Today's Tids Issue 3,181
Opening Stuff:
It‘s a sad commentary
these days around here when the churches make more money selling empty parking
spaces to tourists than they do in collection baskets on Sunday morning.
As we start this week,
Wall Street will be looking at Alibaba’s IPO, the world will be watching
Ukraine and ISIS, and Americans with be waiting for the next NFL player to be
indicted. And ten out of nowhere something entirely unexpected will knock our
socks off.
Some Sunday mornings
I just gotta have a large dose of Richard, no-relation-to-the-waltz-king,
Strauss!
It used to be just death
and taxes. Now, of course, there’s shipping and handling too.
If more kids stopped
looking at math as a subject they love to hate, and started seeing it as a
means to clearer, more rational thinking, we might have a chance to enter a new
era of enlightenment. Just a thought lightly based on deductive reasoning.
The Question:
A new Harris poll (The last one was 2010) asked Americans,
“Who is your favorite singer/musician/band?” Name the top ten. Hint: the
answers appear to be multi generational. Bonus:
Who is the father of geometry?
The Headlines:
--Nations Meeting In Paris To Formulate ISIS Strategy;
British Aid Worker Beheaded By Islamic Extremists..
--US And 15 Countries Begin Military Exercises In Western
Ukraine.
--The Big Play In Alibaba IPO Could be With Yahoo! Which Has
Already 22% Stake In Giant New Issue.
--Pope Francis Says we Are Already In WWIII.
--Can Admin’s New Efforts Against World Thugs Change Course
Of Repub Takeover Of Senate?
--Hilary Cackles Before Adoring Audience In Iowa; Continues
To Play the “I’m Thinking About It” Game.
--Hurricane Oldie makes Landfall In Baja; Fires Sweep
Through California; Small Quake Hits Northern Cal.
It’s really hard to
get a handle on the correct thing to do in the Middle East, because pre
mid-term election politics are guiding everything. Just using air strikes
becomes questionable and probably inefficient considering that the so-called
opposing ISIS “armies” are amorphous, and have such an ability to disperse
rapidly. Yet, putting big Nato/Arab(?) armies on the ground to fight often invisible
foes may be equally as fruitless for similar reasons. This is a war, but a war
where battles can popup anywhere across enormous areas.
Did you hear about
the kid who got an “F” because he asked the English teacher – “What is a
preposition?”. The teacher said, “Never end a sentence with a preposition!”
Ex-CIA Chief Hayden
says, “Airpower alone against ISIS is like casual sex”.
I have always loved
Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes ever since my Lone Ranger radio days.
By the time a news
event becomes a morning newspaper headline these days, it’s been analyzed,
scrutinized and marginalized on 20 or more cable TV news shows and millions of
tweets and blog postings.
The big loser in
the RI primaries were the public employee unions.
Every year with each new technological advance
comes a new list of endangered occupations. The newest lst includes letter
carriers, farmers, meter readers, flight attendants, lumberjacks, news
reporters, travel agents, drill press operators, printers and tax collectors/examiners.
How do you kee a middle class going? As we go from differentiated sills to
homogenous skills, wages will necessarily fall.
The Answer:
Once again it’s The Beatles and Elvis on top with the lads
from Liverpool edging out the original twerker. The rest are Beyonce, Led
Zepplin, George Strait, Bruno Mars, Neil “Still Hangin’ in there” Diamond,
Eagles, Celine Dion and Garth Brooks. Dropping off the list were U2, Tim
McGraw, Lady Gaga, Rascal Flats, Alan Jackson and Frank Sinatra. The women
voted Beyonce first and the men The Beatles. Repubs went Beatles/Willie Nelson;
Dems – Beatles/Bruno Mars; Indies – Beatles. The East, South and West went with
The Beatles while the Midwest went Bruno Mars. For age groups it was quite different:
18-37 (Millennial’s) – Beyonce; 38-49 (Gen-X) – Metallica; 50-68 (Boomers) –
the Beatles; Older than dirt – Willie Nelson. I’m sure there are many arguments on this one.
Bonus: That old Greek Euclid was the
Father of Geometry with an able assist in deductive reasoning from Plato and
Aristotle.
I thought I’d start
off the week with one of my favorite little smilin’ songs.
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