Cole's Notes - The Sunday Journalist

Quillette – Bill Frezza Build Your Own Intellectual Oasis Jan 5, 2020 at 7:12 AM Two years ago I started an experiment I would like to recommend to you. At the urging of my best friend, concerned not just about my happiness but my mental health, I went dark. Perhaps if enough people give this a try it could help pull our troubled culture out of its downward spiral. What do I mean by going dark? I've enjoyed a four-decade long career as an engineer, entrepreneur, and venture capital investor working with many others to help build the digital world in which we now live. As the years passed I became more of an "activist," devoting increasing amounts of time, money, and attention to various issues and causes impacting the body politic.  For 25 years I wrote regular opinion columns for publications like Network Computing and Communications Week, back in the pre-web days, transitioning to Forbes.com , the Huffington Post , RealClear Markets , the Daily...

Quote of the Day "... the biggest obstacles to an effective climate policy are no longer the climate "skeptics" who stubbornly deny that there's a problem in the first place, but the activists who can only accept the half-baked "solutions" that fit their preconceived ideology." At the root of our climate problem, writes Pope Francis in his ecological encyclical  Laudato Si , lies our human pride and arrogance: “The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves.” Coming from a Catholic Pope, such sentiments are hardly surprising. For centuries, Christians thinkers have railed against pride as the first and worst among the seven deadly sins. But Francis is far from alone in his view. Many climate activists today, even though they don’t necessarily believe in a personal deity, share Francis’ diagnosis of our environmental worries. They too believe that our climate ...

Welcome to 2020 When a leftist talks about “everything is politics” they ignore that for most people, the freedom not to spend a significant part of your time deliberating about politics is part of what it is to live life as a free citizen. Cole's Notes 2020 “Of course, as long as there were willing followers, there would be exploitive leaders. And there would be willing followers until humanity reached that philosophical plateau where it recognized that its great mission in life had nothing to do with any struggle between classes, races, nations, or ideologies, but was, instead, a personal quest to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain. On that quest, politics was simply a roadblock of stentorian baboons." Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins 2003 Well - welcome to the roaring '20s. So here it is, my first post of 2020.  It's been maturing in me all this last year.  For me, 2019 was a down year for writing and posting.  ...

When he was disturbed from his "thinking time in the throne" by a call from Lord Privy Seal, Churchill easily responded with "Tell him I can only deal with one s*** at a time". "I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting  me  is another matter." "Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." "Saving is a very fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you." "A sheep in sheep's clothing."  (On Clement Atlee) "Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip." "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber." "There are two things that ar...

A year of media upheaval https://www.axios.com/media-upheaval-layoffs-newsrooms-revenue-eb68dc5c-1ec7-41ee-8733-cbfb1da30971.html 2019 was a transformative year for the U.S. news media industry, but it was also one of the most turbulent points in its history. The big picture:  There were enormous business challenges, which resulted in an unprecedented number of layoffs, desperate product maneuvers and fire-sale deals. Driving the news:  The impeachment of President Trump by the House of Representatives on Thursday was prompted by a whistleblower's complaint, but the stage was set by the dogged reporting of many journalists across the country. But despite those efforts, the economic outlook of the news industry is still grim heading into 2020. The impeachment process has proven that voters are starting to  tune out  political coverage, which for the past few years has been the news industry's biggest money-maker. That reality, coupled with an ant...

https://londonnews1.com/2019/11/envy-is-the-root-of-many-modern-evils/ Lawrence W. Reed – November 29, 2019 To dislike a person because of the color of his skin is racism. To scorn someone because of her same-sex preference is homophobia. To disdain for reasons of gender is sexism. To frown upon people because of their foreign origins is xenophobia. Such manifestations of bigotry, to a person of peace, tolerance, and logic, are shameful and indefensible. Why? Color, sex, sexual orientation, and national origin have nothing to do with the content of one’s character. That’s one reason. Another is that humans are not a blob; each human is a unique individual. If one is to be judged, he should be judged by his choices and behavior—that is,  by his own sins and virtues  and not by the sins and virtues of others who simply share some accidental resemblance to him. A third reason is that finger-pointing takes the spotlight off self-improvement. Scapegoating is not a...