The Truth

So, you feel disappointed after trying to accomplish something and it just does not work out no matter how hard you try? Thomas Edison tried hundreds of combinations before he hit upon a substance that would work as a good, effective filament for his light bulb. Winston Churchill walked for days through the jungle in an effort to get to safety. George Washington fought desperately at Valley Forge after the odds seemed completely against him and his little army. And so it goes. Perhaps the difference between great men and ordinary ones is the simple fact that they do not give up and we do. If you keep going, what have you got to lose? If you keep going, you just might accomplish something extraordinary.

The Truth

There was a story on NPR this morning about the low birth rates in developed countries. The story included some history about how birth rates were high when the nations (the human race) thought they could be doomed to extinction unless they seriously and assiduously multiplied and multiplied some more. Now that the threat of extinction seems to have disappeared, the focus on reproduction - at least in the Western world and Russia - has been lost. The truth is that we are now closer to becoming extinct than ever before. The nuclear arsenals stockpiled here and there are more than enough to destroy life on the earth 100 times over - except, perhaps, cockroaches. World leaders know this well but are doing their best to keep the lid on.

First of 2011

Correspondents around the globe? We don't have any. We leave that to the big boys - The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker, The Economist, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Miami Herald. We're here to make fun of them - the posturing, the pretense, the commercialism. PLEASE. The only correspondent we use is the Timid Reporter. That's enough for us and (besides) he's the only one we can afford - really. Even when he's not entirely sober, the man is as honest as the day is long. He may be timid, but he's not naive and he's not afraid. On top of that, he is so old (he'll be 234 in July - DOB=7/7/1777) he's the only correspondent in the world who can claim to have lived history, not just read about it in a book. Openly timid?  Yes.