The Poet by Michael Connelly

As crime novels go, this one was satisfying. The case seemed to be solved when I reached 85% (as Kindle measures the pages). The plot twists that followed seemed forced and didn’t add much for me. But all in all it was a good tale. I wouldn’t want all or most of my reading to be books like this, but I suppose I’ll read more of Connelly’s work. There's plenty for the taking - over 70 novels in the same vein.

Religion

Written several years ago, but not published until today.

Having finished my reading of the Bible (all of it), I have come to believe that religion is man-made. It has evolved from humanity's attempt to answer the deepest questions. Is there a higher power that is somehow in charge? How did all this come to be? Was the universe created, or was it always thus? If created, what came before? What created the creator?

The best answer I have found is in Plato's "Timaeus", in which a character named Timaeus states: "Everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created... Was the world always in existence and without beginning? or created, and had it a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are apprehended by opinion and sense and are in a process of creation and created. Now that which is created must, as we affirm, of necessity be created by a cause. But the father and maker of all this universe is past finding out." That I can accept. That leads me to the believe that such a Creator, if it exists, is beyond our understanding. It would be something unique, so vast and so totally different from anything in our world that we cannot understand it. It is hard to even think about a creator. I'm willing to concede that there may have been a creator. But if we believe that, we must also accept the existence of an entity that had no beginning, and which itself was not created but had the power to create everything else. All of that reasoning is my effort to apply logic and reasoning to a being (if there is one) that is beyond the range of the human mind to grasp. There is no answer; only belief or unbelief. Assuming the existence of such a Creator, would it possess the qualities described in Christian scripture: loving us but also judging us and ultimately sending us to reward or damnation? That seems inconsistent. There is no way to know whether such an entity. It all comes down to a matter of what we believe. What then is the religion I was brought up to believe in? I was baptised and confirmed as a Christian. Where did this religion come from? And if is not true, what good is it? I have the same question about Judaism, Islam, and every other faith. It seems to me that religion as we know it was created by humans to give order to the unexplainable, and show us how to live a virtuous life and run a working society. But as an origin story, and a path to eternal life, organized religion doesn't work for me. It's more of a framework to bring order to the unexplainable, which all humans seek.

The Covid Diary

I just discovered this hitherto unpublished summary of my bout with Covid in 2023.

First Nine Days

Started feeling bad Nov. 22/23. Absent from Megan's Thanksgiving dinner.

Teleconference with Doximity Dr. Kucura Nov. 25

This is the sickest I've been in many years. Nasal congestion, sore throat, fever (as high as 104), body aches, cough (productive), no appetite, diarrhea. Rattling chest sounds (bronchitis?) during early stages. 

Exhaustion: slept most of day and through the night. 

Brain function: difficulty concentrating.  e.g. creating spreadsheet comparing yield spreads (10 yr vs. 2 year and 2 month) took much longer than it normally would. Interpreting results was equally difficult. Reading a novel, watching a movie or TV show seemed too much effort. But watched social media from outset.

Lost 12 pounds in first seven days; lived on fluids.  Eating even a few bites of solid food was as much as I could do, and then under protest.

Nancy: "I've never seen you this sick." Threatened to take me to the ER if I didn't start eating. 

Day 10

Today is first day I've felt hungry. Still very spaced out. Brain fogged. 

Day 11

First sip of coffee since this began. No alcohol during the entire period. 

Day 15 (Dec. 6)

Getting better. Cough is much less severe. This is more protracted than any cold I've ever experienced. Energy level still very low. Still sleeping more than usual in daytime.  Unable/unwilling to walk dogs or drive. Able to edit Wikipedia without too much effort. No alcohol since before Day 1 - remarkable.  Diarrhea mostly gone. Still waking in middle of the night with pyjamas/bedsheets damp with perspiration. No alcohol.

Day 17 (Dec. 7)

Diarrhea. sinus headache. No alcohol.

Day 18 (Dec. 8)

Last night was almost normal. Slept soundly, minimal coughing. Today: sinus headache. Still no alcohol since inception.

Day 20 (Dec. 13)

Diarrhea.

Day 21 (Dec. 14 )

Still have lingering symptoms: fatigue, cough, hoarseness. Dr. Floyd says this could last another week (4 weeks total). Weight: 207. 

Day 22 (Dec. 15)

Weight: 205. Still no alcohol since inception of covid.

The Adventures of Donald Trump

I may be the first person to conflate Donald Trump with H. Rider Haggard. 

This was born after browsing through the pages of Wikipedia (as I do every day). I found myself engrossed in an article about Haggard's 1886 novel "She: A History of Adventure." 

As any schoolboy of my generation knows, Haggard wrote his novel after a stint as a civil servant in Africa. His adventures included the expedition that established British control over the Boer republic in the Transvaal. Haggard himself raised the Union flag over the capital of Pretoria in May 1877. Later he declared: "It will be some years before people at home realize how great an act it has been, an act without parallel. I am very proud of having been connected with it. Twenty years hence it will be a great thing to have hoisted the Union Jack over the Transvaal for the first time." 

Haggard believed it was Britain's mission to conquer and hold in subjection, "not from thirst of conquest but for the sake of law, justice, and order."  To my jaded eye, his Transvall adventure bears a striking resemblance to Trump's recent exploits in Iran and Venezuela, his dreams of annexing Canada and Greenland, doing something to Cuba, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and God only knows what will follow. 

I wish it would all go away like a bad dream or a bout with diarrhea. But that's not likely to happen soon enough. 

N.B. Haggard's novel was recreated in the 1965 movie "She" starring Ursula Andress.

