Don't Kiss The Frog

You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince.  So goes the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm about the frog prince.  

The version ending with the Princess kissing the frog, who transforms to a handsome prince, is unfaithful to the original in both spirit and content. In the original tale it is the abject rejection of the frog that culminates in the princess violently hurling the hapless amphibian against a wall that transforms him.  The Brothers Grimm sometimes dispensed with nuance.

The version with the kissing is more about doing what you are told - and for women anyway - compliantly accepting their fate.  The original fairy tale is edgier, much more about societal status, the traditional role of women in general and the assertion of free will.  The tale is dripping in allegory and bears little resemblance to a Disney production.  Naturally, all things Disney become fantasized.  Besides, I have the book and have read the tale.  You can fight me over interpretation any time you care.

If only Russian dissident and opposition leader Alexei Navalny had an opportunity to toss his assassins against a wall. 

According to five European governments, recent forensic testing reveals that Navalny was likely murdered with epibatidine, a potent neurotoxin found in South American poison dart frogs.  This finding has resurrected scrutiny over the circumstances of Navalny's 2024 death barely two years ago. 

France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK have reported that independent laboratory analysis detected the rare toxin in preserved tissue samples from Navalny's body.  They argue that inasmuch as there is no credible natural explanation for its presence they have reported the findings to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as a possible violation of international law.

I am not a biologist, but even I know that poison frogs are not native to Russian Gulags situated above the Arctic circle.  What I do know is that even small amounts of this toxin can disrupt the human nervous system, causing paralysis, respiratory failure and death. 

Navalny died February 16, 2024 imprisoned in a remote and frozen Soviet-era penal colony.  Naturally, the Putin regime denies any involvement insisting that their problematic citizen passed away of natural causes.  

Six years ago I had the opportunity to learn more about South American poison dart frogs on a museum tour.  You can see them here in captivity - duplicating their tropical environment.

 

Got to hand it to Vlad.  It used to be Sudden Russian Death Syndrome; the accidental falling from hotel windows phenomena that has claimed the lives of a mind boggling number of businessmen, bureaucrats, oligarchs and journalists as a mechanism to silence opponents would suffice.  Having dispensed with the messiness of Polonium-210 as the poison of choice the play list now includes a toxin from South American poison frogs. 

If only the Brothers Grimm were alive today to spin a fairy tale with this material.....

Literacy

 

Research shows a “significant and deeply concerning” dip in how much Americans read for pleasure. (Source: Financial Times)

Put Moral Formation At The Centre Of Your Society

Put Moral Formation At The Centre Of Your Society

David Brooks' speech was challenging and thought provoking, calling for us to reassess what we think cultural renewal looks like and to reconnect to our spiritual roots.

David Brooks is a bestselling author, columnist for The New York Times, and a contributor to The Atlantic. He is also a commentator on The PBS Newshour. His latest book is How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

Go deeper with ARC Research. Read reports, articles, and academic papers underneath our talks - all pointed towards advancing education, promoting research, and developing ideas about the keys to human flourishing and prosperity.  You can learn more here.

Book Club

Ronald Reagan's campaign slogan in 1980 was Let's Make America Great Again.  When he ran for re-election in 1984 it was It's Morning Again in America.  

There is a certain fondness for the decade of the 1980s as a period of renaissance in the United States with President Reagan and Fed Chair Paul Volcker credited with beating inflation into submission.  GDP growth for the period averaged 3.3 percent, unemployment declined to less than 6 percent and the stock and bond markets closed the decade up 228 percent and 253 percent respectively.  

Nevertheless, the decade of the 80s had more than its share of crises.  For the financial sector there was the collapse of the savings and loan sector.  Topped by more than a couple thousand bank failures.  The junk bond crisis, commercial real estate crisis, Latin American debt failures and the largest single day stock market drop in history on October 19, 1987.  I remember.  Not so fondly, either.

Contextually, GDP growth was just as high in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s.  Unemployment was lower during those same decades.  Stock market gains were more robust in the 1960s and 1990s.

But 1981 marked a watershed moment in US economic history; launching the era of the Great Releveraging. And a historic growth in both private and government debt.  

A Brief History of Doom examines a series of major financial crises over the past 200 years in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, japan and China - including the Great Depression and the Great Recession of 2008.  Author Richard Vague demonstrates how the over-accumulation of private debt does a better job than any other variable of explaining and predicting financial crisis.

Convinced that we have it within our power to break the cycle, Vague provides the tools to enable politicians, bankers and private citizens to recognize and respond to the danger signs before the crisis arrives.

