Apparently, many people do not understand what democracy is, and many of them mistakenly think that the U.S.A. is a democracy. Democracy means that the people rule, from the Greek demos kratos. In a democracy, the people in assembly vote on the laws and how the state will be governed; how much will be paid to whom for doing whatever. That erroneous thinking results in republic and democracy being conflated. A republic is a form of government in which the people choose representatives who determine ...
I don’t often have much conversation with clerks in stores, but yesterday evening, the check out clerk in a CVS apologized for the inflation. I briefly explained that it wasn’t his fault, that it is due to policy for the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. He then said that CVS sometimes raises prices in anticipation of price hikes. We spent a while trying to get each other to change his mind. He had a set of facts, and I know the underlying reasons, so neither of us changed ...
We all know that the advertising and marketing businesses sell the worst things to the people who are least capable of understanding that they are being robbed. There is nothing new about convincing people to pay for things that will do them no good at all. Socrates ranted against useless products twenty five hundred years, and in thanks, the leaders of Athens ordered him to drink a poison hemlock brew. In the end, Socrates was dead, and written language, for one thing, was more entrenched. The ...
I was conversing with a woman who is a university senior in premed, n d it came out that she has never studied either Latin or Greek. I can understand that lack for business majors, but people in the sciences need to have a fair knowledge of Latin and at least some Greek. It wasn’t long ago, when one could not be admitted to college without a working knowledge of both languages. The requirement for knowledge of Greek was dropped in the late nineteenth century, when colleges were overwhelmed by men ...
A little something for our Thursday at Two Poetry group today, a week after a week's postponement due to the Mosquito Fire threatening our foothill communities... at least it gave me something to write about... lol ? Our challenge was something in the form: aaa bbb ccc ddd... so, tercets with a rhyme scheme, or some such. Hope I got it right: [indent]Evacuation 9/8/2022 (Mosquito Fire) Spent a few nights away from the Divide Wife on holiday; ...