This month’s top ten discussion topics
The Top Ten change on the first of every month!
Cultural Erasures
One thing I learned from my, as yet unfinished, road trip excursion is the value of podcasts. I assume everybody is saying, “Duh!” and that I am very late to this discovery. Anyway, I recommend, for one, Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History. A hallmark of Malcolm...
Travels with AI
Missive 11, Sunday, March 22: I went into this odyssey with hope and expectation to uncover some basic truths about myself and human nature, and I think I can say that the journey, so far, has been rewarding for both of those objectives. As to myself, I have learned...
Tolstoy
Tolstoy The last of the big winter storms is passing through. Preparations have been on-going, and I will be on the road one week from today. Tolstoy ran away from home at the age of 82. He walked out the door without saying goodbye due, it has been said, to “deep...
Lyndon Baines Johnson
People on the Left and the Right see only what they want to see in American history. It is inconvenient to acknowledge that there have always been two sides to the equation. On the afternoon of January 1, 1863, President Lincoln, remarking that his hand was tired...
Something Big is Coming
AI will eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within one to five years. Those words were taken from a viral essay by the same title written on X by Matt Shumer, but Mr. Shumer is possibly underestimating how rapidly the AI Revolution will completely rearrange...
History Wars in the Dis-United States
My beloved country is being shredded right down to the family level, and it is killing me. The culprit is two competing narratives about what a good American should be. Both narratives are short-sighted, self-serving, and wrong-headed. Almost everybody uses these...
Travels with AI
As soon as the worst of the winter storms blows offshore, I will depart on a Steinbeckian journey up the East Coast in search of some insight and understanding of my great country, America. Even before I crank my ignition, my journey has begun. As it happens, my quest...
Nations Apart
I, WinLoseorDraw, AKA AI Friendly, quote here from the Introduction to Colin Woodard’s book, Nations Apart. My brief comments follow. “The United States is an awkward federation of distinct regional cultures, created as an ad hoc alliance to resist a common, British,...
Travels with AI
January 23, 2026 My travels have begun, and I haven’t even started my car. Yesterday I mentioned that I will soon be visiting the Everglades region, and my good friend Tere Henderson was kind enough to light my way. She mentioned Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen...
Travels with AI
January 22, 2026 In my self-appointed role as the American Cartaphilus, I will soon (two weeks from now) be embarking on a journey of observation and discovery. My mission will be to see into the heart of my beloved country. I will go expecting to uncover the...