A recent article on artificial intelligence in the New Yorker wrote about how people who are suffering from loneliness are finding help from artificial intelligence. Some people can’t help loneliness, not out of character defect but circumstance. It gets the reader thinking about the elderly, for example, who outlive everyone they’ve been close to, or it describes as worse, if those who remain are senile. Sorry to give away the[…] Keep reading →

Common roles for auxiliary police officers include crowd control and traffic control during big events, like parades. July 4th fireworks is another big one (scroll down for pictures from last year’s Thanksgiving parade). This year my patrol during the fireworks was right next to the water. I took a video toward the beginning (after ensuring it was okay with the officer I report to). Should I say it’s only a[…] Keep reading →

About a month ago, the core organizational team behind the workshop I lead and its alumni community had our quarterly meeting. I shared my vision and mission. I thought everyone knew it, but when I finished, they said, “You have to share this message with the alumni community.” I was wrong: everyone didn’t know it. It was my responsibility to share it. I didn’t want to impose my views on[…] Keep reading →

I keep my working spaces clean, including clearing my desktop every evening before going to sleep. I try to keep files off my computer desktop too. Working on my next book has me referring to and learning from the Declaration of Independence and Constitution so often, I decided to put them on my computer desktop. Many sites online carry their full texts, but I couldn’t find any with a file[…] Keep reading →

New York City is supposed to hit 102 F (39 C) today. So far it’s 95 F (35 C) and since my battery was drained and the rest of the week is forecast to be cloudy, I’m out in the park charging. The park is mostly empty. Here’s my view right now, showing a fraction the number you’d see when the temperature was lower. You can also tell I’m sitting[…] Keep reading →

Pollution destroys life, liberty, and property. Depletion violates the principle of leaving enough as good in common for others. Basic principles of how people can live together include protecting life, liberty, and property and leaving enough as good in common for others are among the most basic and necessary. The language looks like it comes from Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, and their Enlightenment peers. I would say their Enlightendigenous peers[…] Keep reading →

Thomas Jefferson owning slaves, including his own children, wasn’t an abstract immoral act. He hurt people. He took away their freedom and hurt them. It isn’t a “purity test” to say that by owning slaves he hurt people. When people act like living more sustainably is a “purity test” I see two possible causes. The generous one, which I find implausible in today’s world, is that people don’t know polluting[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written many times about Thomas Jefferson embodying American culture today. He said all the right things about freedom and liberty. He considered slavery wrong. He still practiced it. His rationalizations and justifications are ours. I link to a bunch of those posts at the bottom of this post. I recommend them. If you want to understand how you sound to someone who lives by values you likely say you[…] Keep reading →

I like American higher education. I don’t like how disconnected it has become to the day-to-day lives of most Americans. I don’t like how it has become overwhelmingly politically one-sided. I don’t like that that one-sidedness has led to professors moving from teaching students to learn to inculcating and indoctrinating them. I don’t like how expensive it has become. On the other hand, I consider the Trump administration’s attack on[…] Keep reading →