While there is no doubt that the internet, email, etc., can lead to great productivity, it can also lead to feelings of isolation, inferiority, a lack of discipline, be counter productive to concentration, etc. How many times during the day do you check your email, or are notified that you have a new email, tweet, etc., and how many times do you drop what you are working on in order to check out the new missive? When that happens, the random message to you becomes the most important item in your life since you have prioritized it by responding to it quickly. This excellent review of the new book, A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, will hopefully make you take a step back and restore some discipline regarding all the methods of electronic messenging . Perhaps we all need to have a timer on our desks so that we only look at electronic messages once an hour, or every two hours. Do you think you could do that? https://www.city-journal.org/tyranny-of-email

Born in the late 18^th century, Francois Eugene Vidocq began life poor and uneducated and spent many years in various types of petty crime.  He shunned violence and spent years as a pickpocket, army deserter, grifter and convict.  His numerous escapes from all sorts of prisons, attempted to lead a “straight” life but was always sucked back into the criminal life, sometimes by his own weakness, sometimes by circumstance. His fame among the underworld was turned to his advantage as he become first a police informer, responsible for the capture of dozens of his former associates, then as head of detectives.  Forming his own person group, he worked both sides of the street, moving against the worse criminals while hiring himself out to the growing middle class and upper classes as local businessmen and others attempted to gain advantage over rivals.

Balzac, Dumas and Victor Hugo freely borrowed from his memoirs to create many of their most famous characters, including Valjean in Les Miserables’ while Conan Doyle used Vidocq’s techniques to create the enemies of Holmes.  Other authors who used his exploits included Melville, Poe and Dickens.

An interesting look at the underworld of France at the time; a time of anarchy, corruption, brutality and a society in which class and circumstance cemented one into a life cycle that had little opportunity for self-improvement.

The election in Mexico this past Sunday appears to be a repudiation of the vision of President Obrador, better known as AMLO, by the middle class of Mexico. The link to the article below outlines President Obrador’s vision of a Mexico of the 1960s and 70s, with a one party rule, a meek Congress and an all powerful President. It is clear he prefers state run industries which have a proven record of failure, yet somehow he sees the failed policies as the hope for the future. Perhaps it is best summed up by Mr. Wood of the Woodrow Wilson Center, when he says that AMLO “..believes in the dignity of poverty.”. Perhaps he can take such as view as he has no bank account, no credit card and has all of his expenses paid by the State. With millions of Mexican citizens having fled to the U.S. over the years, apparently they do not see a largely agrarian, state run economy and poverty as glamorous as their President. https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-mexicos-president-a-threat-to-its-democracy-11622818830?page=1

Have you ever heard of a Federal or government program at any level which increased efficiency, or cost the tax payers less or even delivered what it promised? Think hard. I would venture to say that the military is the one area that at least has a degree of accountability. But others? I recently posted a story about how the Department of Education has received over $1,000,000,000 but has not increased reading or math scores. In this example, the Feds want more wind power but there is a problem; more wind power kills more birds, some of which are endangered. So the Feds tell the power company do do something about it or pay a fine. Do something about it? Like what? Put up warning signs for the birds to read? So the power companies pay the fine (and pass along the cost to you and I). Then the Feds want more wind power so more turbines go up and more birds are killed. Watch for the next step; the Feds will have to hire “inspectors” to monitor the power companies and guess what? Taxes will be raised for the new “inspectors”. Get it? Government is a perpetura motion machine of creating a situation which creates problems that they did not plan for, then they have to raise taxes to fix the problem they created. Pretty smooth, hey? Follow this link to a story on the careless birds vs. wind turbines. https://www.wsj.com/articles/expanding-wind-power-while-killing-fewer-migratory-birds-is-bidens-quandary-11622885401?page=1

Dr. Patrick Moore PhD., was a co-founder of Greenpeace and served as President of Greenpeace Canada for nine years. Yet, in 1986, he chose to leave that organization because as he said, “it evolved into an organization of extremism and politically motivated agendas”, and told a television audience, “The whole climate crisis is not only fake news, it’s fake science”. If you go to the link below, you will hear his roughly hour and a half talk which destroys numerous myths, (the polar bear population is declining, plastic waste in the Pacific the size of Texas, etc.) and provides evidence that nothing in our earths current climate is outside the range of normality for the past 10,000 years. Even if you do not watch the entire talk, it will make you ask better questions about what is reported. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3A4wrPU2jY

