“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” ~ Bary Goldwater Many know of this well-known quote from Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican Convention, but few remember Malcolm X’s arguing in its defense at Oxford University five months later. Extremism is in the eye of the […]
Lynn and I spent the better part of last Thursday at the Canyon County Fair. That county fair must be one of the best run county fairs in the country. Like the Snake River Stampede and The Caldwell Night Rodeo, these events are a celebration of life and lifestyles in Idaho. The high school Future […]
Over the years the line between exploitation, expediency and greed has become increasingly blurred throughout all aspects of our lives. Nowhere is this more evident than in big-time college sports that have become a hundred of billions of dollars Ponzi scheme where the universities, conference corporate leaders, and media moguls are capitalizing on the fruits […]
My Quaker Grandfather once told me when I was about 5 years old that there is no such thing as justice in this world. I had petitioned him for a redress of a great wrong that had been perpetrated against me after my father paddled my fanny for something my brother had done. My father […]
Quantum physics and thermodynamics, organic chemistry, and human sexuality, are all topics that are reviewed in The Wall Street Journal’s REVIEW section this weekend. My understanding today of all three topics at the ripe young age of 72 is not much better than it was when I started college (organic chemistry was my major). The […]
It seems to me that as government at all levels gets bigger and transiting the labyrinths of the bureaucracy gets more difficult, there has evolved a new agency class that can best be described as “puppet masters”. These masters of deception are pulling the strings at all levels of government. Think about Joe Biden. Does anyone […]
I just finished a book of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches. So much has been written about Mr. Lincoln and much of the opining has been done with very little understanding of the man and his times. I once listened to a talking head on a morning TV show state that Lincoln really wasn’t an abolitionist! I […]
As my wife Lynn and I come to the end of our 5th Idaho Montana tour we are sitting on Buffalo Creek in Island Park. We have followed the trail of Lewis and Clark Eastward through the Lolo Pass and then North along the Bitterroot River to the Clark’s Fork and then East and North […]
American Medicine rose from the shadows of Western European medicine in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and in the early 20th century. Great men and women founded great institutions. Most of those men and women were devout in their religious convictions and in their devotion to first their “calling” and secondly to their […]
In his book THE FOUR LOVES, one of the topics C. S. Lewis addresses is patriotism—a timely topic this Fourth of July weekend. He states that there are three pillars that form the foundation for “proper patriotism”: Love of Home and Family Gratitude and respect for the sacrifices of those who came before us. Vigilance […]
Over twenty years ago I served on a committee appointed by the Catholic Bishop of Idaho and Chaired by Sister Patricia Mulvaney whose purpose was to “decentralize the corporate soul” of the Bishop of Idaho, replacing the property rights—and legal liability from the Bishop to the local Parishes and in one case Bishop Kelly High […]
In any organization, but I believe especially in government, there is always a tension between “good intentions” and competence. We all want to live in a utopian world. We want to live a humanistic existence where there are no consequences to bad decisions. Responsibility and accountability are hidden behind political philosophical agendas that have almost […]