Rebane's Ruminations

An Octogenarian Reflects

George Rebane

I received the following reflection from a friend who received it from another friend.  Apparently, this piece has been going around a bit.  I share a slightly edited version of it because it reflects the view of so many of us still alive after having already lost most of our longtime friends and now going through a sequence of health crises, one of which will inevitably nail us.  But oh, what a time we have had and what we have witnessed over these very special decades in the course of human events.

@@@@@@

We grew up in the 40s-50s-60s.

We studied in the 50s-60s-70s.

We dated in the 50s-60s-70s.

We got married and discovered the world in the 60s-70s-80s.

We ventured into the 70s-80s.

We stabilized in the 90s.

We got wiser in the 2000s.

And went firmly through the 2010s.

Turns out we've lived through NINE different decades..

TWO different centuries...

TWO different millennia...

We have gone from the telephone with an operator for long-distance calls to video calls to anywhere in the world, we have gone from slides to YouTube, from vinyl records to online music, from handwritten letters to email and WhatsApp..

From live matches on the radio, to black and white TV, and then to HDTV...

We went to Blockbuster and now we watch Netflix...We got to know the first computers, punch cards, diskettes and now we have gigabytes and megabytes in hand on our cell phones or iPads...

We wore shorts throughout our childhood and then long pants, oxfords, Bermuda shorts, etc.  We dodged infantile paralysis, meningitis, H1N1 flu and now COVID-19..

We rode skates, tricycles, invented cars, bicycles, mopeds, gasoline or diesel cars and now we ride hybrids or 100% electric...

We have seen the dawn of a new age when our machines are becoming smarter than us in all our endeavors.

Yes, we've been through a lot but what a great life we've had!  They could describe us as "exennials" people who were born in that world of the fifties, who had an analog childhood and now a digital adulthood.

We're kind of Ya-seen-it-all.

Our generation has literally lived through and witnessed more than any other in every dimension of life.  It is our generation that has literally adapted to "CHANGE".

A big round of applause to all the members of a very special generation, which is UNIQUE.  Here's a precious and very true message:

TIME DOES NOT STOP!  Life is a task that we do ourselves every day. When you look, it’s already six in the afternoon; when you look, it's already Friday; when one looks, the month is over; when one looks... the year is over; when one looks... 50, 60, 70 and 80 years have passed!

When you look... we no longer know where our friends are.  When you look... we lost the love of our life and now, it's too late to go back.

Do not stop doing something you like due to lack of time.  Do not stop having someone by your side, because your children will soon not be yours, and you will have to do something with that remaining time, where the only thing that we are going to miss will be the space that can only be enjoyed with the usual friends.  This time, unfortunately, never returns.  That day is today!

WE ARE NO LONGER AT AN AGE TO POSTPONE ANYTHING

Always together, Always united, Always brothers/sisters, Always friends.  The happiest people don't have everything, they just make the best of everything!!

Hopefully, you have time to read and then share this message... or else leave it for *Later* and you will see that you will never share it!  Pass it on to your best friends. Don't leave it for later.

A Little Brainbone Exercise

George Rebane

Here are a couple of problems that our high school students taking the annual merit scholarship TechTest may encounter.  The solutions require no higher math, actually only a little bit of lower math, and can be puzzled out on the back of an envelope.  You, however, may use a full sheet of paper.

Problem 1: What are all the feasible clock times at which the minute and hour hands lie concurrently (on top of each other) on a standard clock face?  Calculate your answers to the nearest second.

Problem 2: What are all the feasible clock times at which the counter-clockwise angle from the minute hand to the hour hand makes a right angle (90 degrees) on a standard clock face?  Calculate your answers to the nearest second.

Hint:  It’s possible (advisable?) to puzzle out the approach to both problems in your head before making a single mark on paper.  But in any event, always draw a picture.

Thanksgiving 2023

George Rebane

In spite of it all dear readers and RR regulars, we still have so much to be thankful for.  The year for us and many of our friends was an annus horriblis.  But we are still here and Jo Ann and I wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving, and may you be blessed to share it with those you love.

Scattershots – 19nov23

George Rebane

Trump’s intent to deport illegals here less than two years is considered by the looney tunes lamestream as being “extreme”, and further evidence that he intends to destroy our democracy.  So the questions again are 1) is it illegal/unconstitutional to deport aliens who have entered the country illegally?, and 2) what length of residency by the illegals qualifying for deportation then is not extreme?  It’s idiotic to put this threshold at zero, since then the invitation goes out to the world that just getting your wet butt across the river and hiding out for a bit is all that is necessary for permanent residency, qualifying for all the benefits, and more.  This is exactly what today’s illegal aliens making their way to the border are betting on.

If you use the same or similar words as Hitler used to describe his enemies, then you are automatically a fascist, Nazi, … .  This is the twisted reasoning that Trump’s opponents are telling their under-educated constituents who are innocent of history and the uses of language.  Now I’m not a proponent of Trump’s own record of shooting off at the lip.  But to tell the double dummies out there that such usages are proof of Trump’s sinister political ideology and governance when elected does not serve the county well.  But it is one more bit of evidence that benefitting the country has never been the intention of the woke progressives and other collectivist fellow travelers.

