The Apple of your (FB)Eye

The Octogenarians

David Hume is haunting us.The problem of knowing what is true is too much with us! Our “passions”( modern lingo…feelings…)mislead us.The Apple/FBI-Judiciary dispute is a perfect example.My instinctive response was “why not cooperate?”But then came the revelation that had not state and federal investigators wasted more than a week, Apple could have recovered information using standard procedures.Now they are being ordered to provide an encryption key which despite the claims to the contrary,opens up their technology for all time.Now a haggard looking Macafee emerges saying ” give me three weeks”.Make no mistake our privacy is at risk!
The ” passions” are at work powerfully in the performance of two political mavericks.Trump and Sanders are marching ahead of numbers of angry people who are bent on raising an extended middle finger to the skies.Bernie Sanders probably will fail in his bid to unseat Hilary but to stop the Donald the GOP…

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Intergenerational Dialogue

The Octogenarians

As has been noted previously(and often) a major aim of this blog is to promote dialogue between generations.Recent developments in the U.S. and the world seem to have intensified(if possible) the need.we appear to have arrived at a major inflection point in U.S. and world history.As a demonstration of some remaining flexibility,I am e mail posting this post..

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Disparity

The Octogenarians

HW(pitcherinthewry.blogspot.com) supplied us a N.Y. Times article indicating that lifespan disparity between the rich and poor in the U.S. had increased to incredible proportions.While modified by gender,race,and ethnicity the fact of income disparity dominating life expectation appears indisputable.       (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/health/disparity-in-life-spans-of-the-rich-and-the-poor-is-growing.html?_r=1)

Research studies do not abound but what exists produces argument along familiar lines.

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Black History Month,Valentine Day Massacres and President’s Day

The Octogenarians

We’re in the middle of black history month and the police shootings continue.The democratic party fight between Bernie and Hilary is intensifying and the republican party contest resembles a Valentines day massacre.Super bowl champion quarterback Manning is now accused of sexual assault of a female trainer with Manning family coverup in his college senior days.Losing quarterback Newton acted post game like a sulking child,the President of the U.S is consistently disrespected but struggles to govern with increased use of executive power.This with increasingly shrill voices crying out”Emperor Jones!”The price of oil and the currency alterations in the Far East have sent our financial markets into unpredictable stormy weather.And the death of Antonin Scalia has precipitated an unseemingly ugly caterwauling about what should be the smooth continuation of judicial governmental function.Jeb Bush has summoned GW to the campaign trail,(replacing his mother who was really good  but probably couldn’t withstand a grueling…

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Death of a Giant: RIP Nino

The Octogenarians

Last Friday evening or early Saturday morning,supreme court justice Antonin Scalia died.Indisputably the foremost adherent to and definer of strict constructionist thought Scalia turned the supreme court away from constitutional “progressivism”(a living document)and the interpretation of legislation as an expression of the will of the legislators, to the strict meaning of the words when written.He was not popular within the court because he was combative and acerbic but his was a soaring intellect that shone both in writing majority decisions and in dissent.
We have spoken of him in this blog.(Yale Law School honoring 4 justices and his defense of limiting minority aspiration to less arduous channels.)Despite being a graduate of Harvard law he admitted being intimidated by the WASP power elite who denied him Princeton undergraduate access.The son of ambitious and successful immigrants he needed to be constantly on the alert and prepared to deal with challenge.He shaped the…

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Symbolic Interaction At the Iowa Caucus

Yikes !

The Octogenarians

JTG and SB have brought to my attention that on the Monday evening preceding the Iowa caucus, Melissa Harris Perry of MSNBC and Wake Forest University,was verbally assaulted and threatened  in a public viewing room at her downtown Des Moines hotel.The threatener questioned her credentials and got to “I want you to understand why I’m doing this to you…”One of her students jumped in and the two women crying out and screaming sent the attacker running. He was seen driving away.There is little question that the encounter was both racial and  gender based.We shall see whether or not the police will find this person.This is certainly not a post racial America.Additionally I, for one, wonder whether a woman President might be at more risk of attempted assassination than even the incumbent black commander in chief.

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The Donald & The Race Card

The Octogenarians

Trump is now crying foul about the dirty game played in Iowa.Cruz supporters called on Carson pledgers, informing them that Ben Carson at 9% was dropping out of the caucus and encouraged them to shift to Ted Cruz.How many shifted is unknown but the Donald insists that it was enough to push Cruz narrowly ahead of him.In the world of symbolic interaction it is no accident that Ben Carson ended up on the short end of the stick.Trump himself had readied Henry Cain(old 99,remember him) for an attack on Carson.With people in the race at less than his 9%, it cannot be happenstance that Carson was selected for the prank.The Donald can’t play the race card for Carson who without doubt will not play it for himself. I’ll bet that he wishes he could.Good old rough and tumble politics? Yes indeed; as old as sin!!!

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There But For The Grace Of God,Go I ?:The Petraeus Retirement

The Octogenarians

The military retirement board has spoken and 4 star general David Petraeus will retire as a 4 star general.This despite his conviction for sharing classified information with his biographer/mistress.There is little question that his service to this country was extraordinary.Unfortunately his disservice was also of magnitude.I do not believe that personal misbehavior should hugely impact career and yet it does.When that behavior impacts classified material I find myself less certain.Justice Clarence Thomas was approved by four votes probably because behavior outside of government office was kept out of congressional testimony by Joe Biden.(Interestingly Thomas played the race card!)Petraeus is certainly owed the same amnestic consideration ,subsequent disloyalty to his commander in chief notwithstanding…Is there misogyny here as well?Even with a consenting and facilitating adult? Line personnel have been demoted for less;and what about judgment?Is there something that we can learn from sexually induced misbehavior.(Bill Clinton where have you gone?)

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