Articles from 2023
694 articles · browse by month or scroll through the year.
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Worth Quoting
James Clear On Breaking Free From Imitation
“Many people won’t attempt something unless they can find an example of someone else who is already doing it. Rely on this type of thinking too much and you’ll never do anything interesting.” – James Clear
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Worth Watching
Un Beau Matin
Written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve Starring Léa Seydoux, Pascal Greggory, Melvil Poupaud, and Nicole Garcia Released (US) Jan. 27, 2023 Available on several streaming services, including Amazon Prime K…
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Fun and/or Interesting
More About Yuja Wang
I introduced you to Yuja Wang before. After reading that piece, DF, my sister, sent me this compilation of her playing the piano, starting as a little girl. She was amazing at four years old! And her skills…
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Postscript
What Makes This Performance Transcend The Costume
There is something great about this that is beyond the performance of the man in costume. It’s about humanity. Can you see it? How would you describe it? Click here.
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Notes From My Journal
Poor Wreck That I Am
Over the past 22 years, I’ve written a fair amount about my experiences with clinical level depression and anxiety, as well as the normal range of self-doubts and self-recriminations that any former altar boy…
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News & Views
Vegetarians vs Carnivores: Another Point for Meat Meaters
I have a good friend that has been following a strict vegetarian diet for many years. He’s super energetic and swears by it. If I had to judge by his activity and demeanor, I’d say it has worked for him…
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Worth Quoting
Language Control As A Tool Of Tyranny
“If you can mandate or ban words, you can control thought. If you can control thought, you can control behavior. If you can control behavior, you have created a self-sustaining tyranny.” – Michael Masterson
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Worth Considering
Good Cop, Bad Cop
Do We Need Stop-and-ID Laws? Stop-and-frisk was a policy that was ruled legal in 1968. In Terry vs. Ohio, the Supreme Court ruled to allow police officers the flexibility to temporarily detain and search…
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Arts & Letters
There Is a Good Side to Your Dad” (Fingers Crossed!)
From Letters of Note… In 2017, at the end of a particularly bitter custody case in Scotland that resulted in the father being granted indirect contact with his three children, a psychologist advised the…
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Fun and/or Interesting
A Socratic Conversation About Reducing Crime
From Freddie deBoer, my favorite self-proclaimed socialist... Click here.
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Readers Write
From AS: “I’d hate to be a cop!
“To acquire a concealed carry permit, you had to take eight hours of instruction, including an hour on a firing range. Veterans excused. So aside from getting a little safety training, someone had to put forth…
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Postscript
Sound Like a Native Speaker
When I was starting to learn French as a Peace Corps volunteer in French-speaking Africa almost 50 years ago, a fellow volunteer who was fluent in French gave me the same good advice this person is giving here.
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Notes From My Journal
Aww, Isn’t That Cute!
I know what you are thinking… Ford is reading a bedtime story to his grandkids. Not exactly. It was lunchtime. We are at a hotel in LA. The kids were acting up and the adults had not yet finished their food…
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The Economy & Investing
What It Takes to Be Middle Class in America
I’ve shared studies like this before. But I found this one from SmartAsset to be particularly useful. Take a look at these facts, for example: * It’s much harder to be middle class in the north than the south…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response: What We got Wrong — April 18, 2023
Have You Heard of Project Next Gen? Project Next Gen is a $5 billion government program advertised as “accelerating the development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments, seeking to better protect against…
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Worth Watching
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn
Directed by Jim Hosking Starring Aubrey Plaza, Emile Hirsch, Jermaine Clement, Matt Berry, and Craig Robinson Released (US) Oct. 19, 2018 Available on various streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon…
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Readers Write
From TS re the Open Carry Question
“I’ve been on the fence about this subject for a long time. I shared the popular idea that the visible presence of guns would dissuade criminals. However, I live on the nicer side of a college town. And just…
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Postscript
How Quitting Sugar Transforms Your Health
These guys do a good job or explaining the health benefits of quitting sugar. Click here.
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Notes From My Journal
New Orleans: A Brief Visit; Rekindled Affection
K and I flew in from LA after visiting some of the grandkids to celebrate our anniversary and take another look at a city we’ve always enjoyed. We hadn’t been here in 12 years. In that time, the city was…
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News & Views
Gun Control: I Said I’d Get Back to You
As promised, I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week researching the question I asked on Tuesday: Do gun control policies reduce gun-related deaths? What I discovered is that most of what one is likely to…
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The Economy & Investing
Americans Are Working Less
In one of the news feeds I read, an essay titled “Working hardly or hardly working” caught my eye. According to the author, burnout among American workers is “running rampant.” The reason? “The average…
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Worth Reading
Taki's Remarkable Life Will Make You Jealous
Do you remember Taki? The publisher of Taki’s Magazine? I’ve linked to him before. There are plenty of reasons to subscribe to his digital posts, including the diversity of opinions you’ll find there. But for…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response: What We got Wrong — April 14, 2023
The News You Didn’t See Why Didn’t You Hear About This? This should have been breakthrough news. But you never heard about it because you get your news from the mainstream media. At a congressional hearing on…
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Inside Paradise Palms Botanical & Sculpture Gardens
Inside Paradise Palms' Ancient Cycad Collection
The conservancy that my family and I are developing in West Delray Beach, FL, has one of the largest and best-curated palm tree collections in the world, as well as a growing collection of outdoor sculptures…
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Postscript
Viral Video Physics Doesn't Add Up
Could this be true? I don’t think so. Dropped from that distance, the force of the kid would have knocked them down. Click here. What do you think?
