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17 May 2013

Washing a California Sunbounce “Mini Sun-Bounce Kit” Screen in a Washing Machine — How to (17 May 2013)

16 May 2013

Pakistan’s Peshawar High Court Ordered the Pakistan Government to Confront U.S. Drone “War Crimes” at the United Nations — Is American Human Rights Hypocrisy Finally Going to Go on Global Display? (16 May 2013)

15 May 2013

A Responsibility-Avoiding Leader Is a Bad One — President Obama Is a Good Example of What Happens When Character and Professional Role Do Not Match (15 May 2013)

14 May 2013

Ya Just Gotta Laugh at Our Complacence, to Wit — (a) Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels are Higher than Humanity Literally Has Ever Seen, but that News Got only a Handful of Folk’s Attention for Maybe One Day — (b) King Obama Finally Targeted a Few too Many People at Home for His Regal Hijinks, but the Only Ones Really Upset Are Those whom the IRS and DOJ actually Screwed with — (c) Remember Pastor Martin Niemöller’s Warning about Complacence? (14 May 2013)

13 May 2013

Washing a Not Silvered Photographic Softbox in a Washing Machine — Chimera Pro II Large Strip Box — Measuring 50x210 Centimeters (21x84 Inches) — How to (13 May 2013)

10 May 2013

OEC Old English China OECcamera EZ Lightstand 3/8" Mountable Speed Ring for Fitting Softbox to Balcar or White Lightning Photo Studio Strobes — Tested with a Chimera Pro II Large Strip Box — Review — and a Comment on Speed Ring (Speedring) Terminology (10 May 2013)

08 May 2013

Struggling with Even the Most Elementary Basics of Leadership — Commander in Chief Obama’s Pusillanimous Posturing in Regard to Military Sexual Assaults (08 May 2013)

06 May 2013

Vanished Senatorial Integrity — Former Senator Gary Hart Warns that the American Republic Is Being Lost — He’s Right, of Course (06 May 2013)

05 May 2013

If You Are Depressed by the Cesspool Quality of America’s Political Leadership — Get a Boost from Switzerland’s Solar Powered Airplane Flight across the United States — the Solar Impulse Across America Project (05 May 2013)

03 May 2013

The United States’ Business as Usual Model often Takes Chances with the Environment — Sometimes in Subtly Dangerous Ways — Take the USDA and EPA’s Disingenuous Non-Response to Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder and Neonicotinoid Pesticides — an Insight into Our Frequently Shared Motivation to Conceal Worrisome Information (03 May 2013)

02 May 2013

Bill Moyers’ Interview of Glenn Greenwald Delivered an Enviably Cogent Critique of the Obama Administration’s Attack on Freedom and Human Rights — Accurately Delivered and Worth Watching, the Program Includes a Transcript for People Who Read Faster than They Listen (02 May 2013)

01 May 2013

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) 2009 Mammography Screening Recommendations Were Understandably Ignored by the Medical Establishment and Its Patients (01 May 2013)

29 April 2013

There Are Times when a Former Supreme Court Justice Should Not Give the Media Her Superficially Delivered Opinion — Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Is Now Quoted as Questioning the Advisability the Supreme Court’s Intervention in Bush v Gore — but She apparently Ventured this Statement without Providing any Substantive Legal Reasoning to Justify Her Thinking (29 April 2013)

26 April 2013

Liberals Continue to Demean George W. Bush’s Legacy — while They Ignore the Immensely Greater Trampling of Human Rights and Law that President Obama Revels in Every Day (26 April 2013)

24 April 2013

How a Canadian Legitimately Sees Hysterical America — Excerpts from His Insightful Article — and My Supporting Comment (24 April 2013)

23 April 2013

Mistaken or Missed Medical Diagnoses Resulted in $38 Billion in Malpractice Payouts between 1986 and 2010 — Because Most of these Claims Were Probably Legitimate, the Study’s Lead Author Thinks that Medicine Has a Significant Problem (23 April 2013)

22 April 2013

60 Minutes’ Television Summaries of the Boston Marathon Bombing — and the Anticipated Opening of the 911 Museum — Illustrate Our Lack of a National Sense of Moral Proportion — which Sadly Results in Repeatedly Compounding the International Cruelties of the Human Condition (22 April 2013)

19 April 2013

Bob Garfield, a Media Expert, Summarized the Laughable BS that Constitutes Cable News at Major Events — Like the Boston Marathon Bombing and Aftermath— His Brief Article Is Worth Reading (19 April 2013)

18 April 2013

After the Senate’s Rejection of Expanded Background Checks — Gun Control Advocates Are Blaming the Wrong People — a Comment on the American Political System as It Really Exists (18 April 2013)

17 April 2013

President Obama’s Synopsis of How America Responds to Evil Left Out the Psychologically Most Important Point — Our Indiscriminate Retaliations Create More of the Same (17 April 2013)

15 April 2013

A Nitwit Moment’s Inadvertent Example Explains Why History Repeats Itself — Justin Bieber’s Narcissistic Comment about the Holocaust’s Anne Frank — Says Something about the Human Condition (15 April 2013)

12 April 2013

The Belligerent Arrogance of America’s Anti-Nuke Foreign Policy further Aggravates already Difficult International Tensions — Take North Korea and Iran, as Examples (12 April 2013)

11 April 2013

The Office for Human Research Protections Caught 23 Universities and Medical Institutions in Producing Unethical Research Consent Protocols — Regarding Variably Oxygenating Preterm Infants — an Example of What Can Go Wrong, when Medical Professionals Don’t Think Critically — and Continuing Proof that the Institutional Review Board System that Is Supposed to Prevent these Abuses Doesn’t Work (11 April 2013)

10 April 2013

Not a Peep from the Lamestream Media, when the Obama Administration Leased California BLM Land for Oil Fracking — without Proper Environmental Review (10 April 2013)

