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Friday, April 28, 2023, Delray Beach, Florida


Notes From My Journal

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When You Know It’s Unjust

One of the challenges of charity is that there are all sorts of nebulous aspects to supporting worthy causes. Among the most common are the many ways they can have unintended consequences. There is also the question of fraud – from non-profit institutions that spend too much on themselves, to those that don’t do all of what they say they do, to those that donate money, intentionally or not, to liars and scamsters.

I have an abiding interest in charitable giving. Not because I think it is virtuous, but because I see it as a contributing factor to being a happy person. I also believe that it exists in everyone as a species survival instinct. It’s part of our DNA.

Of the various causes I contribute to, one that I feel strongly about is reversing wrongful convictions that result in incarceration or capital punishment. As a result, I’ve been interested in the Innocence Project since it was created about 30 years ago. I’ve also worked directly with incarcerated felons, which smartened me up in several ways. For example, it opened my eyes to the fact that for every unjustly convicted and imprisoned innocent person, there are probably ten that claim to be innocent but are not.  Twice, I’ve had the disappointment of spending considerable time and money trying to reverse a conviction that I eventually realized was just.

Which is to say that when you get into the business of charity, good intentions are not enough. You want to be doing the right thing for the right people.

The good news is that when DNA is involved, the chance of being wrong is reduced to nearly zero. And that’s why, however much I would prefer to work directly with individuals, I am giving to non-profits like the Innocence Project that have the resources to bring to court cases that have DNA evidence. (You’d be amazed at how many innocent people sit in jail today for whom there is DNA evidence that exculpates them, except that the DAs don’t want to reopen their cases.)

DNA plays a key role in the work of the Innocence Project. The founders, young lawyers at the time, realized that if DNA technology could be used to convict people guilty of crimes, it could also be used to prove that people that had been wrongfully convicted were innocent.

If you’d like to support the work of the Innocence Project’s DNA efforts, you can read more here.

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News & Views

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Inoue vs. Stossel: “People Like You…”

For decades – and certainly since I was in college and graduate school in the early 1970s – higher education in America has had an attachment to Marxism and derivative ideologies. Since the turn of the century, this infatuation has been blended with a critique of capitalism as inherently racist, classist, sexist, and transphobic.

I’ve written about that before. And if you’ve had any contact with American colleges and universities, this isn’t news to you. But what you may not know is that capitalism is now being criticized for the racist/sexist/whatever effort to teach college kids how to write and speak in Standard English.

Here’s a discussion on this crazy debate between John Stossel and Professor Asao Inoue, an Asian-American professor from Arizona State who argues that teachers should accept, and even encourage, ungrammatical English!

Check it out.

 

More on the Hunter Biden Laptop Story

(Facts You Can Neither Deny nor Ignore) 

I’m sure you remember that, during the 2020 election, the New York Post came out with a story about how Hunter Biden was doing all sorts of questionable deals in Russia, the Ukraine, and China. And that proof was on his laptop, which had mysteriously disappeared.

This was, for a few seconds, front page news in the mainstream media. But do you also remember that, soon after the story broke, 50 former intelligence officials signed a public letter claiming that what is now known as “The Hunter Biden Laptop Story” was “Russian disinformation”?

That letter was widely believed, and discredited the New York Post and the story. Since then, however, the facts have been leaking out. And now, just about everyone, including the media that published that Russian-propaganda misinformation, is admitting that the laptop story is true.

Yes, the laptop was real. And it was turned over to the Justice Department, which wouldn’t release it or even admit it had it. But there was another copy that was turned over to a Republican senator and released to the press. And after seeing it, even the NYT admitted it was legit.

Since then, the liberal media went quiet on the story. But information keeps piling up. The latest: Former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morrell testified to the House Judiciary Committee that he was ordered to orchestrate the letter in the fall of 2020 by Antony Blinken, who at the time was a senior campaign adviser to Joe Biden.

That’s crazy, right?

And here’s something more: Several of the signatories of that disinformation were rewarded afterward with Biden administration jobs.

From The Daily Caller:

“Jeremy Bash, a former chief of staff for the CIA, was the one who put Morrell in touch with Biden’s campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti, who personally thanked Morrell for facilitating the letter’s creation. Bash was then appointed to Biden’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Two of the letter’s other signatories, Russell Travers and Nicholas Rasmussen, were appointed to the Biden Administration as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor and Counterterrorism Coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), respectively….

