Wayward Landlubber

     I used to enjoy building bicycle wheels. I was a dues-paying member of the Bicycle Repair Collective, which allowed me shop space, tools and workbenches, lubricants and bicycle parts. It was a relaxing past-time. A bicycle wheel is held straight and true thanks to the spokes pulling together on the rim with the same tension. This is called dynamic tension. Anyone who has ever seen a spoke break will have an idea how it works. One acquaintance who was employed by the Bike Gallery used a tuning fork to check a completed wheel.      Congress could take a lesson. A bicycle wheel has 26, 32, or 36 spokes depending on whether the bike is a racing bike a road-bike or an off-rode bike, and depending on the weight of the rider. Congress has 100 senators and 435 members in the House. Because the Senators are elected by the whole state, they usually must be careful to not lose votes among the middle and left within their states. Even in red states there are voter...

     I've been thinking about Leonard Leo lately. I've thought about him since I first learned that he contributes to our carbon footprint, and maybe his absence would be a net gain. But lately my thoughts on him extend beyond the times of my hoped for daily bowel movements.       Leo, if you didn't know, heads the Federalist Society and is responsible for recommending every Republican jurist in the higher courts since Clarence Thomas. He is a youngish man, on the threshold of 60. (Oh! If only he could be sliced into 60 pieces and stapled to the threshold of 60 doorsteps.) He has this irritating smile. Sort of a cross between Dick Cheney and Willy Loman. There is probably a Macchiavelian story on how he got to control this much power with literally billions of dollars of dark money to achieve whatever conservative, no heartless, thing the one-tenth of 1% desires. Delving into this sinister route through politics would take too much of the time I have l...

     I like words. No, I love words. I like the written word and the spoken word. Words can enlighten, they can instruct, they can amuse, they can move you to anger and to sorrow. And they can deceive. It is not the words, but the user of words who we blame for misusing words. There are books of words which tell us, with words, how those words can be used.      When Guttenberg invented movable type and a printing press in the mid 1400s, it wasn't to print the Bible that was his first use, as is often proposed, it was to print indulgences for the church. The church which Martin Luther protested against. And the very use of indulgences was one of the things that convinced Martin Luther to protest. It then was used to print the stories that the public loved. A public that was learning to write and read.  The Bible had been forbidden to lay readers at the time. Perhaps the church hierarchy wished to prevent the laity from being woke. Whatever the reason, i...