09 April 2013

The Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians Indicates that for Many Men, the Potential Harms of Undergoing PSA Screening Outweigh its Unreliable Forecasting Value (09 April 2013)

07 April 2013

Pushing the Olympus E-P3 to Do What It Was Not Designed for — Catching the Ball on the Bat at a Not So Well Lighted Baseball Game — Fun for the Childish (Like Me) (07 April 2013)

05 April 2013

The President of Empty Gestures Does It again — His Voluntary 5 Percent Pay Cut Is Supposed to Make Us Feel that He Is on Our Side — Instead, He Looks Like the Self-Involved Manipulator that He Characteristically Is — and a Paragraph about Getting What We Deserve (05 April 2013)

04 April 2013

Monsanto’s Reported Ability to Influence Senator Roy Blunt into Doing Its Dirty Work Exemplifies How Rotten Congress Is — Section 735 of the Newly Signed Appropriations Act (HR 933) Deprives the Judiciary of Its Power to Protect both Environment and Public Health against GMOs Gone Awry (04 April 2013)

02 April 2013

The American Public’s Willingness to Start Wars — which Only Our Military One Percent Has to Die for — Parallels Our Moral Complacence in Not Taking on the Socially Insane U.S. Gun Lobby (02 April 2013)

29 March 2013

U.S. State Department Is Playing Concealing Games with Relevant Keystone Pipeline Information — Like Keeping Public Comments Secret and Covering up the Fact that its Consultants Had a Financial Interest in the Proposed Outcome (29 March 2013)

28 March 2013

Scott Smith’s Foreign Policy Take Down of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke’s Erroneously Alleged Competence in Afghanistan — Is a Worthwhile Read for “Wannabe” Leaders (28 March 2013)

27 March 2013

A Study of More than 600 Corporate Board Directors Finds That Female Decision Makers Do a Fairer Minded Job than Men — which, the Authors Conclude, Seems to Explain Previous Findings that Having a Higher Proportion of Women on Corporate Boards Results in More Profitable Company Performances (27 March 2013)

26 March 2013

The Inevitable Karma that Attends Looking for Trouble — the United States Has Now Established a Drone Base in Niger (Africa) — and Anti-Terrorist Imam Boureima Abdou Daouda Sums the Risk in a Simple Metaphor (26 March 2013)

25 March 2013

Journalist Chris Hedges Is Arguably too Vitriolic a Critic of Corporatist Culture to Gain a Foothold in Our Attention — but He Is Consistently Right (25 March 2013)

20 March 2013

Writer Joshua Holland Asks whether Americans Are too Stupid for Democracy — He Says No, but His Facts all Point the Other Way — and Supporting Examples Provided by Our Leaders’ Foolishly Incomplete Discussions about Iraq’s Once Suspected WMDs, Iran’s Suspected Bomb-Building, and Syria’s Alleged Chemical Weapons Use (20 March 2013)

18 March 2013

Was the Globalist’s Editor in Chief, Stephan Richter, Over the Top — when He Referred to Ordinary Americans as Health Care Serfs? — I Don’t Think so (18 March 2013)

16 March 2013

R. J. Cutler, The World According to Dick Cheney — Better than this Documentary’s Critics Give it Credit for — a Mini Review (16 March 2013)

15 March 2013

Bigotry Combines Cowardice with Aggressively Defended Ignorance — take Senator Rob Portman’s Reversal into Favoring Gay Marriage, only after His Son Revealed that He Was Gay — a Comment on Ideology as Stupidity’s Refuge (15 March 2013)

14 March 2013

Using the Olympus E-P3 with Its Popup Flash and a Remotely Controlled Olympus FL-300r — Attempting to Balance Window Daylight with a Not Too Dark Room Interior — and FL-300r as Fill — with a Related Comment on Olympus’ Penchant for Fiddly Operation — Review (14 March 2013)

11 March 2013

Nigerian-American Teju Cole’s Haiku-Like Tweets Hint at the Immorality of Drone Murder — but Only to Those Who Still Have Functioning Souls (11 March 2013)

10 March 2013

Two Years after the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Meltdowns — the Prefecture’s Forests Are Radioactive — a Very Short Video Shows the Impact of Corporate Greed and Complicit Governmental Malfeasance on Ordinary People (10 March 2013)

09 March 2013

Al Jazeera Asked a Culturally Penetrating Question — which the US Media Is too Gutless to Ask Itself — regarding Army Private Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks (09 March 2013)

07 March 2013

The New York Times Made Light of Senator Rand Paul’s Anti-Brennan, Anti-Drone Filibuster — Instead of Asking Why Only 7 Republicans and 1 Democrat Were Willing to Oppose President Obama’s Assertion of Kingly Power (07 March 2013)

04 March 2013

A Photo Shoot Goes Laughably Awry — Sometimes it Is about the Equipment (04 March 2013)

01 March 2013

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Perfectly Symbolizes the Obama Administration’s Two-Faced Hypocrisy — See Alec MacGillis’ Summary of Parasite Jack’s Trail to Power (01 March 2013)

28 February 2013

Psychotherapist Phillippa Perry Linked Lying about Alcohol Intake to Culturally Accepted Narcissism — and My Comment about Narcissism’s Spiritual Self-Destruction (28 February 2013)

27 February 2013

Professional Honor — No Better Embodied than by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop — too Bad There Has Been So Little Public Reflection on His Passing (27 February 2013)

26 February 2013

Jon Kedrowski and Chris Tomer, Sleeping on the Summits: Colorado Fourteener High Bivys (Westcliffe Publishers, 2012) — Book Review (26 February 2013)

25 February 2013

While Members of Congress and the President Receive Massive Amounts of Defense Sector Lobbying Money — Who Does the Dying? — Who Assists the Maimed? — Who Damps the Rage that We Leave in Our Wake? (25 February 2013)

