skipper

  • Mariner hasn’t seen Chicken Little in a while. He doesn’t come out of the henhouse. Inside, he sits trembling and wears a World War I army helmet. By his side are prayer beads, a prayer rug, a few wicks to lig […]

  • Mariner hasn’t written a post recently that goes beyond commentary. Today, he feels the need to provide an educational assist that is absolutely critical to the future happiness of human beings. Three recent d […]

  • Any individual who has poked even a finger into the current of campaign politics has discovered an inundation of fund-raising emails, letters and phone calls from the NATIONAL COMMITTEE (RNC, DNC) of each party. […]

    • When John McCain ran for President in 2000, campaign reform was a predominant plank in his platform. Unfortunately, the Republican party saw that it would put an end to their corporate contributions, so they put their energies and weight behind a candidate who would continue to take money from special interests – George W. Bush.

  • Read these words from this old hymnbook favorite – sing along if you know the melody:

    Life is like a mountain railway

    With an engineer that’s brave

    We must make this run successful

    From the cradle to t […]

  • In 2015 mariner wrote a post that attempted to distract readers from the campaigns of the last Presidential election. He focused on several natural phenomena that make human problems small and irrelevant. One […]

  • Jenga is the name of that game where wooden blocks are stacked one by one to build a narrow tower that grows very high then each player must remove one block at a time without the tower collapsing into a pile of […]

  • A new methodology for electing government representatives is emerging. Eighteen states already have some form of ‘ranked choice voting’ in place. Instead of using ballots that pit party against party, the bal […]

  • skipper commented on the post, On Aging 4 years, 3 months ago

    You are a monument to strength and perseverance despite the meddling of medical science.

  • When mariner was very young, he remembers lots of men had a perpetual toothpick in their mouths. No point to be made; just that he remembers – isn’t that enough for an old man?

    This post may read like self pit […]

    • If you think it is hard to be an old man, try being an old woman! The culture is much less kind to old women, who also have to put up with the youthful fantasies of old men!

    • You are a monument to strength and perseverance despite the meddling of medical science.

    • Who wants to have sex with a pile of lizard skin anyway?

      The secret to aging in later years is keeping oneself busy and feeling productive. Some days I spend just reading. But between teaching,consulting and home repairs I have more than enough to keep me busy. It’s just life at a slower pace for those of us that can’t keep up.

  • Here are a few news clips that have larger implications than one would expect.

    ֎ From Nate Silver’s website the following quote suggests that the economy will rebound to a lower standard of living than be […]

  • Mariner and his wife were having a discussion about the socio-economic cycles of a town. When mariner was in college, he read a book about the relationship between generational lifespan, economic growth and […]

    • It doesn’t seem unreasonable that the age limits for political office should include an end bracket, too, to help ensure that the people in those roles can relate to the current era — and in addition to that, government programs that support and understand the needs of the oldest generations.

  • One of Guru’s grand projections for the last half of this century is a shift from an European world (the West) as the prime influence in culture, economics and development, to one centered around the Pacific and I […]

    • Given the situation in Europe (Alliances crumbling) and the chaos in our own country, I’d have to say the Vladimir Putin is a masterful manipulator. To be blunt, he is winning his war against democracy around the world. The Orange Baboon’s fealty towards him only exacerbates the situation.

  • The frontal lobe is responsible for abstract thinking. It is the youngest and largest region of the human brain located just behind the forehead. While the rest of the brain abides by the normal mammalian genome […]

  • Dear Working Class Trumpers –

    It is understood why you are fed up with government and you elected a disruptive nonpolitician to break things. Break things he did – most of them in the area of citizen fai […]

  • Kudos to Ryan Heath (Politico) for the quote of the week: “Life today is like riding a roller coaster in the dark.”

    – – – –

    In retrospect, it is obvious that it was a terrible cultural shift when bro […]

  • It is difficult not to focus on the current worldwide crises of economy, pandemic, international politics, global abject poverty, brutal abuses of life and at the center of this swirling storm, artificial […]

    • Love the metaphors, if not the message! Is it too late to pack the sandwiches? Why are we even talking about sailing in this stormy sea? Shouldn’t we be building a house upon a rock?

  • For those readers who have an interest in the evolution of species on a grand, Earth-time scale, they may have learned that significant changes in the basic form of living things occurs in a relatively short […]

  • The other day mariner had a conversation with a member of the electorate. This member happened to be a Trumpist. They were complaining about the Fascist state of affairs in the United States because the Government […]

  • Communism in the West has been associated with foment, antigovernment vitriol and suppression of the people. Blame this view on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Joseph Stalin and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Marx and […]

  • May 4, 1970 was the beginning of mariner’s disillusionment with all things politic, including the citizens. His skeptical attitude remains with him today. It was the shooting to death of four Kent State college s […]

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