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Notes From My Journal
The Open-Carry Question
Yesterday, in downtown Pasadena, I saw a fight break out between two Hispanic “parking enforcement” officers and a young Asian man. The young man, someone said, had flicked a lit cigarette at one of them after…
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News & Views
When More Than 650 Refugees Arrived in This Town
When More Than 650 Refugees Arrived in This Town... LC, a friend, forwarded me this story. It’s about how, in a rural town in Australia, attitudes towards immigrants improved over a period of several years. I…
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The Economy & Investing
Is “Social Audio” a Thing of the Past?
In 2021, Clubhouse was an application everyone was talking about. Many of my colleagues in the internet infotainment world were getting involved. Back then, the audio chat room had 10 million users, which gave…
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Worth Watching
A Certain Morning
A Certain Morning (Un Certain Matin) This is a short film (15 minutes) written and directed by Fanta Régina Nacro. It was the first dramatic film made by a woman from Burkina Faso. The scenery reminded me of…
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Worth Reading
The von Trapps of Harlem
This is a fun read about a family of 12 musicians trying to become “the Kardashians of Classical Music”! Click here.
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Arts & Letters
Gallows Poetry, Anyone?
Have you ever heard the name Chidiock Tichborne? My mother, who required us to memorize a poem every weekend, told me about him when I was very young. I was reminded of him earlier this week in an essay by…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Mandarin Dominates Native Speakers, English Rules Second Language
Take a look at this graphic representation of language use across the globe. One thing that strikes me is the difference between Mandarin and English. Mandarin is, by far, the language most spoken by native…
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Readers Write
From MN, a friend and award-winning filmmaker, re the April 4 issue
“Great newsletter. Thank you, Mark. And such an important note about false confessions and the Innocence Project. My first documentary – 120 Years – which I made in 2018, is about an unbelievable wrongful…
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Postscript
Belief Systems Even Weirder Than Bigfoot
What could be loonier than believing in Bigfoot? Click here.
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Notes From My Journal
Pulling a Tom Sawyer
In The Pledge, I outlined something I once used to identify which of my many life ambitions corresponded with my unconscious values. I called it the Tom Sawyer Strategy. As in: If you could eavesdrop on your…
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A Word to the Wise
Anagnorisis
(an-ag-NOR-ih-sis) – from the Greek for “recognition” – is the point in the plot of a play at which the protagonist makes a critical discovery. As I used it above: “This little bit of anagnorisis has made its…
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News & Views
Putting Out the Fire on the Gas Stove Debate
Have you heard all the hullabaloo about the danger of gas stoves? According to some, the emissions are causing asthma and other respiratory diseases in people (including children) exposed to them. Really?…
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Introducing...
Freddie deBoer
Freddie deBoer is a writer, an academic, and a self-proclaimed Marxist. I began following him after a friend recommended him to me as having an “interesting and independent” mind. I’ve read a dozen pieces by…
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Worth Considering
The COVID Response: What We got Wrong
The CDC on Mortality Counts: “Okay, You Caught Us!” The CDC is finally adjusting its mortality count to correct for its absurdly disingenuous and misleading decision, at the beginning of the pandemic, to…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Good Cop? Bad Cop? You Tell Me
This is, IMHO, a good cop acting badly. Click here. Here is a cop trying to do his job. But he’s being a bit of a bully. Everything he’s doing, according to a retired cop friend of mine, is within the range of…
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Readers Write
Re the Mar. 28 issue — April 7, 2023
“Check out this article. It ties in with what you’ve been saying about the government’s position on the COVID vaccines. (These people are, irredeemably evil!)” – G “A bummer about killer bees in your owl…
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Postscript
Self-Defense Cases Reveal America's Lawsuit Culture Problem
It was hard to get my head around this video: “Armed Chicago Woman Shoots Man Attempting to Rob Her, Now His Family Is Suing for 10 Million.” But it was easy to get behind this one: “Florida Woman Fights Off…
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Notes From My Journal
When Police Pull You Over
I bought the house several years earlier and rented it to one of the maintenance guys that works for me. It was in what some might call the iffy part of town. I had been to it only once. To discuss the…
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The Economy & Investing
Ready for an Uncomfortable Conversation?
Let’s Take an Honest Look at Our Secretary of the Treasury This is painful to watch. Janet Yellen, who was appointed by the Biden administration to lead the Treasury Department, is responsible for “formulating…
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News & Views
Who Wants Gun Control?
In a recent essay in The Free Press, Nellie Bowles (a very smart and funny writer) wrote that “while conservatives balk at even the mildest gun control efforts... progressives have absolutely no intention of…
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Worth Watching
Tetris
Tetris Directed by Jon S. Baird Starring Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofia Lebedeva, Anthony Boyle, and Toby Jones Released by Apple TV+ Mar. 31, 2023 K had read a positive review of Tetris in the NYT. I…
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Worth Considering
WHO's New Power Grab Threatens Free Speech Rights
Here’s a Great Idea... From the People that Brought the World Four Years of Economic Destruction, Social Polarization, and Global Hysteria! Rather than apologizing for all the misinformation and bad advice it…
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Fun and/or Interesting
He Never Comed Back
You’ve probably heard it said that Mandarin is the most difficult language for English speakers to learn. Other contenders include Hungarian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Basque, and Navajo. But learning English…
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Postscript
Why I Contribute to the Innocence Project
One of the cruelest aspects of our criminal justice system is the strategy of the police and court system to force the accused to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. Before this happened to someone I…
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Notes From My Journal
Let’s Talk About Egos!
In my piece about Trump’s “impending arrest” in the Mar. 28 issue, I said, “What Trump’s foes hoped would come from [an indictment] was a derailment of his presidential campaign. Given the strength of Trump’s…
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