24 February 2013

Eric Holder’s Department of Justice Is Typified by its Delayed Easy Street Freeloading on the Combination of Floyd Landis’ Whistleblower Suit and USADA’s Evidentiary Case against Lance Armstrong (24 February 2013)

22 February 2013

21 February 2013

President Obama Continues to Refuse to Release Legal Justifications for Drone Murder — Did Someone Crown Him King? (21 February 2013)

20 February 2013

The Unfortunate Futility of Acquainting Religious Hierarchies with Genuine Spiritual Development — Cardinal Roger Mahoney’s Puke-Inspiring Vision of Himself as a Victim of the Children whom His Church Abused (20 February 2013)

19 February 2013

A Must Read for Wannabe Lawyers — Tucker Max on Why You Should Not Go to Law School — and Comments regarding My Own Statistically Unlikely Experience in Law (19 February 2013)

18 February 2013

Where Did Once Brave America Go? — Professor Michael Brenner on the “Unmanly” Prevalence of Fear and Denial in the United States (18 February 2013)

16 February 2013

Steve Grooms, Russ Sewell, and Dave Nomsen, Ringneck (Lyons Press, 2000) — Book Review (16 February 2013)

15 February 2013

Does Institutionalized Mindlessness Make Us Dumber or Only More Cynical? — The State of the Union’s Annual Bouncing Clown Show Would Have Embarrassed Me even in Elementary School (15 February 2013)

14 February 2013

The Fact that It Is Difficult to Get Pricing Information for Major Health Care Procedures — Demonstrates Just How Out of Control American Health Care Costs Are — a Study Published in JAMA Internal Medicine (14 February 2013)

13 February 2013

Why Is Barnes and Noble as Complacently Dumb as It Is? — You Would Think that Amazon’s Internet Presence Would Have Given the Brick and Mortar Bookstore Something to Simulate, so as to Stay Relevant — a Review (13 February 2013)

12 February 2013

M. D. Johnson, Guide to Pheasant Hunting (2006) — Book Review (12 February 2013)

11 February 2013

Olympus E-P3 — Is it Still a Viable Choice over the E-PM2, E-PL5 or E-M5? — Review (11 February 2013)

08 February 2013

We Can Recognize Immoral Thinking because It Consistently Refuses to Come to Grips with the Real Issues — an Illustration Using Columnist Michael Gerson’s Recent Drone Column — and a Parallel Example from CIA Director Nominee, John Brennan (08 February 2013)

07 February 2013

Collusion among New York Times, Washington Post, and the CIA — to Keep a Drone Base Location Secret — a Comment on the Decline of the Function of the Fourth Estate (07 February 2013)

06 February 2013

An Ohio State Study — Demonstrated that Providing People with Immediately Corrected Information Does Not Reliably Change their Mistaken Minds — the Finding Corroborates Suspicion that Determined Stupidity Is Our Lot in Life — which May Account for American Politics’ Frequently Stubborn Resistance to Facing Facts (06 February 2013)

05 February 2013

Professor Paul Krugman Called the NRA an Insane Organization — and Former Pediatrics Assistant Professor Helena Rho Tells Us about the NRA’s Legislative Attempt to Prevent Pediatricians from Asking about Gun Ownership (05 February 2013)

03 February 2013

How Little We Remember — Yesterday’s 70^th Anniversary of the End of the Battle of Stalingrad — a Comment about the Inertia of Forgetfulness and Failed Gratitude (03 February 2013)

02 February 2013

Dick Sternberg, Upland Game Birds (1995) — Book Review (02 February 2013)

30 January 2013

Think about the Portrait of Our Dystopian Society, which Senator Lindsey Graham Painted in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Hearing regarding Gun Violence — Then Consider that He and His Anti-Government Ilk Are Directly Responsible for the Anarchical State of Affairs that He Says People Now Need Guns to Combat (30 January 2013)

29 January 2013

High Blood Pressure Patients — Meta-Analysis Shows that Dual Blockade of the Renin-Angiotensin System Does Not Reduce All-Cause Mortality — and Comes at the Price of Subjecting Many Patients to Noticeably Higher Risks for Hyperkalemia, Hypotension, and Renal Failure (29 January 2013)

28 January 2013

U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division Chief, Lanny Breuer, to Step Down — after PBS’s Frontline Implicitly Exposes Him, Attorney General Eric Holder, and President Obama for Being Plutocracy Friendly (28 January 2013)

26 January 2013

The United Nations Human Rights Council Is Going to Investigate the Practice of Drone Murder — Will the Inquiry Be Enough to Slap Legal and Moral Sense into the Imperial American Presidency? (26 January 2013)

25 January 2013

Logitech MK710 Wireless Keyboard and M705 Wireless Marathon Mouse — Long Term Durability Report — Review (25 January 2013)

24 January 2013

A Humorously Sad Example of Humanity’s Ability to Distort Basic Spiritual Messages — the United States Air Force’s Well-Intended, but “We Missed the Point” Distortion of Martin Luther King Junior’s Most Basic Message about Peacefulness (24 January 2013)

23 January 2013

Carefully Scripted Benghazi Outrage from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — Stained Her Admirable Record — although almost No One in Her Camp Is Going to Notice (23 January 2013)

22 January 2013

An Oath Taken on Two Bibles that Once Belonged to More Honorably Consistent Leaders — and a Speech Containing an Astonishing Hypocrisy — President Obama’s Second Inauguration Mirrored the United States’ Often Self-Defeating Moral Condition (22 January 2013)

18 January 2013

The Ridiculous Right’s Demented Ostrich Display — the Attack on President Obama’s Innocuous Gun Related Executive Orders (18 January 2013)

17 January 2013

If One Is already a Prominent Person, Why Is Trolling for Angry Responses to Boldly Stated Stupidities so Attractive — Would Not a Quieter Reputation for Thoughtful Intelligence Be Preferable? —on Modernity’s Rampant Narcissism (17 January 2013)

