Here's Wishing You All a Happy New Year

by Nomad

I wanted to wish all of you copious amounts of positive energy, limitless patience, and emotional strength in the coming year.
I suspect we are all going to need it.

Out of curiosity, I also have a few questions for you:

• What was the single best thing that happened to you this past year?
• If you could pick three words to describe 2016, what would they be?

• What was the most important thing you learned this past year?
• What's the most important decision you had to make in 2016?

• And finally, if you could go back 12 months ago, what advice would you give yourself about 2016?

The Delightful Sport of Deflating The Donald

by Nomad

For comedians and cartoonists, the Trump Presidency will be boom years. Hopefully, for the rest of us, that won't be true in the literal sense.
Here are some that caught my eye. Hope you enjoy them.

Why This 1967 Interview of Prof. A.J. Toynbee is Still Thought-Provoking

by Nomad

The observations of an esteemed historian from 1967 still hold true in our time.

More than a Historian

To call Professor Arnold J. Toynbee a historian is to fall short of the mark. He was called a " philosopher of history." 

His most famous work "The Study of History" is a staggering 12 volumes and took three decades to write. On a human scale, that's a lot of history right there.
Today, Toynbee is known mostly in academic circles but in his time, he was a widely read and discussed scholar in the 1940s and 1950s.
Sadly, for the anybody without a masters' degree, the work is not what most people would consider and "easy" read.

But that's not to say it is inaccessible. A later condensed version allows us mere mortals an opportunity to understand Toynbee's brilliance. Even then, there are moments when you look up from the book and wonder, what the heck did I just read?
(The Wikipedia version is perhaps the ultimate abridgment.)

To put it simply, Professor Toynbee studied what caused primitive societies to transform themselves into civilizations and the reasons why civilizations collapsed.

Toynbee's goal was to trace the development and decay of 19 world civilizations in the historical record, applying his model to each of these civilizations, detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration.

In a way, Toynbee turned a very wide angle lens on humanity. Toynbee, as dry as his works could often be, provided remarkable insight into where we are in the bigger picture. He also hinted at where we might be going.

Sanity Break: Three Holiday Songs by Sufjan Stevens

by Nomad

I think it's time to take a break from politics for a few days and enjoy the holidays. Whether that means Christmas, or Hanukkah or a belated recognition of winter solstice, whatever, just consider this post a bit of relief from the relentlessly depressing political news.

To take our minds off of all that, I have selected the ever-quirky Sufjan Stevens who apparently has a particular fondness for this time of year. He has not one but two Christmas collection albums. 

Here he performs "Lumberjack Christmas / No One Can Save You From Christmases Past."

What Americans Will Lose when Trump Takes Office: A Sense of Responsibility

by Nomad

Americans are going to miss a lot of things when President Obama leaves office. The most important of these will be a president with a sense of responsibility.

Farewell

The editorial board of the Denver Post recently observed that the inauguration of a new president will represent more than merely the changing of the guard. We will be saying farewell to a president who has demonstrated a sense of responsibility.
The world, the article points out, seems increasingly unstable, with geopolitical tensions mounting in more and more places.

Next month a new leader will be faced with complex issues which will require tremendous intellect, subtlety, and heart. President-elect Trump has demonstrated throughout his campaign that he possesses none of those traits.

On the contrary, his remarks and actions have provided more than enough examples of his ignorance, his impulsiveness, and his frightening irresponsibility.

Just this week, we were given yet another foretaste of the Trump's problem. Only hours after the attack in Berlin and the cold-blooded murder in Ankara, Trump insisted on jumping to conclusions before all the facts were in.

It wasn't so much that he was right or wrong but that a wiser leader would know better than to launch a diatribe on twitter so soon after these events. By declaring these events as terror attacks so hastily, Trump had nothing to gain and, in terms of credibility, very much to lose.

His twitter account provides all Americans with a concise record of the future president's impulsive behavior. The attention-addicted Trump seems incapable of simply keeping his mouth closed.

That's probably one of the most essential characteristics of an American president; knowing when to not to interject an unhelpful remark.