My dear friends, If you haven’t already, you should read John Pavlovitz’s blog post about the election results: https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/11/05/we-were-wrong-about-america/?fbclid=IwAR22cRk2dFPP7jCCQwYLqlXYPdAd8tct5YwxFeK_3coiDw6x5O624M4LhN4 I find there is only one thing on which I can agree with him:  He’s wrong. My dear friends, surely you can’t agree, either?  You’ve known me and my family too long to believe that we are any of the awful things Pavlovitz accuses us of being.  Yes, I voted for Trump, and so did my wife, and so did 2 of my sons, not that any of us particularly liked it.  We weighed him in the balance and decided that … Continue reading An Open Letter to my Dear Friends on the Left

I never heard of Keith McWalter of Granville, Ohio (and I’m sure he’s never heard of me, so we’re even), but the Wall Street Journal published his letter on Nov. 7 that contained these brilliant lines: “Voting isn’t a sacrament, it’s the grubby duty of democracy.  Yes, sometimes that means voting for the lesser of two evils…Disdain isn’t an effective stance in a representative democracy – it’s merely self-indulgent.  We’re obliged to make a choice.”  Mr. Granville, you’re a wise man.  Perhaps we should post his letter in every civics classroom in America (middle and high schools still teach civics, … Continue reading Still Waiting for Final Results, But…

If you’re into art, here’s a review of Asheville’s new museum.  The reviewer loves it and the Southern Appalachian region it celebrates. Kenneth D. Gough Continue reading Asheville’s Not Just For Hippies Anymore

Those of a certain age will remember Jimmy Quillen, who represented East Tennessee in the House of Representative from 1963 to 1997.  His 34-year term was notable for good constituent service – and nothing else.  He was the quintessential back-bencher.  One anonymous Republican colleague was reported to have said (good – naturedly) that Quillen “couldn’t organize a one-car funeral”, which is why, in spite of his seniority, he never chaired a House committee.  In 34 years, he introduced a total of 3 bills, voted the way the leadership told him to vote, made sure that his office straightened out Grandma’s … Continue reading The Case for Term Limits

Woke up this morning to discover that Nancy Pelosi has introduced a bill to form a 25th Amendment Commission, which will advise Congress on whether or not a president is fit for office.  It has absolutely nothing to do with Trump and the election, of course. Pelosi must think the rest of the country is as nuts as she is. Or gullible.  Or stupid. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Here’s hoping whoever wins the election, Pelosi is no longer Speaker of the House.  She has become an embarrassment not just to the Democratic Party, but to the House and the nation. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ There’s an … Continue reading Random Thoughts, You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Edition

Some years ago, I wrote about the first contested presidential election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson that the campaign was so dirty that to set the bar for future campaigns any lower, you would have to dig a hole. Last night in Cleveland, Donald Trump and Joe Biden dug a pit and kept on digging for over 90 minutes.  The “crapshow”, as one of my NET3D colleagues aptly described it, was an appalling debacle. I have been trying to come up with something positive to say about either man’s performance, and I’m simply unable.  The thought that kept running … Continue reading An Appalling Debacle

Rats!  You know what you want to say, can’t quite figure out how to say it, and somebody smarter than you beats you to it.  Oh, well, there’s always plagiarism. Jim Geraghty of National Review, whose beat is politics and who writes the Morning Jolt newsletter, entitled a segment of a recent Morning Jolt “Ninety-Five Theses, Nailed to the Door of Cable News”.  Read it, and read the blogpost upon which it is based.  Go on, I can wait.  https://www.arianapekary.net/post/personal-news-why-i-m-now-leaving-msnbc No one would mistake Geraghty or the magazine he writes for as anything but conservative, and Geraghty himself is a … Continue reading There’s Always Plagiarism

Passing Passing for white used to be a thing, (sadly) understandable in the days of Jim Crow and near-universal racial prejudice, when a “single drop of black blood” could change one’s future for the worse, closing off most opportunity for education, advancement outside the ghettoized black community, and achieving financial well-being.  So what to make of people like Rachel Dolezal a few years ago, and this woman, who for years passed as black: https://www.foxnews.com/us/white-gwu-history-professor-lied-being-black I just don’t understand.  Institutionalized, legally-sanctioned and/or socially-imposed racial discrimination was almost extinguished well over 50 years ago, and American society has worked diligently to stamp … Continue reading Random Thoughts, Dazed and Confused Edition

Long after the passions of the moment pass, the history of the Covid-19 pandemic is going to be written, and it won’t be pleasant or ennobling.  The Chinese government will come off as villainous; it brazenly lied about what it knew was happening, then attempted to obfuscate the situation, then attempted to blame other nations.  The World Health Organization allowed the Chinese to lead it around by the nose and raised the alarm far too late; worse than useless, it helped create the disaster.  Only a handful of countries acted in time to effectively quash the illness, and they had … Continue reading Taking the Hit

Bari Weiss is – sorry, was – an opinion writer at the New York Times.  She recently resigned, and wrote a resignation letter for the ages.  It is a damning indictment of a once-great newspaper.  Please read it here: https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter A key excerpt: ”My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My … Continue reading The Education of a Young Jewish Writer