16 January 2013

High Art in Advertising — a German Television Commercial for Mercedes Uses almost No Words and Virtually No Car — and Hits a Homerun that Even Its Competitors Will Admire — a Model for “Wannabe” Influencers (16 January 2013)

The Forced Suicide of Aaron Swartz (Reddit Founder and Internet Freedom Advocate) — Was almost Certainly due to Unconscionable Prosecutorial Excess from U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz — an Example of Why Freedom Lovers, on Both Left and Right, so often Despise the Federal Government — and a Comment regarding the Obama Administration’s Responsibility for Letting this all Get Out of Hand (15 January 2013)

15 January 2013

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) — Review (15 January 2013)

14 January 2013

Bruce Alberts — Editor in Chief of Science — Made an Excellent Suggestion for Improving American Science Education — but Policy Makers Will Probably Ignore It — because So Many Do Not Understand How Science and Critical Thinking Work (14 January 2013)

13 January 2013

James Yeager Is a Good Representative for Gun Advocacy’s Extreme Right — but His Passion and Profane Directness Do Not Automatically Make Him an Idiot — a Comment on the “Not So Fringe” (13 January 2013)

12 January 2013

A Dark, but Amusing Gun Control Essay from Novelist Douglas Anthony Cooper — Examines Our Culture’s Infatuation with Violence — and My Comment about the Not Obvious Spiritual Thinking that the Social Contract Requires (12 January 2013)

11 January 2013

Robert Scheer Concisely Disposed of President Obama’s Absurd Claim that He Is a Financial Sector Reformer — Comments on the Nomination of Jack Lew for Treasury Secretary (11 January 2013)

10 January 2013

National Research Council (NRC) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) Health Report — Shows How Far the United States Lags Affluent Nations — in Longevity and Accepted Indicators of Health Quality — Tables and Graphs Dramatically Make the Point (10 January 2013)

09 January 2013

Competing Poles of the Firearms Debate Are Inadvertently Presented in Two Pro Gun Videos — Gun Advocate Alex Jones’ Lack of Self Control with Piers Morgan — and a Legally Modified AR-15 Equipped with a Slide Fire Solutions’ “Bump Fire” Shoulder Stock and a 250-Round Magazine (09 January 2013)

08 January 2013

The Tiresome Problem of Generals — Who Speak Out against the Evils of Unnecessary War, only after They Have Retired — General Stanley McChrystal Now Agrees that Drone Murder Is Bad — Yet, He apparently Didn’t Do Squat about it, even when He Was the Ranking Commander in Afghanistan — and a Comment about the Moral Implications of True Leadership (08 January 2013)

07 January 2013

Congress and President Are Looking at the Wrong Things — Economically Speaking — a Not so Isolated Example from the Fiscal Cliff Deal (07 January 2013)

06 January 2013

Henry Blodget Unerringly Pegged Lance Armstrong — in a Piece Published by Business Insider — and a Question about Redemption (06 January 2013)

04 January 2013

Reflexive American Bigotry Makes an International Fool of Itself — Time Warner Dumped Current TV, apparently in Part because Al Jazeera Bought It — and Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly Thoughtlessly Followed Up by Slamming Al Gore — All without Looking at Al Jazeera English’s Actual Doings (04 January 2013)

03 January 2013

If It Is “Them” Voters’ Fault — Can We Help by Improving their Knowledge Base? — Probably Not, Say the Findings from a Clever Political Science Experiment (03 January 2013)

02 January 2013

The Often Maligned David Brooks Is Correct — “It’s Them Voters” — and My Added Comment about the Utility of Using Reasoned Common Sense to Dissect Political and Economic Camouflage (02 January 2013)

01 January 2013

1971’s Wilmington 10 Were Finally Pardoned on the Last Day of 2012 — Thirty-Two Years after the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals Overturned the Original Trial Verdict — on Grounds Equivalent to Perjury, Prosecutorial Misconduct, and Implied Racism — a Reminder that American Justice too often Is Not (01 January 2013)

28 December 2012

Rather than Do It Right, Let’s Do It Cheap and Stupid — Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne Suggests Arming One Civilian Employee per School — with the Caveat that the Weapon Be Kept in a Locked Place — in Short, another Bird Brain Representing My Covey of Fellow Gun-Owners (28 December 2012)

27 December 2012

Another Litigator-Worthy Retort to Wayne LaPierre and the NRA — this Time from Psychologist Michael Bader (27 December 2012)

26 December 2012

Carhartt Sandstone Traditional Coat with Optional Snap-On Hood — Review (26 December 2012)

24 December 2012

An Insight Contained in a Paragraph Written about the Economic Collapse of Japanese Electronics Companies May also Apply to the Republican Party’s Future in the United States — the Price of Narrowness (24 December 2012)

23 December 2012

President Obama’s Fulsome Ego Occasionally Surfaces in Telling Fashion — His Gracelessly Self-Centered Eulogy for Senator Daniel Inouye — Conceit May Explain Why the Obama Presidency Has Been almost Exclusively about Him and Not about Finding Solutions to Real Problems (23 December 2012)

22 December 2012

From a Litigator’s Perspective — a Devastating Argument against NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre’s Call for Police in All Schools — from MSNBC’s often Brilliant Political Liberal, Lawrence O’Donnell (22 December 2012)

20 December 2012

How to Get Rid of Web Page Meta Data that You Originally Entered Using Dreamweaver CS4 via Its Insert HTML Head Tags Command (20 December 2012)

19 December 2012

Steven Strauss Sees 8 Substantive Parallels between Today’s United States and the Demise of the Roman Republic — a Heads Up for People Who Refuse to Be Easily Distracted Dunderheads (19 December 2012)

18 December 2012

A Bit of Pessimism — Regarding a Man Who Has Never Displayed Much Grit for a Principled and Uphill Fight — President Obama’s Penchant for Hiding behind Speeches, this Time on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings (18 December 2012)

