Red State: you don’t get a wheel chair; it’ll just make you weak Blue State: don’t go to war The real world: use diplomacy until (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
My new Web site
Plans for upcoming lessons
05/16/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentAt the end of the month, my granddaughter will begin putting in more than the 5 day a week schedule for her French lessons. She (Continue Reading)
Fighting the state
05/16/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentNo, not The State, as in The Deep State, but the state of Arizona, determined to preserve the life of the unborn but adopting the (Continue Reading)
Three big things going on now that don’t involve subpoenas
05/16/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentIt is May 16, 2019 and do you know where your country is headed? We have a task force in the Persian Gulf and John (Continue Reading)
the pursuit of happiness
05/16/2019 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsI’ve been looking up this phrase and trying to remember where I heard, on TV recently, that it substituted for “property.” According to an article (Continue Reading)
Highs and lows of recent times
05/15/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis is in lieu of a Christmas letter. Off the top of my head, some highlights. I got my knees replaced and you can read (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s lessons
05/14/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentAt this point Nyah has put in 64 hours of instruction. That is a bit over one third of an academic year. Ben Slavic says (Continue Reading)
A routine with a long run
05/14/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentIt seems a routine has been set, one night of yoga, one of body pump, two days in the gym lifting weights and two to (Continue Reading)
What Conservatives Think
05/12/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere’s how conservatives see the country. Minorities of color vote for Democrats b/c they give them free stuff – that’s the conservatives’ term for it: (Continue Reading)
From self-deportation to self-impeachment
05/09/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentRomney wanted “Mesicans” to self-deport; now Nancy says Trump is “self-impeaching”. News to Trumpsters panicked over Mexican rapists: huge numbers of undocumented and documented workers (Continue Reading)
Who’s left or whose left?
05/09/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentA pundit said the Congresspeople pushing for impeachment are to the left of Pelosi, but could they not also be said to be to the (Continue Reading)
What do you mean, “being destroyed?”
05/07/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentLiberals often cry that the institutions of this country are being destroyed, our justice system, our economy, our immigration heritage, religion, education, even art. They (Continue Reading)
No gummit hepped me….
05/02/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentRick Perlstein in Before the Storm cites the ferociously conservative center, Orange County, and how its residents decried government help of shiftless people. As a (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s requests on April 22, 2019
04/22/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn today’s lesson (to be written up later), Nyah came up with some encouraging requests. One was to begin reading. I had already scouted out (Continue Reading)
Drum Beat
04/22/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentYou probably expect this to be found in the category Music of the African Diaspora but it is in Running Commentary b/c it refers to (Continue Reading)
From here forward
04/21/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentFrom over a year ago: This past week I ejected myself from all on-line activities except e-mail and this blog. No more flteach, after 20 (Continue Reading)
Retooling of category “Running Commentary”
04/21/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis will go forward as commentary primarily on what I’m reading as I take notes on it. The category What I’m Reading Now will deal (Continue Reading)
When it gets good
04/18/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentYou might notice how in many forms of African-derived music, a melody- and harmony-driven music will over the course of the piece devolve into domination (Continue Reading)
Probing Barr’s Brain
04/18/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhat if we had a probe we could insert into Wm. Barr’s brain and suck out his idea, concepts, ideals, motives, dreams, and purpose. What (Continue Reading)
Early influences on my views of African-Americans
04/17/2019 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsTwo books I recall reading as a kid: Louis Armstrong’s autobiography Satchmo! and Richard Wright’s Black Boy. The former the librarian wouldn’t check out to (Continue Reading)
Fruits of consistency
04/16/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentSince my surgery in December and my week off in Februrary, I have surged in the consistency with which I get to the gym. I (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s lesson #111, April 8, 2019
04/16/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentInitially we did some personalized stuff and I did a very poor job getting her to understand ‘son’, her. tprs says tell them what it (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s lesson #115 April 15 vr #24
04/16/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentI had to deal with “teal”, the color of the pen she wanted to use to take notes. I had no idea what ‘teal’ looks (Continue Reading)