I was overjoyed to see that the Asian-American band called “The Slants” has heard from a unanimous Supreme Court that their band name is legal. They had been denied the right to use their band name based on a trademark law called the Lanham Act. It was a part of the Lanham Act that the…
I was discussing this issue on another venue, and I went back and re-read one of my previous posts. I thought it was worth repeating, so I’m re-posting it here. Buoyed by the equal parts of derision and support I received for writing in “I am So Tired Of Malthus” about how humans are…
When Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel to look into the to-date totally evidence-free allegations of collusion between Trumpworld and Russia, I had no problem with Mueller’s long and very close personal and professional friendship with James Comey, the ex-Director of the FBI. Their relationship has been described as “mentor – mentee” and “teacher –…
My older brother is a genius. No hyperbole, a legit genius. During the time he was working for Hewlett-Packard, eventually ending up as the head of one of Hewlett-Packard’s two research labs, he made a number of discoveries and advances which were patented. However, none of the patents were in his name. Instead, because they…
I grew up on a remote cattle ranch with no phone or tv. So as kids we played games with each other. One was called “Would you push a button?”. Well, the game didn’t have an actual name, but one of us kids would ask another kid a question like “Would you push a button…
The brakes on our van have been shuddering, so I took it to Valley Tire and Brake. I was in town and had to wait, so I took a walk. Not far from VT&B there’s a lovely section of tree-shaded creek. It’s in the city, so it has concrete sidewalls, but it’s peaceful and pretty…
After I wrote my last piece about my trip to Fiji, things have just been moving too fast to write. I’ll just take up where I left off, at Janice’s Skinny Bean Cafe in Pacific Harbour. It’s in a large complex of shops and apartments called “Arts Village”. I used to live in one of…
This year I skipped Easter. I boarded my plane on Not-So-Good Saturday, the day before Easter, flew across the International Dateline and landed in Fiji on the Monday after Easter. Go figure. I got off the plane, cleared customs, rented a car, and started down the Coral Coast. Stopped at Natadola, but they’ve changed the…
“We’re waxing down our surfboards, We can’t wait for June.” SOURCE: The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ USA” I’ve been getting my gear ready to go surf Frigates Passage in Fiji. Ten years ago I swore to surf Frigates at 70, so now I gotta go do it. Hate it when that happens. Frigates is a natural…
Due to a complex series of misunderstandings and coincidences, I once found myself spending a long time in a small boat on the ocean in bad weather. I was forced to do it because the people on shore responsible for arranging the paperwork and landing details couldn’t be bothered. I learned a very important rule…
Maajid Nawaz is an interesting guy trying to make sense out of his own religion, Islam. Wikipedia notes that he was imprisoned for five years for being a member of Hib ut-Tahrir, a violent Egyptian Muslim group. During that time he had a change of heart, and he renounced his violent and divisive past. As…
I met the woman I refer to as my gorgeous ex-fiancee on a Friday afternoon in Mexico in 1978. We were both there for a few days with a group of doctors and nurses and translators doing volunteer medical work. She was a nurse, I was a translator. Over the next two days we spent…