 

Book Club

 In October of 2023 we toured the low country of Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah with a couple of friends and I took the opportunity to tick-off a lifetime bucket list item with a visit to the place that is central to this book.  I wish this had been published beforehand.  Sigh.

Very well researched. I’ve read most of the author's books and enjoyed them all. This book methodically takes you through all the events leading to the start of the Civil War with personal thoughts and accounts of key individuals. Amazing story that provides insight into the beginnings of the bloodiest and most deadly fight ever. 

Anyone who has any interest in the civil war, appreciates American history, startling parallels to current events and a big dose of hubris will enjoy this read.

 

One of my favorite authors... 

 

 

 

How To Win Hearts and Minds

One way to win friends and influence people is to write a book.

Or at least have one ghost-written for you.  

Just make certain it is a book that will attract moderates, independents, right-leaning voters, hunters, and dog lovers.

Kristi Noem, South Dakota governor, and supplicant for the position of Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate has a book:  No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.  

Officially released today, the book has captured the hearts and minds of moderates, independents, right-leaning voters, hunters, and dog lovers; although perhaps not as intended.  This is because in her book Governor Noem describes in grisly detail how she killed a self-described 'untrainable' puppy following a pheasant hunting trip.

According to the governor, a fourteen-month-old, female wirehaired pointer named Cricket 'went out of her mind with excitement, chasing all of those birds and having the time of her life.'  And 'later attacked another family's chickens' during a pheasant hunting trip.  And when the governor made a grab for the dog she got nipped.  According to Noem this was evidence that Cricket was 'less than worthless as a hunting dog.' 

So she shot and killed it.

It has occurred to me that my best friend and all-around champion hunting Lab, Inky, did all of those things too.  At about the same age.  She went out of her mind with excitement, chasing birds and having the time of her life, made a move on someones' barnyard chickens and nipped me.  That's what puppies do until they learn the ropes.  The difference between me and the South Dakota governor is I didn't immediately declare my dog 'worthless'; followed by an execution.  I corrected her, reinforced appropriate behavior, loved her and she matured into a marvelous hunting partner and family member.  I miss her more than you know.

Raising a hunting dog is hard work and can be incredibly frustrating some days.  It might be that the governor doesn't have the patience for this.  Maybe she doesn't have the time; she is a governor after all.  Or perhaps she simply doesn't know how to train a hunting dog.  All of which is anybody's guess.

Or maybe there is an altogether different explanation.  

Noem has said she included this story in her book to demonstrate her readiness in politics and to do what needs to be done, even if it is 'difficult, messy and ugly.'  Might it be that in the MAGA movement your star status rises if you demonstrate you are stone cold enough to shoot and kill your dog for being a puppy?  

I sure hope not.  Just about anyone I know, including some of my Trump supporting friends who hunt with dogs, tell me this is over the top.

I have hunted and killed countless animals in my life.  Same for fishing.  I have raised two hunting dogs and am presently training a third.  The art of raising a hunting dog is difficult, hard work that requires near daily coaching. It demands discipline, patience and love.  High-energy sporting breeds generally don't achieve their peak performance until almost three years of age.  In my world view there are no bad dogs; only bad dog owners.

That Governor Noem did not expend sufficient time training Cricket, and failing that; rehome a likely talented wirehair pointer is appallingly disappointing. Our new pup, Ruby, landed in our household solely because the original owners did not have the skill set, patience and time to commit to the task of raising a hunting dog.

Governor Noem may not have the skill set, patience or time.  However, as a wealthy individual she does have almost limitless resources to make good life choices.  Her derisive commentary about the circumstances, failure to put the pup up for adoption, did not lift a finger to humanely euthanize the dog and finally crow about it in a book calls into account her judgement.  

I see no evidence of love or empathy.

The implication is she might lack impulse control or possibly have a personality disorder.  I'm not an armchair shrink so that's not my call. My normal dog-owning, hunting guy impression of this entire unsavory episode is that it is exceedingly unsettling. It is a bad look. As a consequence, is Kristi Noem a 'less than worthless vice presidential candidate?'  That's not my call either.

While some of Donald Trump's base supporters might applaud and celebrate this sort of behavior, it would be fascinating to observe how it wins hearts and minds in a general election.

Return Of The Timberdoodle

While out walking the dog recently she has flushed several doodle birds.  They're common around here because of the remnant alder and willow thickets in the lowlands and younger reforested uplands.  Nevertheless, outside of the local situation this curious bird is becoming less common every year.

