-two-years “Cousin Camp.” Here’s a photo of some of us climbing a…
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Notes From My Journal
Thinking of Getting Your Book Published? Don’t Ask Me!
At long last, you’ve finished that book you’ve been meaning to write for the last 15 years. Congratulations! You have accomplished something that only one in a hundred do. You have a right to be proud of…
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Notes From My Journal
Are Liberals Really Smarter?
There is a widespread idea about liberals held by liberals – that they are smarter than conservatives. Studies show that this is not the case. People that identify themselves as liberals tend to have more…
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Notes From My Journal
Is President Biden Reading My Blog?
On Friday, I wrote about Navy Joan, Hunter Biden’s child that, for four years, the Biden family has never officially acknowledged. On the contrary, Hunter has been suing the mother, attempting to legally…
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Notes From My Journal
Catching Up on the Hunter Biden Story
Catching Up on the Hunter Biden Story “I’m not really interested in the money accusations,” MM said to me. “What really bothers me is this story about him turning his back on one of his children.” Not…
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Notes From My Journal
Are Big Cities Dying?
I’ve been writing a lot about the demise of America’s big cities: Chicago, LA, New York, San Francisco, Houston, etc. Crime is up. Property values are down. COVID lockdowns taught corporations and their…
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Notes From My Journal
Did You Ever Notice…
The Myrtle Beach crew (high school friends who spend a week in Myrtle Beach every October golfing – sort of) killed some retirement time recently by composing this list of Action Movie Clichés: * Whenever the…
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Notes From My Journal
Today…
It’s been several weeks since I served up a new conspiracy theory, or even given you a juicy update. So today, I’m giving you one of each – one on why the FTC is getting involved with AI, and another follow-up…
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Notes From My Journal
A Look Back — July 14, 2023
The Power of Wit On Tuesday, I shared an excerpt from an essay I wrote in 2008 about the state of America – an essay that is still disturbingly relevant. Today, I’m switching gears with a piece that I was…
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Notes From My Journal
A Look Back
The Problems Facing America in 2008 To give my immune system an extra challenge last week, I caught a cold. So, between the energy needed to defeat that and the energy needed to repair all the damaged tissue…
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Notes From My Journal
Happy Thoughts After Knee Replacement Surgery
If I’ve written anything in the past two weeks that offended you, I have a good excuse. I had knee replacement surgery on June 22. The operation was successful. It was performed by a surgeon who happened to go…
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Notes From My Journal
Happy Independence Day!
We honor our country’s founders with a day of celebration each year that includes flags, marching bands, and fireworks. And we celebrate our homosexual, nonbinary, and trans communities with a full month of…
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Notes From My Journal
Rising Above the Book-Banning Debate
The 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time Well-managed intellectual propaganda begins with the curation of children’s books. Educators understand that ideas formed in childhood, and especially ideas about how…
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Notes From My Journal
Why the Teachers Union Hates Poetry Recitals
There were two things my siblings and I were required to do on Sunday mornings. Go to church and recite a poem. The former was a rule adhered to by all the kids on my block. The poetry? My friends thought it…
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Notes From My Journal
Memories of Maiduguri
“Never shall I forget his deep-throated laughter as he told me that ‘the rascals’ would kill him.” – Taki DZ wanted to travel to Maiduguri in Nigeria, where his father was a visiting scholar at the university…
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Notes From My Journal
Father’s Day, Mother’s Day: What Does It Mean Anymore?
This weekend was Father’s Day. The Ford-Fitzgerald clan has nine fathers – five in my generation and four in the following one, of which three, along with spouses and offspring, were together at the Swamp…
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Notes From My Journal
Cormac McCarthy, RIP
Cormac McCarthy, RIP Cormac McCarthy is gone. Sad. I didn’t know him personally. I never even heard him speak Unlike most bestselling authors, McCarthy didn’t do book signings or media interviews to promote…
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Notes From My Journal
Pickleball. Where Did It Come From? How Long Will It Stay
The first time I saw a pickleball court was about five or six years ago. Half the size of a tennis court, it was clearly invented for older people. And then, when I saw the game being played, with the plastic…
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Notes From My Journal
We were traveling this last week…
Four days in LA visiting the grandkids, and three days in Richmond getting to know a city we’ve never been to. Here are some impressions: Glendale, LA When in LA, K and I often stay at the Glenmark Hotel in…
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Notes From My Journal
Rules: Who Needs Them?
A fair amount of what interests me these days has to do with the experience of aging. So today, I wanted to write about how my thinking about liberty and bureaucracy has changed over the years. In getting my…
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Notes From My Journal
Selling Condos and Jets and Picassos
Selling luxury condominiums and townhouses at Rancho Santana was slowing down because prices were going up. A luxury three-bedroom, three-bath condo that sold for $350,000 10 years ago is selling for more than…
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Notes From My Journal
The Political Force of Pronouns
I was going to write an essay today about identity politics and gender ideology. It’s a big, interesting subject, with plenty to argue about. But one aspect of it has become a wedge issue politically. I’m…
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Notes From My Journal
The Rear-Naked Choke: How Lethal Is It?
I’ve been thinking about the Jordan Neely/NYC subway situation a bit. Not so much because it resulted in political outrage with Black/White overtones, but because of the comments made about the choke hold that…
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Notes From My Journal
Why Salvador Dalí Is the Most Counterfeited Artist in the World
In the early 1980s, soon after my first retirement, I got into the art business, buying a half-interest in an art gallery in Boca Raton. I met lots of interesting characters through this relationship – none…
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Notes From My Journal
Florida Will Soon Be a “Constitutional-Carry” State
Should I and My Fellow Floridians Be Worried? Last month, Florida passed House Bill 543, which eliminated the requirement for Floridians to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. RF, my brother-in-law, who…
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Notes From My Journal
So, What’s the Answer? What Should I Do?
I was doing some research yesterday about the changing history of expert medical opinion on canola oil and omega-6 fatty acids (of all things). Over the past several decades, it has fluctuated from positive to…
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Notes From My Journal
Exciting… and Disturbing
A subscriber sent in this “clipping” under the headline: “Chat-GPT as Mark Ford telling you how to live your BEST life!” I wasn’t sure what to make of it because I don’t know how Chat-GPT works. I know that…
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Notes From My Journal
I Was Profiting from a Bordello!
I like to think of myself as a good and responsible landlord. I keep the properties in good shape, keep the rent increases affordable, and give the tenants the privacy they deserve. But when Julio took over…
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Notes From My Journal
Anonymous Giving
The Torah says that the highest form of charity is when the giving is done anonymously. One gives for the opportunity to help someone else, without any expectation of social recompence. When we donate to…
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