17 December 2012

Another NRA Extremist Joins Wayne LaPierre in Advocating for Still More Gun Toting — this Time in Elementary Schools — Republican Representative Louie Gohmert and His Impractical Idea about How the Sandy Hook Elementary Tragedy Could Have Been Prevented (17 December 2012)

16 December 2012

A Little too Convenient, Maybe? — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Aims to Evade Congressional Investigation of the Benghazi Consulate Murders by Implicitly Claiming that Concussion Has Recently Addled Her Wits (16 December 2012)

14 December 2012

President Obama’s Weakness as an Alpha Person Was on Display in the Ambassador Susan Rice Fiasco — and an Equally Revealing Ding in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Reputation (14 December 2012)

12 December 2012

Christian Author Diana Butler Bass Chided Fox News for Emphasizing the Wrong Things about Christmas — Her Essay about the Meaning of Advent — and Fox’s Obtuseness in Disregarding It (12 December 2012)

10 December 2012

What a Sad Sight — a Stream of Political Cowards Passed Wheelchair-Bound Senator Bob Dole — on their Way to Vote Down Passage of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that He and War-Scarred Senator John McCain Had Supported (10 December 2012)

08 December 2012

A Quotation from Dr. Mary-Claire King — President of the American Society of Human Genetics — Advocates for Scientists’ Duty to Speak Up in a Culture Drowning in Lies and Ignorance — but Her Words Illustrate the Chasm between Thoughtful Evidence-Seekers and the Majority of the Population (and Its Often Intentionally Misleading Leaders) (08 December 2012)

07 December 2012

The Jovan Belcher, Kasandra Perkins Murder-Suicide Sadness — Unhelpful (but Representative) Idiocy from Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association (07 December 2012)

05 December 2012

A Little Covered Story that Deserves Attention — Cadet Blake Page’s Third Year Resignation from West Point — due to the Authority-Bound, Unconstitutional Christian Proselytizing that Is Taking over America’s Military Officer Corps (05 December 2012)

03 December 2012

The Global Carbon Budget 2012 Report Shows How Pollution-Shifting from Developed Nations to Poorer Nations Makes China Look Bad — and Why American “Holier than Thou” Carbon Emissions Non-Policy Is Hypocritical (03 December 2012)

30 November 2012

How to Ad Lib a Speech from Notes, Eloquently — Vice President Biden’s Quietly Insightful Eulogy of Senator Warren Rudman (30 November 2012)

29 November 2012

The More It Stays the Same — regarding U.S. Backing of Humanity-Crushing Dictators — Al Jazeera Examines American Complicity in Prolonging the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Civil War (29 November 2012)

28 November 2012

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham — Prominent and Prolific Indicators of the Sheer Stupidity that Characterizes American National Politics (28 November 2012)

27 November 2012

Escaping the Herd Mentality — Climate Progress Points Out that Accurate Climate Change Reporting Would Blend the Existing Scientific Consensus with More Extreme Modeling Predictions — Rather than Erroneously Tempering Science with Anti-Scientific Denial — and My Related Comment about the Inertia of Ignorance and Its Grip on Science Journalism and the Public (27 November 2012)

26 November 2012

Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl — a Reminder about Why Governance Is Necessary and, When Properly Done, Valuable (26 November 2012)

24 November 2012

An Increasingly Asinine Nation — Has Essentially Eliminated Thanksgiving in Order to Begin Black Friday Consumerism a Few Hours Earlier — Jesus, Yaweh, Mohammed and Buddha Would Ask Us What We Think We’re Doing (24 November 2012)

21 November 2012

A Philosophical Question — When American Politicians Evade Giving a Straight Answer about Proven Scientific Facts, Are They Contributing to the Glut of Willful Stupidity that Threatens to Drown Us? — And a Parallel with Abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens’ 1865 Moral Dilemma, as Depicted in Steven Spielberg’s movie, Lincoln (21 November 2012)

19 November 2012

DxO ViewPoint — a Mini Review (19 November 2012)

15 November 2012

DxO Optics Pro 8 and Its New Smart Lighting Feature— an Abbreviated Mini Review (15 November 2012)

14 November 2012

A Handful of Words from Writer Alison Buckholtz Puts Coverage of the Petraeus-Broadwell-Allen-Kelley Matter into Perspective — a Comment regarding Ethical Complacence and War (14 November 2012)

13 November 2012

Business Insider’s CEO, Henry Blodget, Summed the Petraeus-Broadwell-Allen-Kelley Matter in a Humorous Way — which Illuminates the Unlikely “Booby” Traps that Life Sometimes “Lays” Us (13 November 2012)

12 November 2012

Regarding the History Channel’s Documentary of the Allies’ Discovery of the Holocaust — a Reminder of How Evil Builds on Selfish Unconcern — Does America’s Drone Murder Program Hint at the Same Kind of Cultural Immorality? (12 November 2012)

11 November 2012

Veterans Day, Peterson AFB — Evocative Shape of an F-4 in Snow — 11 November 2012 (11 November 2012)

10 November 2012

Republican Party “Missing the Point” Rationalizations for Losing the 2012 American Presidential Race Seem to Have Begun — the Party’s Characteristic Magical Thinking Continues (10 November 2012)

05 November 2012

PricewaterhouseCoopers Brings a Dose of Global Warming Reality to Practically Minded Business People — Paraphrased, “It’s Happening Rapidly, We Aren’t Doing Anything, So Prepare Your Infrastructures for a 6 Degree Celsius Warming by 2100” (05 November 2012)

01 November 2012

How Is It that, with Years of Warning, Two Major New York City Hospitals Could Not Keep their Emergency Generators Running during Hurricane Sandy? — Denial Explains Complacence in regard to Sea Level Rises and an Increasingly Dynamic Atmosphere (01 November 2012)

