Two characters approximately the same age 35-40.  Both very successful and extremely competent in what they do as well as highly respected by everyone around them.  One is an executive in an advertising agency in Manhattan; the other is a Roman senator around 117 A.D.

First scene shows the advertising executive in his office negotiating an ad campaign with a client — both are dressed in expensive tailored suits.  It is clear from the advertising executive’s interactions with others that he is well respected, competent, and on top of his game.  The client becomes more and more excited with each suggestion made by the advertising executive.  Ultimately, the client enthusiastically shakes hands with the advertising executive — thanking him profusely — and departs; and the advertising executive takes a moment to peer out his skyscraper window, thoughtfully, at the spectacular view of mid-town Manhattan — his kingdom.

Next scene is…

The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was signed in 2011, replacing START 1, and runs until 2021.  It limits the number of warheads of the US and Russia to 1550 each. It’s interesting to try to imagine what the United States would turn into if 1550 nuclear warheads were to hit their target here.  These modern warheads are not comparable to the two nuclear bombs dropped in WW2, which are puny in comparison.  The modern warheads are much more powerful – some, for instance, more than 3000 times the explosive capacity of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Major targets are assumed to be hit with not just one but multiple warheads to ensure that at least one warhead gets through.  So it is safe to assume that all major cities would simply be obliterated, given the magnitude of these weapons, leaving intense radiation in the surrounding area.  Most of…

Still Together

You know the type — people who doesn’t hesitate to do that falling backwards routine, into the arms of another person without really knowing that person or even if he is still standing there.  Another how-much-do-you-trust experiment is to find a straight country road with no traffic or an open parking lot with no cars, close your eyes, and see how far you can walk with your eyes closed before you open them.  It’s harder than you might think, even when you know there aren’t any obstacles in the way.  But may be for the trusting kind of person, they just keep chugging along, no problem, eyes tight shut.

The trusting kind of person is going to be heir to a number of bad outcomes just waiting to happen.  Friends are one of those bad outcomes.  Trusting friends without reservation sooner or later is going to mean a…

Isn’t it about time someone actually does something about the murders in Chicago?   The statistics prove that the current city administration, police department, and courts are unable to solve this problem.  They have failed the residents of the city, which has turned into a veritable shooting gallery.

I think it is high time the Federal Government step in with the National Guard, on a more or less permanent basis, and lock down the most lethal neighborhoods of Chicago.  The police departments must keep statistics on which neighborhoods have the most murders and perhaps even down to very precise locations (see the site reference below that identifies the most lethal neighborhoods — it isn’t a secret).    The presence of the National Guard in those neighborhoods  would have a dramatic and immediate impact on all the violence.

What better use could be made of the National Guard than to protect American…

Nations are subject to a particular type of influenza that may be but a brief illness and a fast recovery or may instead imitate the black death visited on the planet in 1919 — a scourge that killed millions.    It all depends on what the leadership decides to do when confronted by this common illness.

That leadership can act like the adult in the room taking steps that will induce an immediate cure so that the nation is unscathed.  Or it can act like an adolescent in the room throwing a temper tantrum, and therefore prolong the illness and seriously disrupt the nation.  Or it can act like the baby in the room balling its eyes out and inconsolable, and bring the nation to its knees or perhaps even destroy it entirely.   The illness, the influenza that nations catch from time to time, on a more or less regular…