When political narratives are void of a moral context, and when arguments are made in support or against a person or an individual based not on logic but on race, ethnicity or religious affiliation, the diagnosis and the therapeutic antidote are oftentimes lost in the process. Ambiguity and moral equivalency are the mother’s milk of […]
I grew up loving and playing baseball and football. When I became a father, I shared that love with my three boys. In the summer there was never an evening that didn’t end with ESPN and SportsCenter. WE played baseball in the side yard from March until November. Football in Ohio was our “State Religion”. […]
The political process in Idaho and in Washington DC has become a perfect metaphor for the First Law of Thermodynamics that states: 1. “The net change in total energy of a system (Delta E) is equal to the total heat (Q) added to the system minus the work(W) done by the system. Or E= Q-W […]
The Republican Party in both Idaho and Washington DC is dysfunctional. In Idaho we have the Eastern Republicans—District 2, led by Mike Simpson and Scot Bedke. The Western Republicans are led by Raul Labrador, Russ Fulcher and Dorothy Moon. Let’s see which faction is able to rally around one candidate for each statewide office, and […]
I had an interesting conversation this week with a man that I respect very much. He has been a successful businessman and has been the benefactor of many Christian Churches and the Boise Rescue Mission. He is a man of faith and deep grounded moral beliefs. He offered the opinion that he would love to […]
Golda Meir was the fourth Prime Minister of Israel and served from 1969 until the end of the Yam Kippur War in 1973. Taking the Israeli Defense Forces by surprise, Egyptian troops invaded deep into the Israeli held Sinai Peninsula, while Syria struggled to throw occupying Israeli troops out of the Golan Heights. Israel counter […]
Our Founding Fathers never anticipated political parties or the influence that special interests and lobbyists would have on the political process. Governance, the bureaucratic State evolving into an administrative deep state answerable only to an elite ruling class were afterthoughts. Our Founding Fathers weren’t naive, and they understood very clearly the fallen nature of man […]
I have written several articles over the past three years in the Gem State Patriot (GSP) about how political narratives have corrupted the dissemination of information in the scientific literature and media. The “scientific process” is corrupted by Government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), The National Institute of Health (NIH), or the […]
As Donald Trump said on the night of his election “politics is a complicated business”. Republicans for over 60 years have made it more complicated than it needs to be. Both Governors Batt and Otter expressed after several years in office the simple fact that getting elected is a very different process than “governing”. When […]
I am currently reading two books—one for the first time, SUCH MEN AS THESE by David Sears about Navy Corsair fighter pilots during the Korean War, and the other by George Orwell—1984 that I have read several times. Interestingly the two books have in various sections themes that overlap. They have to do with concepts […]
I am John Livingston and I have practiced surgery and medicine in Idaho and the Military for over 47 years. On July 1st I retired from the practice of Medicine and surgery. I am Board certified in Internal Medicine and General Surgery. I was appointed and served on The YHI Health Insurance Exchange Board for […]
We have a culture that subordinates families and marriage. We have government policies that subsidize and exploit single woman raising their children without a father. The working class that capitalism helped raise from the bondage of grinding poverty over the past 200 years and the upward mobility that capitalism created was dependent on the structure […]