“In his testimony, written under oath, Morrell confessed that the purpose of the letter was ‘to help Vice President Biden’ in the 2020 election. Although there may not be any grounds for criminal charges, the revelation nevertheless reflects even further corruption and political bias within the American intelligence community in favor of Democrats. Blinken’s role in the scandal also seems to suggest that he was given his position as Secretary of State as a reward for orchestrating the letter in the first place.”

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Worth Considering

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The COVID Response: Are Vaccines Bad for the Brain? Or Is This Another Conspiracy Theory? 

One of the claims made against COVID vaccination is that it can cause a variety of mild to deadly brain problems.

I’ve already suffered three of the possible side effects. I had an ischemic stroke, an optic nerve problem, and hand tremors. (Which can be manifestations of MS.) And while I want to believe that they were caused by other things (smoking, inflammation, etc.), I have to recognize that they all manifested themselves after I got my mRNA vaccinations.

I’m not scared. And I’m not trying to scare you. But if you’ve had your shots and are experiencing any of the above – or other – symptoms (I know three people that recently came down with tinnitus), you may want to educate yourself on the arguments. Pro and con.

I’ve been reading bits and pieces on this subject since I first heard about it. Recently, I found this rather in-depth (for a layman) essay written by Colleen Huber. I know nothing about her. I’m recommending her essay because she doesn’t sound like a nut. She sounds like she understands what she’s saying. And because, although the content is somewhat technical, I was able to understand it pretty easily.

Click here.

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Worth Listening

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Long Ago… I Fell for Her

When The Carpenters were on the charts, I never thought much of them. I saw them as syrupy sweet and sentimental, which was not my teenage thing. But I do remember liking Karen Carpenter’s voice. A few days ago, I came across this clip of a vocal coach reacting to her singing. It may explain why, despite my antipathy for the sort of songs she sang, I was a secret fan.

Click here.

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Fun and/or Interesting

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“Wonder, astonishment, and devotion”

I came across this journal entry in Diaries of Note. It was written in 1831 in Brazil by Charles Darwin. It describes a typical day in his life then, surveying the rain forest with the help of his team. I was excited to see his description of the cabbage palm, Florida’s official tree, and one of my favorites. His description of the stem (“so narrow that it might be clasped with the two hands”) doesn’t reconcile with the 50+ cabbage palms in Paradise Palms. Ours are a bit thicker. But the height is right, and they are a handsome species. Darwin’s last sentence matches how I sometimes feel strolling through our 25 acres.

Click here.

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Readers Write

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Re “Poor Wreck That I Am” in the April 21 issue, GM had this to say: 

“Thanks for that piece, Mark. I too have suffered from depression and anxiety since my late 20s. To this day I still wonder how I was able to start and operate a business for 30 years, have employees, sell said business, and yet, after all that, still appear to be very ‘successful’ to the outside (however success is defined these days). The ‘am I worthy’ or am I suffering from the ‘imposter syndrome’ always haunted me. I wondered when I would be found out. It is only in the last few years that I am becoming more comfortable with myself despite being a crotchety 73-year-old worrying if my comb-over is noticeable to anyone. Catholic upbringing perhaps? I always knew I was not alone.”

My Response: I get it. You could divide the world into three groups: people that never get depressed; people that get depressed but not clinically depressed and so believe depression = sadness, and people that know what real depression is.

Here’s a piece I wrote on the subject after my last serious bout.

From AS, re “A New Rule for Discussing Economics” in the April 25 issue: 

“I liked your comments about capitalism.

“When I owned my restaurants, I always had people come up to me and say things like, ‘I should open a restaurant. I’m a great cook and my friends love my food.” Or, ‘You have a gold mine here.’

“It was crystal clear to me that those people had no idea what went into running a business, let alone restaurants. Your companions that day reminded me of all the people who think you unlock the door and then count your money at the end of the day.”

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Postscript

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I Tried Not to Laugh 

Okay, this guy is being a bit of a jerk. But have you ever had this experience? If so, you might find this funny. I tried not to laugh. But couldn’t. Can you?

Click here.

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"Were it not for hypocrisy I’d have no advice to give."
"Were it not for sciolism I’d have no ideas to share."
"Were it not for arrogance, I’d have no ambition."
"Were it not for forgetfulness, I would have no new ideas to write about."