The American woodcock - Scolopax minor - also known as the timberdoodle - is a ground-dwelling shoreland bird species found in young forest and shrublands.  Woodcock breed across eastern North America with Wisconsin part of its western range.  This migratory bird winters in lowlands from the Mid-Atlantic south to the Gulf Coast states. 

Historically, woodcock were found in much larger numbers.  This was a consequence of a landscape that included larger amounts of early successional habitat - the technical nomenclature for younger forest.  Not surprisingly those younger forest have evolved and grown to mature forest where woodcock do not live. Fire is suppressed and logging is in decline so the extent of younger woodland habitat continues to shrink.  Urban development also destroys former habitat and because of all of these factors the woodcock population has fallen by about 1 percent each year since the 1960s. 

Aldo Leopold’s - A Sand County Almanac - describes the courtship display of the male Woodcock.  This is one of the true harbingers of spring around here and a delight to observe before sun-up.  From the chapter titled Sky Dance in this excerpt.

I'm tickled to listen to the courtship ritual.  It is another sure sign of the arrival of spring.

 

Threats

Last January I published some observations and statistics covering the rise in censorship and book bans in recent years.  At the time I figured I'd revisit the subject following sufficient passage of time.

According to the American Library Association 2023 delivered 4,240 books targeted for removal from libraries.  A new record high.  This is up from 2,571 titles in 2022.  It is likely these figures are understated as not every library, local school, college or university is scrutinized.

Nevertheless, now that last year's numbers are in, challenges targeting public libraries were up 92 percent in 2023 and challenges to school libraries were up 11 percent.  

The culture war has grown from a smoldering insurrection to all-out total war.

How do I know this?  The challenges are coming from well-funded and better organized groups with national reputations.  Well-funded and better organized groups with national reputations is nothing new.  The civil rights movement is evidence of that.  

However, in their quest for limiting your and my intellectual freedom and taking control away from local communities and school boards these groups have chosen to single-out individual librarians for harassment with threats of legal action, job loss or even arrest. 

I am mindful of similar attacks targeting local election officials and poll workers with threats of violence over the last four years.  All of these people are good and decent folks.  They are our friends and neighbors and live amongst us.  Violence is not right.

Has civil society lost its collective mind?

Snow Falling On Cedars

The title of this post is after a 1994 novel by David Guterson; winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the American Booksellers' Book of the Year Award, among others.  For reasons of sexual content and profanity this title is frequently banned in the United States.  It's a good book - I might even have a copy on my bookshelf if you care to borrow it.  But I digress.

The snow falling on the cedars in my woods triggered the trail camera.  It's maddening if you're downloading fifteen second silent video vignettes.

But it is pretty..... 

Jihad On The Written Word

In case you missed this ongoing skirmish in the larger culture war there's plenty of folks working overtime to make sure they control what you and your children or grandchildren read. 

Beginning in July of 2021 PEN America began tracking public school book bans and has documented nearly 6,000 instances of banned books including 3,362 bans affecting 1,557 unique titles covering the 2022-23 school year.  This included 1,480 authors, illustrators and translators.

New Christmas Ornament for 2023

This represents an increase of 33% from the 2021-22 school year.  Having wrested the title from Texas, Florida now leads the nation in book bans.  

Drivers of these trends include vaguely-worded legislation, national advocacy groups pressuring local school boards with the threat of penalties, lawsuits and criminal prosecution escalating the book bans to record levels.

In the first nine months of 2023 the American Library Association reported more than 1,900 titles challenged, a 20% increase over the same period in 2022. 

Singled-out for particular attention are people of color or anything associated with the LGBTQ community.  When the final three months of 2023 are included the total will certainly rise.

Major findings:

• More than 40 percent of all book bans occurred in school districts in Florida.   Across 33 school districts, PEN America recorded 1,406 book bans cases in the sunshine state, followed by 652 bans in Texas, 333 bans in Missouri, 281 in Utah and 186 bans in Pennsylvania.

• Overwhelmingly, book bans target subject matter on race or racism or featuring characters of color as well as books with LGBTQ characters.  Banned books also include books on physical abuse, health and well-being and themes of grief and death. Notably, most instances impact young adult books, middle grades, chapter books, or picture books specifically written and selected for younger readers. 

• Punitive state laws, combined with pressure from vocal citizens and local and national organizations have created difficulties for local school districts forcing them to either restrict access to books or risk legal and financial penalties for educators and librarians.

In the face of this there is a small measure of poetic justice to be found between the pages of banned books.  Bridget Ziegler, book ban queen and Moms for Liberty member from Florida, and her husband Christian Ziegler, now former Florida Republican Party Chairman, have found themselves embroiled in the fallout from a police report of a consensual sexual threesome including sexual battery allegations against the deposed GOP chairman.