Most journalists like to be the recipients of leaks – well almost.  When pressed in public, these reporters immediately do a little back-tracking by telling us that they are not in favor of leaks that are illegal, immoral, or unethical.  The question this raises for me again is ‘what is our right to privacy?’  While the Constitution contains no express right to privacy, legal scholars do cite “the most obvious protection of privacy in the Bill of Rights is the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals in their persons, homes, papers, and effects from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by the government.”  The restriction ‘by the government’ should give us pause, because it doesn’t say anything about your neighbor prying into your affairs and broadcasting his findings.  Other students of the law cite the Basic or Common Law of Privacy – “The right of privacy is: the right of a person to be free from unwarranted publicity, the unwarranted appropriation or exploitation of one's personality, the publicizing of one's private affairs with which the public has no legitimate concern.”  So who does the warranting and assessing legitimate concerns?  To me it sounds like the issue of privacy is another plank in the full-employment platform for the country’s lawyers.

‘Judaism and the Left’

George Rebane

Regular RR readers may recall the many posts in which I have questioned why so many people of the Jewish tradition continue to embrace all the various forms of collectivism – e.g. liberalism, socialism, communism.  This especially when all their acknowledged superior traits in the arts, sciences, and material wealth have been achieved in free market capitalist environments.  It is an enduring puzzle.

This week in the 16nov23 issue of The Union, columnist Terry McLaughlin provides an excellent overview – ‘Judaism and the Left’ - of this now centuries old phenomenon.  In it she also quotes several Jewish intellectuals who observe that “liberals have never done anything for the Jews.”  And this goes doubly for their uncritical adulation of anti-semitic American blacks such as the constituents of political leaders such as Maxine Waters, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan.

The best that I can figure is that such racially oriented anti-semitism is a cheap price to pay for a reliable block of bought-and-paid-for votes.

Sandbox - 18nov23

[Never lose your head, a matter of great practical wisdom, never to let it get away from you: it marks the great man, and of noble heart, for all greatness is hard to throw off balance.  The passions are the humors of the spirit, and their every excess makes sick the mind, it endangers the reputation.  Wherefore have such mastery over self, and be so strong, that nothing, either in the greatest fortune or the greatest adversity, can upset you, remaining superior even to the admiration of this feat.  Gracian #52]

Flâneur

George Rebane

Years back in a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (see also ‘The Antifragile Taleb’) he described himself as having achieved the status of a flâneur.  His circuitous description of such a person was immediately inviting to me.  I am a long-time fan (student?) of Taleb, and admire his depth of knowledge about many things, even though personally he comes across as somewhat acerbic and stand-offish.  Anyway, I did more research on flâneurs and ordered a new set of business cards on which I describe myself as a ‘Flâneur-in-training’.

Since most people don’t know what is a flâneur, I made a little wallet card that I hand to those interested.  On it is my definition that expands a bit on its 1854 introduction as “an idle man about town”, and captures the more desirable traits with which Taleb and the modern definition have adorned it.

Flâneur – An accomplished gentleman of independent means, no longer having to scramble for a living, who is a keen observer of the human condition and has wide ranging interest in issues of currency and intellectual moment that include culture, politics, the arts, sciences, international affairs, etc.  He is often seen reading the news at a sidewalk café, perhaps sharing the passing scene with a like-minded friend.  Afternoons may find him invited to some exclusive salon, and evenings at a concert or lecture.  A flâneur is by nature a Bayesian, ascribing certainty or impossibility to no tenet in his credo of beliefs – the possibility of countering evidence is always allowed, nay, sought.  Flâneurs are basically elitists in that they discriminate, and are neither inclusive nor equitable in their choice of companions – they do not suffer fools – life is too short.

I have found my niche.

Scattershots – 11nov23

George Rebane

‘Biden Keeps the Billions Flowing to Iran’ details Joe Biden’s ongoing treachery to undermine America and its allies.  I am completely flummoxed as to why that treasonous asshole in the White House is not arrested immediately with House impeachment proceedings pending.  He is openly and actively aiding and abetting a sworn enemy of the US who daily attacks our military installations in the middle east and makes war on our allies.  And we have enabled the mullahs to amass over $35B of supposedly sanctioned petro-dollars to fund their ongoing efforts to become the new hegemon of the region.

And SecHS Alejandro Mayorkas is still out of jail.  The sumbich has been bald-faced lying about our southern border being “secure” for years now, and the lamestream swallows and rebroadcasts that swill.  We see evidence of that right here on RR where our leftwing readers don’t have a clue of what has been happening with the illegal wetback influx of millions.  All they can focus on is allegations of Trump having claimed 2020 election irregularities and overpricing his real estate holdings to willing buyers, both of which he is perfectly free to do in this land of the free and home of the brave.  Meanwhile the most corrupt administration in the country’s history continues unhindered to dismantle the American Republic and implement its socialist agenda.  For the leftwing electorate it is the epitome of ignorance if there ever was one.

Sandbox - 6nov23

["Last week, the White House issued an executive order for command and control of artificial intelligence, strangely invoking the Defense Production Act. President Biden apparently got nervous after watching the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie. Really. Added to the order were a mishmash of unhelpful notions like “advancing equity” and collective bargaining." (more here)]