Today’s WeatherThe Ghiorse Postman
– “A Fallen Leaf”, through Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), poet and American
“My faith doesn’t make any sense
And not me
That’s why I’m chasing him. . . .
— From “My Religion” to Anne Carson (b. 1950), Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist and professor.
To read the poem, click on this link:
“What distinguishes America is its greater or lesser goodness, but simply its unheard-of ability to do what is right or wrong. »
— Mark Frankland (1934–2012), British journalist and author
“It may not be the race for the fastest, or the war for the most powerful, but that’s the way to bet. »
Damon Runyon (1880–1946), American journalist and short story writer
I hope readers had a smart Thanksgiving and didn’t have too much, in a country where transportation has become increasingly unpleasant due to a lack of funding for transportation infrastructure and facilities and declining user patience and courtesy. Staying at home is becoming more and more.
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How many millions of people will adopt the technique of “living once” this holiday season and going into even more debt to buy hobbies and “experiences”?
Do most people in their early formative years scoff at building dams with sheets of rain that have fallen in the rain and then break to create a momentary torrent?
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As for the football stadium being built in Pawtucket (but will it be finished?): Despite overwhelming evidence that such expensive projects rarely succeed economically for the communities that host them, local political leaders see them as panaceas and let the entrepreneurs who build them lead taxpayers to cover them up. There is a glamour related to sports stadiums that is opposed to realism.
The place where the stadium is being built would have been an adorable riverside park, complete with a playground.
But blame us, the citizens, for electing other people who know little about economics and not enough candidates who know a lot about economics and business. And remember, you are voting without voting.
As consolidation continues in much of agribusiness, some blueberry baths in New England’s main blueberry region (southeastern Massachusetts) are being taken out of production and allowed to return to what they used to be: wetlands with varying degrees of water and home to a wide variety. of plants and animal life.
With the recovery, local grasses and other plants, such as birds such as herons and ospreys, as well as various fish and frogs, return to those acres, as the water gradually reduces the concentration of human-made chemicals.
We would derive advantages from selective reconstruction in many other contexts to lessen the destructive effects of humans on the environment. For example, how about demolishing masses of parking lots in deserted shopping malls and letting Mother Nature replant them, with a little of our part?
Will the recession worry that?
The other week I stopped in a small town on Massachusetts Route 2 for a sandwich. The owner, a woman in her 70s, I would say, was looking to serve me at the counter, dealing with potential consumers in a small general store. next to the room, and exercises an unlucky-looking teenager on how to wash dishes properly.
The girl said, “I just can’t get help. I don’t know what the kids do those days. They just don’t seem to need to work. ” She also complained that city dwellers no longer gather as much to socialize or participate in civic activities. Are they too busy with their mobile phones and social networks?
Well, I’m sure many other young people still need to work, even in menial jobs, but I hear diversifications in women’s court cases everywhere. For example, for years, I’ve known a woman in a small town in New Hampshire’s Connecticut River Valley, an inn owner whose main source of income is an attached tavern/restaurant that has long thrived, especially as a hub for informal networking.
Of course, COVID has taken a toll on their business, making it very difficult to rent and attract consumers. Today, consumers need to return, but few employees, who, as in most institutions of this type, are between 18 and 30 years old. years. “Where are they?” she asks.
This despite the fact that my friend paid well and tips at the tavern tend to be generous, in part because some nearby towns are wealthy.
The tavern has been closed for months.
Decongestant
There are rarely many court cases where “congestion pricing” is levied on motorists, but other people in big cities are starting to appreciate it. This is the system, implemented all over the world, in which motorists pay an amount (at least (the component of which is intended for the improvement of public transport) to reach the dense central districts of cities. Fares are adjusted according to the time of day, with the highest fares being for the main travel times.
Keep in mind that we already pay congestion, airline and Amtrak ticket prices.
Congestion pricing is helping to clear the air by reducing car traffic and making life in the city more fun for pedestrians, cyclists and just about everyone else in the city center, while also opening up the streets to ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles and other safety devices. related vehicles. It alleviates overwhelming traffic, largely stemming from the sprawl of car-dependent suburbs in and out of cities. And it would lessen the need for many masses of parking lots and garages in the city center, where homes, businesses, gyms and sports are located. Cultural facilities and establishments could be located in a different way.
