Opus 2018-111: Ode to Old: Stockinged Up

I realized the other day that I will probably never buy another pair of sox.  The main reason is I have been the beneficiary of my son’s evolving taste in haberdashery.  He keeps changing the kind of sox he wears.  As a result I end up with bags of perfectly good stuff.  Currently I have a profusion in white and black.  I have a small selection in natural colors.  Most are cotton, some are wool and a few are artificial materials.  For white cotton I literally have a box in the garage, a large sack on the floor of my closet and a large basket on the shelf. 

Also at my age I don’t think I will need to do any stocking up unless the fashion goes back to high water pants and pastel sox for men.  Even then I don’t think I would buy any.

Getting old has some advantages.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-110: Headlines: Who Likes Trump and Emma?

Recent events make me begin to wonder about President Trump.  I am referring to the positive comments uttered by Kanye West.  I know that the enemy of my enemy can be my ally.  What do you do when someone on the left endorses your man?  To quote Ronald Reagan, “Trust but verify.”

There are many issues in the world that I am either not bright enough to understand, don’t have time to research or am too lazy to study.  In those situations what I do is take the word of people I trust.  Kanye West is a name I know.  How could I teach middle school and not have heard of him.  To this day I cannot remember how to pronounce his first name.  Should I be concerned about his pronouncements?  I find them of interest but he is not high on my list of wise men. 

A case in point:  As I did a little research I find that he has just praised Emma Gonzalez of bald headed Parkland fame.  I was trying to verify what my memory told me, he is married to Kim Kardashian.  These are not marks of becoming a trusted source.

Was his comment about Trump just a publicity tweet?  Was it a case of the broken clock being right twice a day?  Was it sincere?  Will it last?

I am not going to buy a bust of Kayne to put in my guru room.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-109: Japan: Great Service, No Tipping

It was surprising how hard it was for me to get used to the idea of not tipping.  In Japan, tipping is not done.  I am not sure why but you don’t do it in most places. 

The problem is that the service is usually so good you want to leave a little something.  While in Japan the kids took us to a number of different types of restaurants.  The staff was attentive and polite.  Even though there were language difficulties they worked at it.  On our way home we had a stopover in Tokyo.  We decided to try one of the local places in the airport.  While I was waiting I dropped a straw and immediately there was this guy who was there to pick it up and get me another one.  Then when he saw me looking for my wife he told me where she was.  Then when I started to take our drinks over to her he insisted on taking them for me.  Later he brought us napkins and finger wipes.  All of this in a public airport where you don’t tip. 

I could get used to it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-108: Japan: In a Time Machine

It is tomorrow in Japan.  It is really strange living a day ahead of the world I come from.  I see it in the posts I make.  I see it in the blogs I read.  It isn’t just the hour shift.  When I look at the date and time app I see that today hasn’t even arrived yet back home.  It requires planning to know when to make phone calls.  I have found that calling someone in the afternoon and finding them sound asleep is not good for relationships.

Japan also has some aspects of America in the past.  There is an honesty here that we used to have in the States.  I have been watching a bike that some kid left on the curb.  Three weeks later it is still there.  No one has stolen it.  When you go to the airports you find that the baggage carts are free. 

Some aspects of Japan are like America’s future.  Socialism is part of life.  Regulations are omnipresent.  That causes the price of everything to be very high and wages to be very low.  It is part of the reason that Japanese homes are smaller and cars are tiny.  They are not hungry but they also are limited in expectations.  It is like Boston in the People’s Republik of Massachusetts, it is a great place to visit but I would not want to live here.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-107: Small Victories

I didn’t eat any peanuts yesterday.  Okay, neither did you but were you sitting at a table with an endless supply included in the cost of your meal?  We were at a steak place that has barrels of peanuts in every corner and buckets of peanuts on every table.  It is awesome.  I love peanuts.  I did not eat any.

I kept telling myself they were the spawn of Satan there to temp me into gluttony.  I would have been partly right.  They were tempting and I have good, logical reasons to scarf.  If they are included in the price of the meal it would be good stewardship to eat as many of them as I can and then take my steak home, right?  I keep telling myself that but my scale at home reminds me that I would be taking home more than the steak.

As a diabetic I have to watch what I eat and keep my weight down.  Many of you have been there.  You can lose the weight.  We have all done it many times.  The issue is that it keeps coming back.  One of the culprits is free peanuts.  Ounce by ounce, pound by pound the scales keep reporting the facts.

Peanuts are good.  They are not evil.  However I believe gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins and moderation is one of the seven ignored virtues.  I am not good at moderation.  I could have had a few peanuts and been okay.  I know my limits or at least I did this trip.  I refrained.

I had a six ounce sirloin at 250 calories and double broccoli at about 100.  I ignored the peanuts and declined the rolls dripping in butter.  It was enough.  This time.

But those peanuts looked good.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-106: Plead Guilty

I am sure you have heard about the lawsuit the Democrats are filing against everyone else.  They are accusing Trump and a long list of co-conspirators with conspiring to win, sorry, rig, the 2016 election.  I would suggest that the Trump administration work out a plea bargain where they admit their guilt and offer them a dollar in compensation.

You see, the purpose of a political party, advertising, research, rallies, voter registration and get out the vote efforts is to rig the election so you win.  The general idea in traditional forms of democracy is that the one who is more successful in getting more votes wins the election.  That does not play well with California and the rest of the Democrats.  If you have ever played Monopoly with someone who demands to be the banker and cheats, you know the scenario.  When you cheat, if you lose then it must be because the other person cheated more than you.

So yes, the election of 2016 was rigged.  Until the Democrats succeed in turning the country into a one party paradise like California and Venezuela those of us who love liberty will continue to rig elections, by getting more votes.

Guilty as charged.  So sue me.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-105: One Man’s Suppression Is Another Man’s Genocide

You always need to ask yourself the bias or slant of a source.  One of the books I read this year involved the history of the Arabs.  It was written by a British professor with an Arabic name.  He was born in Lebanon to a Christian family.  I worked with a teacher who had a similar background and, although I enjoyed the spirited discussions we had, he was a total left winger who embraced most of the anti-American and anti-Israel memes of our day.  I would guess Hourani would be similar, a great human being as long as you didn’t cross certain lines.

I say that leading up to his book, A History of the Arab Peoples, and what it had to say about the Armenian Holocaust.  In a word, nothing.  He did mention something that hinted that there might have been a few problems, but genocide or holocaust, no.  Here is how he dealt with the event commemorated today,

“This was shown in the 1890's, when nationalist parties in another Christian community, the Armenians, began to work actively for independence the Ottomans were able to suppress the movement with great loss of life, and without effective European action,...”  p. 280

From his point of view it was just another example of how Muslims have responded to Christians through the ages.  1890 is a bit early.  I would guess that the serious attempts to kill Christians were put off until the world was distracted by World War I.

As with the Jewish Holocaust, never forget.

Hourani, Albert.  A History of the Arab Peoples.  Cambridge:  The Belknap
        Press of Harvard University Press, 1991.

homo unius libri