Several years ago, I read Luigi Albertini’s massive, three volumes, 1800-page work, The Origins of the War of 1914. It was a heartbreaking work as it laid out a chain of events beginning about thirty years prior to the outbreak of the war which seen from today, clearly pointed to the start of that terrible war.  Misunderstood actions, political snubs and fumbles, conflicting personalities, etc., seem to drive the Western powers toward a cliff from which none could turn.

In a sense, this book gives one the same feeling, only you reach the conclusion by about page 80; you want to put the book down and wonder how so many poor decisions could be made by so many policy makers and leaders. Anybody with even a rudimentary knowledge of asymmetrical warfare, can see the fundamental errors which turned a solid opportunity into a fiasco.

Causes can never claim victory for they become centers of self interest, with budgets and employees. Since they can never claim victory, they must always seek either new threats to their members, or discover new grievances which in turn leads to new requests for funding and continued existence, etc. What is the current direction of feminism and how well does it serve the vast majority of women? In this article, Mary Harrington does not call for a return to the role models of the 1959s, but she does question if a feminism “in the thrall of technology” is a failure. Is it time to think the direction of feminism and have it finally admit to certain “pragmatic realities”? This is a well written and thoughtful article that should be a basis for questioning todays more radical feminists. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/06/reactionary-feminism

With a rich dark brown Dominican wrapper, the 6×52 cigar is a medium to full smoke. Yesterday during a visit from a good friend, we discussed the problems of the world (managed to solve most of them) and this cigar stuck with me for nearly 1 1/2 hours. It burns slow and smooth and does not get hot. It runs about $11/stick which compared to the premium charged for most Cubans makes it a real bargain. If you are looking for a Montecristo with a excellent taste and which will stay with you and that you will enjoy, I recommend this excellent cigar.

When I was in grad school 50 years ago (ouch!), taking my classes in totalitarianism and guerrilla warfare (what is now called asymmetrical warfare), one of the shining stars was Regis Debray. Born and raised by “broad-minded” parents, he finished first on the entrance exam for entry into the Ecole Normale Superieure, the key stepping stone to an academic career in the humanities. He went a step beyond, as his writings caught the eye of Che Guevara, was invited to Havana to become a “court favorite”. He received training in guerrilla combat, scouted locations for Guevara, serve four years of a thirty year term in a Bolivarian prison, and fought with the Sandinistas in the late 1970s, all of this when he was in his twenties and early thirties. His writings influenced Marxist theory on warfare and went against the tide of both Maoist and Cuban strategy (his writing on the subject was said to be “unquestionably constitute one of the most brilliant examples of Marxist-Leninist analysis to have appeared in many years”). Had Che listened to Debray, his farcial adventure in Bolivia might have ended very much differently. Later, he was a foreign policy adviser to Francois Mitterrand, the President of France.

Now, at the age of 80, he continues to write, including a book on the religious roots of environmentalism, Muslims in France, an autobiography and more. In the article linked below, we find a mind that has always questioned not only the systems and individuals around him, but his own self. It is a treat to see that he is still alive and kicking. I hope you enjoy the article as much as I. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/06/rgis-debray-radical-conservative

This last Friday, my favorite wife and I went up to LA, booked a room at the Sofitel at Beverly and La Cienega, facing the Hollywood Hills and shut out the world. No computer, no iPad. We opened a bottle of champagne, sat side by side with the balcony doors open, looked at the hills and let the world go by. Later, dinner at The Palm, a drink at the hotel and after lounging in the next AM, back to our home. We have a wondeful life but this little get away made us feel as if we were a thousand miles away from the everyday. It was a good lesson, so the next time you feel you are in a rut, or that the weight of the world is on your shoulders, or just want to do something different, go out for a stroll on the beach, splurge on a nice hotel room, go to dinner at a new restaurant, etc.. Treat yourself and put the bounce back in your step. If it works like I think it will, pick up your calendar and plan your next mini vacation.