30 October 2012

Uncertainty in Science — Mistaken Assumptions Regarding Genetic Mutation Rates May Have Significantly Overestimated the Rate of Evolutionary Change — and Four General Points about Public Confusion regarding the Scientific Process (30 October 2012)

27 October 2012

Even Intelligent People Are Acting Irrationally Partisan — Take, for Example, the Usually Admirable Kathleen Parker’s Column Denigrating President Obama — and Eugene Robinson’s Insight regarding What Is Actually Going on (27 October 2012)

25 October 2012

Would You Jump to Policy Conclusions in regard to Reducing Coastal Air Pollution — Based on a Study of Only 2 Ships? (25 October 2012)

23 October 2012

The Vacuity of American Politics again on Display in the Third 2012 Presidential Campaign Debate — Avoidance regarding Afghanistan and the Bland Acceptance of Indiscriminate Drone Killing — and Joe Klein’s Related Justification for Killing 4-Year Olds in the Name of National Security (23 October 2012)

22 October 2012

ObamaCare’s Details Look as If They Might Work against Some of the Law’s Intent — an IRS Interpretive Notice Implies that the Program Will Probably Have Negative Employment Impacts on Struggling Workers — Columnist Robert Samuelson’s Example of How Political Rhetoric, Poorly Written Statutes, and Reality often Do Not Harmonize as Intended (22 October 2012)

21 October 2012

Sony NEX-3 — and presumably NEX-c3, NEX-f3, NEX-5 and NEX-5n — Not So Good in Even Slightly Challenging Photographic Conditions — a Review (21 October 2012)

18 October 2012

Mount Bierstadt (14,060 feet) — A Review for Hikers with Joint Disease, Joint Replacements, or Neuromuscular Deficiencies — and an Anecdote about How to Not Be Dangerously Stupid on a Fourteener (28 October 2012)

17 October 2012

Governor Mitt Romney’s Unwillingness to Follow the Rules of the Second Presidential Debate Says Something Disquieting about His Character — a President Cannot Govern Like a CEO (17 October 2012)

15 October 2012

Jonathan Bernstein Calls It “Lazy Mendacity” on Republicans’ Part — but Isn’t the Refusal to Use Our Brains Characteristic of American Politics, Generally? — We Have De-Evolved into Reptile-Brained Emotional States (15 October 2012)

14 October 2012

The Marketing Power of Enthusiasm — Two Representative Product Videos — Olympus OM-D and Sony NEX-6 Cameras (14 October 2012)

12 October 2012

The 2012 Campaign’s Vice Presidential Debate — Cruel and Unusual Punishment for the Participants and the Nation — Vice President Joe Biden versus Congressman Paul Ryan (12 October 2012)

11 October 2012

A World of Lies — Evidence about Lance Armstrong’s Multi-Year Tour de France Doping Operation Is Saddening — Not So Much because of the Cheating, but because of His Apparent Witness Intimidations (11 October 2012)

09 October 2012

Non-Stop Chatter from a Bottomless Supply of Dishonest Fools — Makes It Difficult to Keep Caring about America’s Dribbling Away Future — and the Moral Contrast Presented by Felix Baumgartner’s Attempt to Plunge Earthward from the Edge of Space (09 October 2012)

05 October 2012

Liberal Columnist Bob Herbert Summed the Best Argument against Reelecting President Obama — Tactlessly Paraphrased, “He’s a Slacker” — and a Comment about Hard Work’s Foundation in Humility (05 October 2012)

04 October 2012

Governor Romney’s First Presidential Debate Performance Exposed President Obama’s Tendency to Coast — which Explains Afghanistan’s Purposeless Bleeding and the Fact that All the Elements that Led to the Recession Are Still in Place (04 October 2012)

02 October 2012

Scientific Fraud and Misconduct Appear to Be Escalating — They Now Account for 67 Percent of Retracted Science and Medical Research Articles — Worse, Sophisticated Fraud Has Not Yet Been Uncovered (02 October 2012)

01 October 2012

Not So Common Sense about Interchangeable Lens, Digital Camera Buying — a Handful of Things that No One Tells Beginners, but Should (01 October 2012)

29 September 2012

Joe Scarborough’s Outspoken Essay Justifiably Bashed both American Political Parties — a Comment on Leadership (28 September 2012)

28 September 2012

A Lesson in Ethics from German Soccer Playing Great, Miroslav Klose — What a Contrast with How Our Political and Economic Leaders Act (27 September 2012)

27 September 2012

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President, Mohammed Morsi, Un-Helpfully Threw Fuel on the International Fire Yesterday — Illustrating that, Even if We Successfully Remove Hidden Elements of American Christian Proselytizing in Implementing U.S. Foreign Policy, Islamic Leaders Like President Morsi Will Continue to Prove the “Clash of Cultures” Paradigm (27 September 2012)

26 September 2012

Has American Foreign Policy become Quasi-Religious Crusading under another Name? — It’s Not Just Islamic Fanatics Playing a Deadly Game (26 September 2012)

25 September 2012

Perspective on America’s State of Political Affairs — Writing so Good from Richard Cohen and Dana Milbank that I Have to Quote a Few Words (25 September 2012)

24 September 2012

More Evidence of Inexplicable Laxness in American Security Abroad — CNN, not the State Department or U.S. Military, Found Ambassador’s Stevens’ “Journal” in the Benghazi Consulate Where He and Three Others Were Murdered (24 September 2012)

23 September 2012

Mount Yale (14,196 feet) — A Review for Hikers with Joint Disease, Joint Replacements, or Neuromuscular Deficiencies (23 September 2012)

21 September 2012

Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney’s Politically Incompetent Campaign Should Not Cause Us to Overlook President Obama’s Transgressions against Sensible Policy — for Example, the Deaths of American Ambassador Christopher Stevens and His Colleagues (21 September 2012)

