It has just been reported minutes ago by Politico, and then other media sources, that Congress’ House Oversight and Reform Committee is investigating an odd stop by a C-17 Air National Guard transport plane for refueling at the small Prestwick Airport near the famous Scottish golf course resort now called Trump Turnberry, located fifty miles from Glasgow. It happened in early spring this year. The C-17 crew had made a routine trip to Kuwait to deliver supplies and was returning... Read more
I’ve been a member of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) for twenty years. Every year SBL joins together with the American Academy of Religion (AAR) to hold their join Annual Meeting. Every year it is conducted the weekend before Thanksgiving for 4-5 days. It is always held in one of the largest cities in North America that has a downtown convention center that can accommodate our group. During these past twenty year, I’ve only missed one Annual Meeting. This... Read more
Mass shootings are increasing in the U.S., and we are divided about the cause of them. The U.S. has more guns per capita of population and more gun violence than any other developed country in the world. Not only that, the U.S. manufactures more guns and sells and distributes them throughout the world more than any other nation. So, not only do we have a growing gun violence problem, we are exporting it around the world. The political right says,... Read more
I am a fierce critic of Donald Trump as president. When he started his campaign for the presidency, back in late 2015, I thought like a lot of people, that he had no chance of winning. Right away, I also started saying he was not qualified at all to be president. Of course, it is a job that is pretty hard to train for. But he ran on the assertion that Washington–with Congress experiencing a lot of gridlock–was corrupt and... Read more
I follow Dan Rather on Twitter. He is a highly-respected and retired American journalist. Mr. Rather tweeted this week, “Why even bother reporting on what the president says? Headlines this morning go from Trump having second thoughts on tariffs to wishing he raised them higher. And all of this before most Americans had had their first cup of coffee.” Like I’ve been saying, you can’t hardly believe a word that man says. Plus, he’s got his people lying for him... Read more
A golf enthusiast commenter on my blog recently brought to my attention that he knew me in my high school days and that I then played a set of fiberglass-shafted irons. I replied that he was correct and they were Golfcraft irons. Another commenter then chimed in, saying “Golfcraft was the origin of Titlest back in the 50s.” Well, I knew that was wrong. So, here goes with a little history. Much of it I’ve just now gleaned from sources... Read more
Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, blasted President Donald Trump in a very frank radio interview yesterday. The main take from what he said is that China is already a “lost market” for American farmers due to Trump’s tariff war with China and that it will take “decades” to get it back if that is even possible. Johnson concluded, “It’s going to take much different behavior from future presidents in order to repair this damage.” The interview was... Read more
Rory McIlroy won the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, today by four strokes over Xander Schauffele. McIlroy also won the coveted FedExCup today to bank an extra $15 million. As the 2019 season came to a close, he was arguably the best player on the PGA Tour this year, with three wins. Yesterday, play had to be stopped and ended after the last group had only completed six holes. Thirty minutes later, lightning struck... Read more
R. Nicholas Burns was U.S. ambassador to NATO in George W. Bush’s administration from 2001 to 2005. Then he was Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008. He is currently is the Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also presently holds several other titles regarding U.S. foreign policy, including being with Chatham House and the consulting firm The Cohen Group. I think the 63-year old... Read more
U.S. President Donald Trump wants the U.S. to buy Greenland. Why? Some people think it’s because Trump wants to cash in on all of Greenland’s rich natural resources. Greenland has some of the largest iron ore and zinc mines in the world. Not so. Trump suspects that with global warming the only places that will be available in the world to build golf courses will be Greenland and the North Pole. About 80% of Greenland’s 811,000 square miles are ice-capped... Read more
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