Sniff Sniff.  Do you smell what I smell?  I suspect it's a whiff of schadenfreude in the Florida air. 

A free people do not censor speech or ban books.

Book Club

Summer reading list (among others) included the log and storied history of Alabama BBQ...

And a book by a guy that went to my high school...

Book Club

There is a universal truth about authoritarians.  

They are incapable of succeeding independently. They do not take power; they are given it.  

Successful authoritarians always adopt a preexisting political party.  

And establishment parties are populated by political figures who may outwardly profess disdain for aspiring authoritarians yet will eventually bend to their will.  

In the beginning they will oppose him.

Then they accept him.

They share a belief that they can manage him.

They find themselves defending him. 

At the end they become his sycophants. 

If you are looking for an old, but good read get yourself a copy of Diary of a Man in Despair.

Written between 1936 and 1944 by a conservative German who struggles to do the right thing all the while living in a depraved world.  It is prophetic.

He died at Dachau in 1945.

Book Club

One of my pals, with knowledge of my interest in military history, recommended this book.  He cautioned that it wouldn't inspire any warm feelings about the Russians.

Based-upon hours of oral history shared by his father, Lee Trimble and British historian Jeremy Dronfield corroborated the events compiled in this true story of veteran Eighth Air Force bomber Captain Robert Trimble's efforts to save the lives of allied POWs and refugees in eastern Europe.

As the Soviet army advanced across Poland in 1945 they freed thousands of POWs, slave laborers and concentration camp survivors.  The Red army reserved a particular contempt for the allied POWs considering them cowards or spies.  Denying them shelter, food and medical care they were left to die.  Violent atrocities were committed.  From an airbase in Ukraine Trimble's task was to locate survivors sheltered by Polish and Ukrainian civilians and bring them safely home.

Working for the OSS and with virtually no covert training Trimble secretly survived by canniness, courage and perseverance, outwitting the Soviet secret police to exfiltrate an estimated thousand individuals in less than two months.

Post-Yalta the relationship between the USSR and the US was exceedingly strained.  Roosevelt understood all too clearly that when word of Russian barbarism inflicted upon their allies was revealed public sentiment would turn against them.

Lordy, I didn't need another reason to dislike the Russkies.  Then, as today, insofar as war crimes go it appears some things haven't changed.  This book was as difficult to put down as it was to read.  It is inspiring.

Book Club

A couple of weeks ago I finished Captain Metz’s first book - Sea Stories. 

This week I completed this compilation of short stories.  

Written in a rambling  conversational style; in no particular chronological fashion Metz shares tales about his time on the Great Lakes from the routine to the tragic.  He began his career as a deckhand and rose through the ranks to Shipmaster. 

Born in Milwaukee he sailed more than a half million miles in his Great Lakes career at a breakneck speed of 10 to 12 knots. 

The book from the library was a signed copy. 

Bonus. 

 

 

 

Reading List

If you’re looking for a good read this is worth a look. 

It’s got a lot to unpack - the immigrant experience, family drama, the Muslim-Americans in a post 9/11 world, sex, financial deal-making, revenge and a local connection. Donald Trump figures in the story too. 

I will admit to difficulties trying to ascertain where the novel ended and the memoir began.  Same for separating fact from fiction.  This conspired to make it a fun read. 

Homeland Elegies - Ayad Akhtar

 

Book Review

Author David Priess served during the Clinton and Bush administration as an intelligence officer, manager and daily intelligence briefer at the CIA as well as a desk officer at the Department of State. He earned his PhD in political science from Duke University. 

Recently I read his book: How To Get Rid Of A President which led to The President's Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America's Presidents from Kennedy to Obama. 

Every president has had a complicated relationship with the intelligence community.  Some Chief Executives have embraced the intelligence community while some have been distrustful.  Others have been adversarial.  With roots in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations beginning with Kennedy a short summary of what the intelligence apparatus considers the most crucial information for the president to know that day about global threats and opportunities has evolved into a top-secret document which has become known as the President's Daily Brief – or PDB. 

The contents of the PDB are classified so you won’t learn of any secrets in this book.   And, as the author points out, how much difference has the PDB really made? After all, the book left Richard Nixon unprepared for the 1973 October War, failed to predict for Jimmy Carter the Iranian Revolution in 1978-79 and missed the al Qaeda plot that led to the attacks on September 11, 2001, during George W. Bush’s administration. 

This isn’t a quick read as it’s heavy on facts and historical content. If you are presidential history nerd and want to learn more about the evolution of the intelligence services (specifically the CIA) over the last 50 years – this is a good read.