20 September 2012

Ignoring Afghanistan — Murder by Not Caring — the Death of Lance Corporal Greg Buckley Junior (USMC) Symbolizes What Happens when a Volunteer Military Exclusively Bears the Brunt of Stupid American Foreign and Military Policy (20 September 2012)

18 September 2012

Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney Apparently Thinks that He Can Concede 47 Points of a 100 Point Game to President Obama and Still Win — This Kind of Arithmetic Irrationality May Be the Best Reason to Conclude that He Is Not Competent to become Commander in Chief (18 September 2012)

17 September 2012

The Center for Public Integrity Recently Exposed the Practice of Submitting Incorrect Medicare Procedure Codings that Cost Taxpayers Billions in Unjustified Physician and Hospital Payments — a Comment on Congress’ Corruption-Based Lunacy in Giving the American Medical Association Control over Medical Procedure Codes — and an Added Example of Similarly Special Interest-Favoring Complexity in the U.S. Tax Code (17 September 2012)

14 September 2012

Regarding Newt Gingrich — Who Appears Unable Even to Define the Word “War” in Meaningful Geopolitical Terms — My Comment regarding the Former Speaker’s Editorial on Politico Yesterday (14 September 2012)

13 September 2012

Tavis Smiley’s Grandma Said Something Worth Acting on — “Get in the Way!” — and My Comment on the Unspoken Luggage Required to Make Meaningful Use of Even Wisely Chosen Aphorisms (13 September 2012)

12 September 2012

On the Serendipity of Aggressive Imbecility — the Chain of Causation that Led to the Sad Deaths of American Ambassador Christopher Stevens and Colleagues in Libya (12-13 September 2012)

11 September 2012

Each Anniversary’s Replay of Video of the 11 September (2001) Terrorist Attack Is Psychologically and Spiritually Damaging — The President and First Lady’s Televised Moment of Silence Is a More Healing Way to Commemorate the Losses (11 September 2012)

10 September 2012

Mount Sherman (14,036 feet) — A Review for Hikers with Joint Disease, Joint Replacements, or Neuromuscular Deficiencies (10 September 2012)

07 September 2012

Opinion and Stupidity so often Equate These Days — an Example from the Democratic National Convention and Its Pundits (07 September 2012)

05 September 2012

Observations about the Commonalities between China and Germany — from The Globalist’s editor, Stephan Richter — and My Statement about Why We Should Pay Attention (05 September 2012)

04 September 2012

Now that We Joined Alice in Falling Down the Political Rabbit Hole — Willing Self-Delusion Seems to Be Guiding American Behavior — and a Comment about How President Obama’s Competitiveness Gets the Best of Him and Undercuts the Probability of Achieving a Successful American Future (04 September 2012)

31 August 2012

Camera Pans of the Republican Convention Crowd Showed almost Exclusively White People — as if to Indicate that History Is Soon Going to Shovel the GOP Out of Diverse America’s Way (31 August 2012)

30 August 2012

Mount Elbert (14,431 feet) — A Review for Hikers with Joint Disease, Joint Replacements, or Neuromuscular Deficiencies (30 August 2012)

27 August 2012

Adam Hanft’s Interesting Take on Why Apple Beat Samsung in an American Court — and My Comment about Our Irrational and Anti-Competitive Patent System (27 August 2012)

26 August 2012

Mount Democrat (14,148 feet), Mount Cameron (14,238 feet), and Mount Lincoln (14,286 feet) — A Review for Hikers with Joint Disease, Joint Replacements, or Neuromuscular Deficiencies (26 August 2012)

25 August 2012

Two Skillful Paragraphs about Meanness and Blind Self-Justification in Politics — from Writer-Philosopher Cheryl Mendelson — and My Comment about the Utility of Self-Awareness, Attention and Reason (25 August 2012)

24 August 2012

Bradyarrythmia (Bradycardia) — Meaning Pathologically Slow Heart Rate, including in this Instance, a Noticeably Irregular Pulse — the Apparent Result of My Newly Developed Hypersensitivity (Allergy) to Ibuprofen (Advil^®) for Osteoarthritis — an Example of Lay Medical Analysis, Performed while Hiking a Colorado “Fourteener” (24 August 2012)

21 August 2012

Way Better than a Zoo — Female Big Horn Sheep on Mount Shavano, Colorado (21 August 2012)

20 August 2012

Much More than a Ripple at Peterson Air Force Base — and Almost Nothing at all Nationally — U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Kevin Griffin Comes Home for Burial — on the Continuing Chasm between those Who Serve and Those Who Don’t (19 August 2012)

16 August 2012

The Questionably Positive Side of Negative Presidential Campaigning — Dana Milbank’s Common Sense Assessment of What Is Happening Seems Valid (16 August 2012)

15 August 2012

A Characteristically Missed Leadership Opportunity — President Obama’s Failure to Excite the Nation about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — after NASA’s Extraordinary Demonstration of Genius in All Four with its Mars Curiosity Landing (15 August 2012)

14 August 2012

I Could Not Have Said It Better — Journalist Chris Hedges’ Single Paragraph about Evaporated American Freedom — in an Article about the Un-Constitutionality of Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act (14 August 2012)

13 August 2012

Bill McKibben’s Rolling Stone Article about Global Warming Is an Outstanding Summary of One Perspective — but It (Understandably) Blames the Wrong People for the Crux of the Problem (13 August 2012)

12 August 2012

Can One Use Too-Small — 700x18-23c and 700x18-25c Road Tubes in Larger 700x26c and 700x28c Clincher Bike Tires — Mounted on 29er Mountain Bike Multi-Purpose Wheel Rims? — Yes, but Maybe Not Safely (12 August 2012)

11 August 2012

Is Everyone Acting Like an Ethically Challenged Rat? — Fareed Zakaria’s Time Magazine and CNN Suspensions for Too-Closely Copying another Person’s Paragraphs (10 August 2012)