The very tight and crowded urban centers of primary cities like Boston are well suited for these types of programs.
New York City will launch its program in 2024, for Manhattan, from the Battery to Midtown. But such a program may work well for the dense urban centers of small cities like Providence and Newport. Let’s see what happens in New York next year.
Going crazy in Argentina
“For each and every complex problem, there is a clear and undeniable answer. “
— H. L. Mencken (1980-1956), American journalist, essayist and English speaker
An economically stressed, fanatical, and civically lazy electorate is especially vulnerable to demagogues who offer undeniable answers to its ills. Look at Argentina, where angry citizens elected a volatile and in all likelihood crazy far-right TV pundit to appoint Javier Milei as president.
(Heck, about Hitler’s popularity in the 1930s. )
To deal with Argentina’s astronomical inflation and other economic disasters, Milei promoted his crusader measures, such as abolishing the country’s central bank and some other agencies, adopting the U. S. dollar as the main currency, cutting social spending, and cutting ties with Brazil, now that this is no longer the case. He rules through the so-called fascist kleptocratic dictator Jair Bolsonaro, whom Milei adores along with Bolsonaro’s soulmate, Trump.
Like others of his ilk, Milei speaks of “freedom,” even as he praises existing dictators. Note that it minimizes the crimes of Argentina’s brutal dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.
Will Milei abandon some of his more excessive positions? This happens in such situations, often quickly, when it becomes apparent that it may not work. In fact, he had already renounced some of his extremist projects last Thursday. Either way, I expect that within a year there will be buyers’ regret on a giant scale, as the electorate realizes that providing screaming panaceas to television is not the same as effective long-term governance.
Voters capable of anything. Many vote for corrupt and/or crazy leaders, like Trump, because they too are corrupt and/or crazy and/or because they are ignorant because they are too lazy to do a little study on the facts, especially the facts. .
Brexit and demographics are accelerating Northern Ireland’s (sometimes called Ulster) move towards separation from the United Kingdom and integration into the Republic of Ireland. Religion was once central to Northern Ireland’s union with historically Protestant Britain. But Catholics now make up 42. 3% of Northern Ireland’s population, compared to 30. 5% of Protestants (who are pro-unionist) and 8. 2% who identify as religious non-Christian.
Then there was Britain’s disastrous decision, narrowly won in a June 2016 referendum prepared by the Conservative Party, to leave the European Union. A majority of the electorate in Northern Ireland wanted to remain in the EU.
Most likely, the British Conservative Party will be overthrown next year. Will Labour try to unleash the arduous process of rejoining the EU?Now that Brexit has been proven to have hurt the UK economy and will continue to do so?Will the EU settle for the idea, after the Brexit mess?
While a special protocol requires that there be no customs checks or border controls between the North Island and the rest of the island, Northern Ireland is outside the EU. The single market has really messed things up, although the rest of the island is thriving thanks to the accession of the European Union. In fact, other people there are now much richer than in Northern Ireland. Before, it was the other way around.
You might look at a map and think that all the British Isles deserve to be one country, given the deep cultural, linguistic, ethnic and advertising ties that bind them together. Unfortunately, bitterness over England’s brutal colonization of Ireland, compounded by divisions between Catholics and Protestants, made this probably impossible. What a pity!
All of this reminds me of the Irish Republican Army’s fundraising policy in Boston for the Boston Herald Traveler (RIP) in 1970-1971, where the furious chant “The English out of Ireland!”
Robert Whitcomb is an experienced editor and editor. Among his works, he was monetary editor of the International Herald Tribune, Paris; as vice president and editorial editor of the Providence Journal; as editor of the Wall Street Journal in New York City and as editor of the Boston Herald Traveler (RIP). He has written essays and reports in newspapers and magazines for many years on a wide variety of topics for publications, has edited several books and film scripts, and is co-author of Cape Wind, among others.
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