The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant

I grew up in a family with lots of books. All 11 volumes of The Story of Civilization stood tall on my parents' bookshelves from my earliest childhood recollections. At that time I was puzzled by the title of the first volume: "Our Oriental Heritage." How could that be correct? To my young mind the Orient was China, or Japan, the home of Joe Jitsu, an Oriental cartoon character who appeared on The Dick Tracy show on WIPX Channel 11 in the New York area in the early 1960s, hosted by "Chief" Joe Bolton.

But the Durant's story of civilization defines "oriental" in broader terms. They start with "the beginning of humanity, when some freak or crank, half animal and half man, squatted in a cave or in a tree, cracking his brain to invent the first common noun." Then they move on to The Stone Age. Written history began some 6,000 years ago, and for half of that period "the center of human affairs was in the Near East....The Aryans did not establish civilization - they took it from Babylon and Sumeria." Ah, now I understand.

Further support for an Oriental heritage: the ancient city of Susa, located in what is now Iran. There  archaeologists found human remains dating back 20,000 years. Evidence of an advanced culture emerged around 4500 BC.  Arabic numerals and the decimal system "came to us through the Arabs from India." 

The Durants' Orient includes India. This is when the book really caught my attention It explains not just Indian history, but a deep dive into Hindu philosophy and religion as well. Above the pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses is Brahman, an ineffable concept "from which all existence proceeds, and to which everything returns, the cause of all that exists. Brahman is everywhere and inside each living being, and there is connected spiritual oneness in all existence."  

To the Hindu, if we have not lived a good life, our essence returns to Brahman when we die. Then it is reincarnated in a new life. We have another opportunity to do better. The cycle of birth, death and reincarnation continues until we achieve perfection and become one with Brahman. The Durants note that Hindu religion is much more complex than this brief description, but those are the thoughts that I took from this part of the book.

As for "the life of the mind" (as the Durants call it), to the Hindu "the purpose of knowledge and philosophy is not control of the world so much as release from it...the goal of thought is to find freedom from the suffering of frustrated desire by achieving freedom from desire itself." The Durants  magnanimously decline to judge such beliefs, "for our judgments in the West are usually based on corporeal experience and material results, which seem irrelevant and superficial to the Hindu saint." 

Still ahead lies Chinese and Japanese history. And that's just in volume 1. Ahead are 10 more volumes of more familiar western European stuff, such as "Rousseau and Revolution" and "The Age of Napoleon." I hope I live long enough, and retain my eyesight long enough, to read them all.

N.B. "The Story of Civilization" was first published in 1934. and was revised and updated numerous times before both Durants died in 1981. The version before me is dated 1954, which happens to be the year I was born.

Is Trump Building His Own Paramilitary Militia?

Our democracy is in danger. This article from The Economist (January 31, 2026) makes some excellent points. I agree with all of them.

ICE's Impunity is a Formula for More Violence.

Venezuelan Adventure

Today's news of the U.S. intervention in Venezuela sent me rushing to my search engine. How many times has the USA done such a thing in the past? The list is sobering. I remember when the USA invaded Panama and deposed Noriega. And Iraq, Afghanistan and Grenada. Not to mention Vietnam. I understand the reasons for those adventures, sort of. Now we can add Venezuela to the list. 

After watching today's Trump news conference, I have grave concerns about this incursion. At first I thought it was being done to stop drug smuggling into the US by deposing a corrupt dictator. But who gave him the authority to step in and kick over a sovereign nation's government?

I doubt today's action will have much effect on stopping illegal drug imports. The US is a huge market for high-stakes smugglers. Illegal substances have a way of finding new ways around barriers because there is so much demand, and so much money, in the USA. Despite the actions announced today, the problem of drug abuse and addiction will pop up again and again, even if we stop the outflow from Venezuela. How about attacking the demand side of this problem? More federal funding for drug education and help for the addicted? Our federal goverment doesn't seem to even consider a two-prong approach.

Even worse were Trump's statements that "we" (meaning him and his minions) are going to run Venezuela now, and U.S. oil companies will run the Venezuelan oil industry. That sounds like a takeover of the entire country, including its economy. I have the sickening feeling that Mr. President decided to make those sweeping statements on the spur of the moment, without first having a robust debate with his own advisors. I shudder to think of how that unexpected statement must have been received by Venezuelans. They're losing the right to rule themselves without foreign interference.

Trump's Decisive Leadership

Just noticed this header on the U.S. Department of the Treasury "Resource Center" web page:

"President Donald J. Trump has signed a Continuing Resolution through January 30th. Thanks to the President’s decisive leadership in the face of radical left-wing obstructionism, the Department of the Treasury has now resumed normal operations."

See for yourself here:

U.S. Department of The Treasury>Resource Center

King of Ashes by S.A. Crosby

I read this entire book on a 7-hour airline flight. Squeezed into a bulkhead seat in tourist class, it was a way to pass the time. 

I'm not a picky reader. After all, I am the guy who read all the way through Dividend of Death by Brett Halliday (reviewed elsewhere 0n this web site). But I found the first two-thirds of King of Ashes slow, meandering and overall disappointing compared to this author's previous work. 

Under different circumstances I might have tossed it aside. But I soldiered on, hour after hour. In the last third, things really start moving, so it was worthwhile in the end.

Trump says he’s firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook

There's disturbing news in today's Associated Press feed: 

Trump say's he's firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook, opening new front in fight for central bank control

By Christopher Rugaber and Will Weissert, August 26, 2025

We can safely assume that Trump wants to replace Federal Reserve Governor Cook with someone more sympathetic to his own ideas. That would set a terrible precedent. Packing the Fed with a President’s supporters is to be avoided, or so we were taught in our graduate school monetary policy class. On a personal level, the charge against Cook is almost nothing compared to the stunts I suspect Trump pulls with his real estate business. 

It’s outrageous. I don't dare put this in my social media posts. I'd lose friends. But still: sic temper tyrannis!