10 August 2012

Western Whining about the Alleged Harshness of China’s Olympics Training — Misses the Point (10 August 2012)

09 August 2012

Parade of Homes as an Introduction to Cultural Oddities — Ridiculously Tall Ceilings, Blatantly Wasted Space and Charging Rhinoceros Materialism — and a Comment on the Invitation to Filth Posed by Wall-to-Wall Carpeting (09 August 2012)

08 August 2012

Reoperation Is Necessary in 20 Percent of Breast Conserving Cancer Surgeries in England — the American Rate May Be Similar — on Talking to Patients about Medical Uncertainty (08 August 2012)

07 August 2012

America’s Bad Behavior Spawning Machine Took it on the Chin this Week — though I Doubt that Anyone Noticed — and That’s the Spiritual and Social Point (07 August 2012)

05 August 2012

Triumph! — The Gargantuan Olympics of Mind and Motivation — NASA’s Curiosity Lands on Mars (05 August 2012)

If NASA Pulls Curiosity’s Mars Landing Off — We Will Have a National Technological Tour de Force to be Proud of — for the First Time in a Very Long While (05 August 2012)

03 August 2012

A Predictably Sad Plan in Afghanistan — Leaving the Afghan Army without the Equipment, Skills and Infrastructure that It Would Need to Actually Carry Out the Obama Administration’s Hand-Over Scheme — and a Comment on Brain-Clowns and the Institutionalized Lack of Realism that Got Us into this Hopeless Situation (03 August 2012)

02 August 2012

To Boycott or Not? — Chick-fil-A and the Salvation Army — on Prejudice and Getting Along, even When It Hurts a Bit (02 August 2012)

01 August 2012

Perhaps the Most Appropriate Tribute to Gore Vidal Was Restricted to Quoting Him — See The Telegraph (01 August 2012)

30 July 2012

The Spiritual Importance of Mountains — Ben Horne and Gil Weiss Died Climbing Palcaraju Oeste — Had We Had Asked Them Beforehand, They Might Well Have Said that Such an End Would Be Okay (30 July 2012)

27 July 2012

Republican Joe Scarborough Complimented Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Leadership Qualities — which Demonstrates that Effective Leadership Has Little to Do with Narrow Ideology or Party Affiliation (27 July 2012)

26 July 2012

Governor Romney Is so Spineless — that he Pretended Not to Know the Name of the Olympic Event that His Wife’s Horse Is in (26 July 2012)

24 July 2012

Right Wing Denial and Too-Frequent Liberal Silliness Prevent Clear Talk — about Reducing Gun Violence within the Confines of the Second Amendment (24 July 2012)

22 July 2012

Team Sky and this Year’s Tour de France — Presented an Uplifting Contrast to the Behavior that Characterizes the World’s Political and Financial Elite (22 July 2012)

20 July 2012

Howard Fineman’s Essay, Partly Contrasting Romney Father and Son, Hints about Unfavorably Changing Times, as Well (20 July 2012)

18 July 2012

President Obama and Columnist Rich Lowry Inadvertently Proved the Merit of Op Ed Writer Kathleen Parker’s Observation that — “Dumbness permeates every aspect of our lives” (18 July 2012)

17 July 2012

Charles Ferguson’s Short Essay about Criminality in Multinational Banking Makes the Point about Government-Aided Systemic Rot — His Article Is Shorter and Has More Impact than Most (17 July 2012)

16 July 2012

When Congress Is So Very Bad — and Sensible People Cannot Get anything Done — Well-Spoken Insults Bring Wry Smiles to Our Lips — and Give Us Excuses Not to Look in the Mirror (16 July 2012)

14 July 2012

Has Lost (though Often Bigoted) Leadership Morality Put Us in the Toilet? — New York Times Columnist David Brooks and Salon Editor Andrew Leonard Vehemently Butt Heads on the Answer — They Are Both Right, which Makes My Larger Point (13 July 2012)

13 July 2012

Banks Were Picking Our Pockets — Former Under Secretary of Commerce, Robert J. Shapiro’s Article Explaining How Financial Institutions Manipulated the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (LIBOR) under Self-Regulation (13 July 2012)

12 July 2012

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Is Much Underdiagnosed in Primary Care, according to a Recent Study — Comments on the Difficulties Posed by Complexity in Medicine (12 July 2012)

11 July 2012

A Plague of Political Gnats — Tiny-Teapot Pettiness across the Spectrum of American Leadership (11 July 2012)

10 July 2012

Lance Armstrong’s Dishonorable Court Tactic Decreased His Credibility in My Eyes — Perhaps We Are Now Seeing the Man for Who He Really Is (10 July 2012)

09 July 2012

Don “Nick” Clifford and Carolyn Clifford, Mount Rushmore Q&A (Revised, 2012) — Book Review (09 July 2012)

07 July 2012

Does the Impression that the Condition of Highways and Rest Areas Leaves on Out-of-State Travelers Matter? — A Short Comment on Crumbling Transportation Infrastructures (07 July 2012)

04 July 2012

Perspective on the Fourth of July — the War in Afghanistan Continues — while American Television Covers Trivially Unreflective Ways to Celebrate what these Troops and their Predecessors Routinely Sacrificed their Lives for (04 July 2012)

03 July 2012

The Power of Sculpture — an Example from Comerica Park, Home of the Detroit Tigers — Statue Depicting Charlie Gehringer — by Julie Amrany, Omni Amrany, and Gary Tillery (03 July 2012)

Archives — PeteFree.com

2012

What Was New on this Website (Jan-Jun 2012)

2011

What Was New on this Website (Jul-Dec 2011)

What Was New on this Website (Jan-Jun 2011)

2010

What Was New on this Website (Jul-Dec 2010)

What Was New on this Website (Jan-Jun 2010)