Time to Think

 The Puppy and The President                                               #400  By Hank Silverberg  Commentary: You will notice a number at the top right hand corner of this blog today. This edition marks a milestone, 400 weeks of writing "Time To Think".  Some weeks have been easy, others have been hard. But whatever I write, I hope it has been relevant. This week my household is in the midst of disruption. Two months ago we adopted a puppy. He is cute, but lively and he has produced a radical  change in our lifestyle. I thought about documenting it all in this blog, or I could have written about the near miraculous rise of my team the Boston Red Sox, who seemed dead right around the same time we adopted the puppy, but have since moved into playoff contention.    But with all that is going on in the world, those topics seem a bit frivolo...

Trump Wants His Name Everywhere               #399 By Hank Silverberg    Commentary It's not unusual for airports, train stations or buildings to be named after famous people. There's Lincoln Center, Ronald Reagan Airport, and the Washington Monument.  All those names came after the person they were  named for was dead, and someone else wanted to honor them.   But our current president, with the ego the size of New York Harbor, seems to think he can put his name on everything. The folks in Palm Beach, Florida obliged by renaming their airport after Donald J. Trump. And Trump is now trying to get Penn Station in New York City named after him.  But there is pushback. Some people don't want to fly into Trump airport, and a United Airlines memo indicated that people could get ticket changes to go to Ft. Lauderdale instead. But that was later clarified  after it hit the internet  that the name change was not...

  The Dangers  of AI                                    #398 By Hank Silverberg                                                                                                                Commentary  Remember the old 1970's commercial "It's not live, its Memorex"? The iconic slogan was designed to convince people that Memorex tape quality was as good as hearing the music live.  Well, the audio was good quality. But it was not as good as live music.   I think now we ought to cannibalize that slogan with "It's not alive, its AI!" If you regularly get email that you need to respond to, you migh...

  A Presidential Address                                                                    #397 By Hank Silverberg  Commentary   Did you watch the President's "address to the nation" the other night? There has been some controversy because some of the broadcast and cable networks refused to carry the speech.  First, let's make one thing clear. The TV networks, both broadcast and cable, have no obligation to give any president air time just because he requests it.  Usually, such addresses are of national importance.  Examples include John F. Kennedy's speech in October of 1962 about the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost lead to World War Three.   Primetime air spots have also been given to presidents for times of tragic events that affect the entire country, like the explosion of...

The Right To Vote                                  #396 By Hank Silverberg   Commentary   If you are a U.S. Citizen and you have registered to vote and have voted in the past, you have nothing to worry about as the federal government makes moves to change the voting system. At least that's the narrative that the Trump Administrat ion would like us all to believe as we move into the midterm election cycle this fall.  But I am not so sure. First, the White House tried to  federalize how Americans register to vote, but the Constitution got in the way with Article 1, Section 4 specifically saying, "The times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed to each state by the Legislature thereof."    And that same section says only Congress (not the president), can change that.   But now, Donald Trump has fired the ...