Buffalo? Uvalde? I still haven’t wrapped my head around Sandy Hook. How about Parkland? And…… and………. Orlando……… and Denver……….. and Aurora…….. and ……… I think (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
One commentator’s take on our political situation
05/13/2022 Pat Barrett 1 CommentLawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC’s The Last Word began his show May 10th saying the world does not understand us, the U.S. Looking at the SCOTUS (Continue Reading)
Speculation on leaked draft opinion re Roe
05/13/2022 Pat Barrett 6 CommentsPre-decision:The purpose of the release may have been to:elicit massive protests eliciting ‘adjustments’ in the opinion.force wavers, Roberts, Barrett, Kavanaugh, to firm up so as (Continue Reading)
I find conservatism egregiously wrong
05/08/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentI find conservatism egregiously wrong from the start (unless you like living in a cave)………..and its reasoning exceptionally weak (no change unless it benefits me) (Continue Reading)
All Snakes Have a Backbone
04/25/2022 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsOur Arizona Representative, Ruben Gallego, thought through Mike Pence’s refusal to get into the car to whisk him away from danger and realize it was (Continue Reading)
What is a statesman?
04/22/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentWe have a contrast. When it became clear that Nixon had to go, it was Republicans, including, most famously, Barry Goldwater, who went to him (Continue Reading)
Have You Ever Noticed….. (warning: sex)
04/18/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentHave you ever noticed that the big issues in the GOP have to do in some way, no matter how great a stretch, with sex? (Continue Reading)
The Moment I Knew I Had Lost My Country
04/17/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentFor a lot of people, the election of Obama caused them to ejaculate, “I want my country back!” Eight years later, another president was elected (Continue Reading)
A Brief Sketch of African Music
04/03/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentAfrican music as found in the western half of the continent has an overall shape despite major distinctions from north to south. This music came (Continue Reading)
Personal responsibility versus social responsibility
03/12/2022 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsKurt Andersen has made clear the course of thinking in this country derived from Milton Friedman: nothing matters more that making money except making more (Continue Reading)
Who is the true egalitarian
03/04/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhen a conservative savages a poor person, a person of putative lower status, or anyone at a disadvantage, we liberals rush to their defense. But (Continue Reading)
race discrimination vs caste discrimination
02/19/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentMy wife watches a lot of English soap opera and mysteries. Most of them have a character, principal or marginal, who is Black. Over time, (Continue Reading)
The Reshaping of a Musical Culture
01/29/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentJoseph Holloway writes in Africanisms in American Culture that the slaves brought with them their musical culture. That resulted in them reshaping the European American (Continue Reading)
Do you really doubt it………..?
01/15/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhen I saw the faces of the young people caught up in the police dragnet in Belarus, I saw the future of our children and (Continue Reading)
Reason in, Reason out
01/05/2022 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsMichael Steele, former RNC chair, said a friend asked him a good question concerning the Trump/Insurrection supporters: how do you reason someone out of a (Continue Reading)
Rage
12/24/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsSo interesting how we talk about the rage of the Trump voters, the left-behind. How about this though?Just tonight (Dec. 9, 2021) I was listening (Continue Reading)
What I Am Most Proud Of
12/10/2021 Pat Barrett 6 CommentsIn his Atlantic article, “Are We Doomed?” George Packer has two lines that went to something I’ve been saying ever since the rise of Trump. (Continue Reading)
Two against two: ad hominem
12/09/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsThis morning I was standing in line waiting for a blood test. Four of us got to chatting. About the time the doors opened, the (Continue Reading)
Idiomaticity
12/08/2021 Pat Barrett Add Comment“I understand what you mean but we don’t say it that way.” How many times have you heard someone tell you that as you foundered (Continue Reading)
No Serious Consequences
12/05/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsIsabel Wilkerson so deftly put into frame and focus the experience of Black Americans, I wondered as I read what the obverse of that coin (Continue Reading)
The Statue Problem
12/04/2021 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsThe statues some people find objectionable are typically those of men who exploited and extracted, at least in the Americas. We usually don’t get excited (Continue Reading)
New Core Exercises
12/02/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentA friend sent me a video by Bob and Brad. On the side I saw one titled 10 exercises you should not do. Two of (Continue Reading)
Carried along in the rhythm of the music
11/20/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentSitting here listening to a series of performances of Agbadza, the ever popular Ewe dance music, I realized the nature of that pulse, what many (Continue Reading)