Time to Think

The Times, They Are a-Changing      #199 By Hank Silverberg Happy Chanukah!  Jews around the world this week are celebrating the Festival of Lights, a commemoration of an ancient rebellion (around 167 B.C.E.) against the suppression of a particular  religion. It is the first recorded historical event of a war centering on religious freedom, though certainly not the last. The rebellion lasted almost a decade. It has meaning not just for Jews, but for humanity as a whole.  For those of you who don't know, Chanukah has nothing to do with Christmas, and it's celebration at this time of year is purely a coincidence.      But it is a reminder that freedom can easily be taken away, unless you are willing to fight for it. Sometimes, like with the ancient Maccabees, that fight can be against overwhelming odds.  In the United States we are blessed with a Bill of Rights, which not only protects our freedom of religion, but also freedom FROM religio...

  Build Back Better?                                       #198 By Hank Silverberg  By some miracle, maybe even divine intervention, Congress is finally moving forward with something positive.  Sure, miscreants like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are still flaunting the rules and getting fined for not wearing a mask on the House floor, and Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has just been censured for posting a video on-line showing a cartoon of him shooting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), but things are looking up. Just a week after President Biden signed the BI-PARTISAN $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to fix everything from dilapidated bridges to Amtrak and improve the lives of millions of  Americans, the House has approved the $1.75 trillion "Build Back Better"  bill which could radically improve the lives of millions more. It still has to go back to the Senat...

  Our Freedom Is Being Legislated Away      #197 (And it has nothing to do with vaccines or masks.)  By Hank Silverberg (This blog has been updated)  There's been a great deal of talk lately about an erosion of our freedom, both as individuals and as a community. A small group has been very loud about their resistance to wearing masks or getting a life saving vaccine.   The short-term impact of that could keep the pandemic going longer than it would be if everyone just cooperated.  But there is really a greater threat out there to our long-term future as a freedom loving nation.  And this week it happened right in my own back yard here in Virginia.  The Spotsylvania County School Board, acting on a complaint from just one parent, has been talking about banning books from school libraries that don't meet "Christian values." One board member even suggested burning those books that don't meet that criteria.  Well, nothing get...

What's That Got To Do With the Price of Gas?     #196        By Hank Silverberg I went to put some air in my tires on Sunday. The colder weather got to them as usual. No big deal. (Price at the pump  in my neighborhood) While I was there I got some gas instead of waiting until Monday on my way to teach.  I was not too surprised by the price, $3.29 a gallon in my neck of the woods. It's been hovering around there for a few weeks now.  But a sticker that someone had placed on the pump annoyed me, so much so I ripped it off before thinking to take a picture for this blog.  No, I didn't break the law. It was not an official inspection sticker or anything like that.  It was a very small picture of Joe Biden, pointing in the direction of the pump price with the quote "I did that," implying that something he has done has led to the spike in gas prices over the last few weeks.  That is, of course, nonsense. Anyone who knows basic econo...

Election Night Results May Be Deceiving    #195 By Hank Silverberg  Sometime around 11 p.m. on Tuesday night we will be hearing about the election results for the apparently close, and definitely significant, governor's race here in my home state of Virginia.  All the polls indicate that former Governor and Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, and Republican businessman and Trumpite, Glenn Youngkin, are in a statistical tie as the days count down to November 2nd.  The election is being forecast as a referendum on how President Biden is doing in his first few months, and whether Republicans will be able to pick up seats in Congress in 2022.  That may or may not be true. The pundits and political analysts are often as wrong with their forecasts as your local weather forecaster is.  But there is something unique to watch for. It's becoming a trend that may make elections harder to forecast and easier to shout fraud, just as the last President did in 2020 witho...

  The Media vs. Journalism                        #194 By Hank Silverberg We have heard much over the last few years about how the "media" is pushing its "agenda" on the American public. And much of that criticism has been targeted at news networks. So I thought as a retired journalist, who now tells you what he thinks rather than just reports the facts, I would put my two cents in on this topic.   First, there is nothing in this for me. I don't make any money on this blog. I don't work for a news organization any more. I have nothing to gain by giving your my informed opinion.  But after practicing journalism for 40 years, it pains me to see the profession attacked because of a growing number of knuckleheads who don't know what the words "facts" and "truth" mean.    We need to start by differentiating from "the media" and "journalism" because it's clear to me after numerous discussions in person a...