Ruminations

There’s 7 New People Born

Bryan Watson8 years ago02 mins

Into this world came this song. It certainly wasn’t on the radio, but I had bought the album – my second Dylan album – and listened to it, late at night, in the living room, on the hi-fi console, with my headphones on, in stereo.

When I first heard it, it was just “the next track” on the album. But halfway through, I stopped and moved the needle back to the beginning. I listened. Then played it again. And again. And again.

I learned, in 5 minutes, about poverty. Farming. South Dakota. Pain. Helplessness. Desperation. Terror. Loss.

Is This Heaven?

Bryan Watson6 years ago5 years ago02 mins

But for the 24-hour political newscasters, the Iowa caucus results were a panic moment. And now, 36 hours later, they are still mumbling and grumbling, talking about apps and coding problems and the horror of having to wait.

Good Government

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Bryan Watson8 years ago02 mins

I remember Nixon’s “enemies list” – a list of people and organizations that Nixon considered to be major political opponents. So I expect the new president – being far more paranoid and more sensitive to any criticism – to have an enemies list as well. And it would, of course, include anyone who is effective…

Mars Insight, Earth Insight

Bryan Watson7 years ago02 mins

Almost 50 years ago, I was transfixed as a NASA astronaut climbed down a ladder and pressed his boot into the grainy surface of the moon. A week ago, I sat transfixed as NASA guided a vehicle to a soft landing in Elysium Planitia, a “flat, boring equatorial plain” on a planet 300 million miles…

2020’s Woke Population

Bryan Watson6 years ago5 years ago02 mins

“I am not sure how we parse out how much of [the result] might have been related to reaction to Clinton and how much of it is motivated by the panic so many Democratic voters seem to be expressing in their desperate search to decide which candidate will beat President Trump,” University of Wisconsin political…

Good Government

Review: ‘Gunfight, My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America’

Lisa Pruitt3 years ago3 years ago020 mins

But guns have long signaled something different in rural places than in urban ones. Just as significant, guns now signify something radically different than they did a few decades ago. In short, guns have become highly politicized, both a cause and a symbol of our nation’s accelerating polarization

“Fear was a big part of it”

Bryan Watson9 years ago3 years ago01 mins

Listen to what we are being told:

Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – the are rapists and murderers and drug lords.

Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – they are rapists and murderers and drug lords.

Fear those who run from brutality and death in Syria – they are terrorists who hate our freedom.

Good Government

Grace

Bryan Watson8 years ago03 mins

He has had a chance to demonstrate his ability to lead, his ability to negotiate, his ability to command, his ability to help. And he has demonstrated weakness, ignorance, and arrogance instead.

It is not about giving him a chance. It’s about honestly assessing what he has said and done, how he has behaved, over these past 2 years. He has been weighed, he has been measured, and he has been found wanting.

Candidates: How Do You Decide?

Bryan Watson6 years ago5 years ago01 mins

We elect people to do one thing only – to make decisions.

But we never ask them the fundamental question: ”How do you make a decision?”

“You Get What You Measure”

Bryan Watson8 years ago02 mins

You get what you measure. That’s another well-known truth in business organizations. When you want a particular kind of outcome (say, increased customer base for a lagging product), you require your workers to measure that outcome and report the results. The effect is that workers focus on improving their measurements – sometimes to the detriment…

Who needs democracy?

Promises made, Promises broken

Government should be optimistic

Impeachment

Nobody Likes a Sore Loser

Review: ‘Gunfight, My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America’

There’s 7 New People Born

Is This Heaven?

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Mars Insight, Earth Insight

2020’s Woke Population

Review: ‘Gunfight, My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America’

“Fear was a big part of it”

Grace

Candidates: How Do You Decide?

“You Get What You Measure”