Book Reveiw

Most of those interred by the Nazi SS were identified not by name – but by a number tattooed on the arm. The principle characters in this story were tattooed 32407 and 34902. 

Heather Morris’s novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz, is the story told to her by a Slovakian Jew and holocaust survivor - Lali Sokolov - whose job it was to tattoo new arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany's largest concentration camp and extermination camp. 

It is a story about how he fell in love with a girl he tattooed upon her arrival. A best-selling novel the book has been shadowed by no small amount of criticism about the plot line clashing with the historical record. Fact-checking by the Auschwitz Memorial claims that - the book contains numerous errors and information inconsistent with the facts, as well as exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements.  According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum the novel is - an impression about Auschwitz inspired by authentic events, almost without any value as a document. 

The author makes it clear that even though story is based-upon the personal recollections and experiences of one man. It is not, and has never claimed to be, an official history.  As a consequence this book can truthfully stand by its claim to be a work of fiction. 

Setting-aside the historical inconsistencies and controversies it is a good read solely on the basis of a tale of love and survival in the midst of one of mankind’s greatest crimes against humanity.

Book Review

The publishing of this post has everything to do with my finishing this book on Monday afternoon and nothing to do with the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.  That is coincidence.  As former FBI Director James Comey said - Impeachment would let the American people off the hook and have something happen indirectly that I believe the they're duty-bound to do directly. 

Donald Trump has already been completely removed from office.  But I digress.

The title of this book is deceptive as it is far more than simply removing a president from office. This is a historical account of our country’s rather dark political and presidential election history. 

This is an excellent read chronicling the drama of party intrigue and betrayal, backroom deals, presidents who died in office by means of natural causes and at the hands of an assassin. Presidents undermined by opponents and subordinates, presidential departures and presidential ambitions of some particularly talented individuals thwarted. There is more than a fair share of corruption and graft in the historical timeline - a veritable double-dose. It reminds us that our nation has had some really terrible, horrible, very bad chief executives. 

David Priess takes a deep dive into pertinent provisions of the U.S. Constitution to explain how the Founding Fathers struggled with how much stability to offer a chief executive without making the position ineffective. As well, how to avoid the tyranny of a presidential monarch. 

The author makes the historical context relevant by means of good storytelling and a bit of dark humor. If you think that the last couple of elections have been laden with drama you need to wrap your mind around the historical record. 

In particular, I was previously unaware of the circumstances surrounding the Electoral College drama in the contest of New York Governor – Democrat Samuel Tilden against the Republican many American came to know as ‘Rutherfraud’ B. Hayes. 

If you like politics and history this is an eye-opening and terrific read.

 

Book Review.

The title of this book is from a diary entry by John Colville about the peculiar beauty of watching bombs fall over London. 

Never was there such a contrast of natural splendor and human vileness. How do you think a tragedy like this could be considered beautiful? 

If you have an appreciation for narrative non-fiction this book is a moment by moment chronology of Winston Churchill and his family and close confidants during his first year as Prime Minister. The setting is the German Blitz in the skies over Britain. 

As a historic figure there are volumes of material to be read on Winston Churchill. I had previously known that Churchill was a quirky personality but this book both humanizes him and demonstrates that the man had nerves of steel. The world has seen few individuals that could lead a country through a dreadful year of death and destruction as the Nazis attempt to bring Britain to her knees in surrender. 

Today we know the outcome of these events - the conclusion of which was the defeat of the Axis Powers.  We already know how the story ends.  Nevertheless, Larson’s excellent use of personal diaries and public documents of the period beginning May of 1040 thru May of 1941 along with little-known factoids create a tension in the mind of the reader over the nerve-shattering impact of the Battle of Britain.   Frequently I had to put the book aside for a moment so I could look-up the bio of another character in the unfolding story – all of whom are real historical personalities. 

Admittedly, I am a fan of Erik Larson and if you enjoy history and a compelling read you will likely enjoy this slice of time.

Pirate Hunters

Pirate Hunters – by Robert Kurson.   

Finding and identifying a historic wreck isn’t easy.  Locating a pirate shipwreck is even more difficult.  This is a story about two men - John Chatterton and John Mattera - who are willing to gamble their fortunes and reputations to locate the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. 

The story line is reasonably suspenseful with plenty of searching in all the wrong places.  Claim-jumpers appear on the scene and it is only when Chatterton and Mattera think outside of the box - and more like the wily Captain Bannister - does the pace pick-up.   This is a fun non-fiction read and I know more about the life of pirates during their 17^th century golden age than I knew before.