What 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)
Pat’s Polemics
My new Web site
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)
The stupidest congressman?
04/11/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentThomas Massie questioning John Kerry. Has any congressman ever said anything so stupid? Do you want me to quote him? Why are we told over (Continue Reading)
The essence of a Liberal’s outlook
04/10/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentGary Wills is half a decade older than me and I have admired and marveled at his broad sweep of expertise from the Classical World (Continue Reading)
D’Souza vs Cortez!!!
04/06/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentSounds like fight night, right? No, it’s a disgusting conservative challenging the right of Puerto Rico to be considered an entity, an extant item in (Continue Reading)
The shrinking society
03/13/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentReturning to my listservs I left over a year ago, I found the number of posts to be drastically reduced; on one list only one (Continue Reading)
A look at one process or dynamic in cultural institutions
02/22/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentReligion is often depicted as “going to seed” so to speak by becoming rigid and doctrinaire, depending more on transmitted authority than independent, outside-the-box thinking (Continue Reading)
Living under terror
02/17/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentWe often hear of Americans fearing living under terrorism. Max Boot, in his Invisible Armies, says only two terrorist organizations in the history of the (Continue Reading)
I want to join Elie Mystal’s church
02/16/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentAs pastor, Mystal would be great, calling out the zombies. Today, Feb. 16, 2019, he told us the Trump supporters were zombies and we are (Continue Reading)
What Conservatives Think
02/10/2019 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)
Too much P.C.?
12/23/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentA PBS/NPR/Marist poll recently found that a good many Americans, while not opposed to civility, believe that “political correctness” is being overdone and pundits believe (Continue Reading)
What a difference an education makes
11/11/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentYears ago, I think I was still in undergrad school, I began to notice and talk about a distinct difference I pick up between people (Continue Reading)
National Avenatti Day
09/26/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentTrump has declared today National Avenatti Day after the attorney who is about to blow the lid off the Kavanaugh nomination. His client is a (Continue Reading)
Before you get too self-righteous about our cackling…
09/15/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentBear in mind the overwhelming horror we felt when Trump won. We not only lost one of the most competent and experienced people ever to (Continue Reading)
How to establish facts
08/30/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentOver and over again, I’ve stumbled over the resistance to the Right to facts. How do we show people who not committed ideologues (or just (Continue Reading)
No clip board, just a feeling
08/27/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentEvery principal worth his salt knows the kind of teacher he wants in every classroom and knows how few they are. This teacher can be (Continue Reading)
Two principle sources of bigotry
08/27/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentOver the years I have often asked people who make bigoted statements about Black people what the source of their sentiments is. After hemming and (Continue Reading)
Well, it could be worse
08/19/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentReading of the Republican reaction to Truman firing McArthur, my thoughts turned to Louie Gohmert and Trey Gowdy and Darrell Issa and so on. All (Continue Reading)
Real Time blogging
08/18/2018 Pat Barrett 8 CommentsAs I watch the Rev. Al in for Joy on A.M. Joy, I want to blog as I hear the arguments against Trump’s stripping Brennan (Continue Reading)
Euro-American Alliance
08/18/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn The Wise Men I am just reading about McCloy’s efforts to bring Europe together right after WW II. His success in this endeavor was (Continue Reading)
Why numbers are important and how we need to teach statistics
08/15/2018 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsJust heard on NPR: possibly 300 Americans have traveled to join IS, the Islamic State (Al Qaeda, ISIS, etc.) The expert interviewing returned persons can (Continue Reading)
I’m struggling with something
08/06/2018 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsI’ve started reading Lies My Teacher Told Me. I’ve experienced a perspective shift. Others, according to the preface to the book, experienced the same sort (Continue Reading)
Four hundred sixteen!? CONFIRMED!
08/04/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis is a figure I absolutely must check out. I’m reading Max Boot’s Invisible Armies about guerrilla warfare. I noted somewhere how I went to (Continue Reading)