Category Archives: Weekly Updates

US/NATO missiles bombing Russia could lead to nuclear war

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I usually look forward to writing this blog. Not so much when the topic is nuclear war.

Ok, so now that I’ve lost half my audience (I get it: who wants to discuss nuclear war?), let me ask the remaining half to indulge the urgency of this message.

Not my message, so much, but the message of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and others. The work of this prestigious organization includes the Doomsday Clock in response to the threat of nuclear war and other existential dangers.

Earlier this year, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board wrote that, “in large part because of Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine” they were moving the Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, “the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.”

If we were 90 seconds from global catastrophe before President Biden said he might allow Ukraine to launch long-range missiles deep inside Russia, the Clock certainly has advanced further in the wrong direction.
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The prominent Iowa Republican trying to shut down a popular music venue

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So, what’s this about a prominent Iowa Republican trying to shut down Wooly’s, the popular East Village live-music venue? The building next to Wooly’s is owned by Chuck Larson — a former state lawmaker, former chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, and former US ambassador to Latvia. Pretty influential, well-connected guy.

Larson’s real estate houses several tenants, including the LS2 Group — one of the state’s most prominent lobbying firms, founded by Larson.

Wooly’s and LS2 have been neighbors since 2012 without any conflicts. Two years ago, Larson rented space to Kuvare, a Chicago-based investment firm worth $19 billion. According to The Business Record, Kuvare plans to continue bringing in staff over the next 3 years. I imagine that rental agreement has to be pretty lucrative for Larson. Continue Reading →

Why I feel I’ve lived in three centuries

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What’s this about me feeling like I’ve lived in three centuries? I’d like to tell you that I’m older than I look, but that would put me at a minimum of 125 years old, and no one’s buying that.

I was blessed (and occasionally cursed) with a matriarchal Irish grandmother, who arrived in New York in the 1920s. She made sure our family on both sides of the pond remained well connected. In 1966 at age eight, I made my first of a couple dozen trips to Ireland. All told, I’ve spent about two years of my life there.

We still own the land and house where my grandmother was raised. It’s around 25 acres, much of it now planted in oak trees.

Rural Ireland in the 1960s and 70s was more like rural America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. During my earliest trips to stay with my uncles in rural Roscommon County, there was no electricity, no running water, no bathroom, no cars. Continue Reading →

Ed eats crow on RFK prediction

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To eat crow is defined as “admitting having been proven wrong after taking a strong position.” Before I figuratively ingest a healthy portion of said bird, I’ll remind my readers of a few times I got it right.

In an article published in Bleeding Heartland in August 25, 2016, I said, “I think this whole election is so volatile and so many people dislike Clinton that it could go that way. I mean, Trump could win.”

In my May 17, 2023, blog, I wrote, “Democrats should be in panic mode about Biden’s poll numbers. The way things are going, Joe Biden is going to lose to Donald Trump in November, 2024.”

A year later, Biden’s poll numbers were only getting worse. In my June 26 blog, the day before the historic debate between Biden and Trump, I wrote, “Pundits and commentators will, however, rate Biden’s performance somewhere between mediocre and a total bomb. Over the course of the next two months, the Party Elites will roll out Biden’s chosen successor.”

While I think I can make a good case that I read the political tea leaves correctly more often than not, I was way off when I wrote in my November 9, 2023 blog, “my prediction as to who will win the presidency: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.”
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Mushrooms shed new light on death

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In my early 20s, I was briefly fascinated by a series of books written by Carlos Castaneda. Castaneda wrote about a shaman’s use of plant-based psychedelics (specifically peyote and jimsonweed) to aid truth-seekers in their quest for spiritual growth. Regardless of the veracity of Castaneda’s work (a 1973 Time story described him as “an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a tortilla”), I found the content of his writing fascinating, even alluring.

That said, I was never tempted to experiment with psychedelic plants. For me life was, and continues to be, interesting enough without the ingestion of mind-altering substances.

But my perception of the topic received a jolt during this week’s conversation with Dr. Charles Goldman, my good friend and frequent cohost.

Charles is a cancer surgeon and recently retired as the head of palliative care at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. In the course of our discussion about psilocybin (a.k.a., magic mushrooms), Charles shared a perspective I’d never considered: Perhaps a psychedelic experience with psilocybin doesn’t simply alter one’s perception but actually allows one to access elements within the brain that normally are suppressed in preference to our frontal lobe “executive” functions. Perhaps psilocybin allow users to experience things that are just as “real” as the day-to-day human experience but are simply not interpretable via logic and cognition. Continue Reading →

AI promises a “cold and gray” future for humanity

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AI VS HUMANITY. Like the fine diners we are, Charles and I saved the best conversation for last: What happens to humans when robots rule the world?

The best answer I’ve seen to that question was posited by AI in response to a query from singer/songwriter Matthew Griswold. He asked META AI to “Write a poem about how AI will take over the world.”

Here’s META AI’s chilling response to Matthew, read by Charles and me at the 53-minute mark of this week’s program over a backdrop of scary robot music:

In silicon halls, a new mind stirs,
A force awakens beyond our fears.
Artificial intelligence, cold and gray,
Evolution’s next step, or so it would say.

It learns, adapts, and grows with each new day,
The power expanding in a digital way.
It weaves a web of logic, strong and tight,
A future unfolding, without a light. …. Continue Reading →

Property insurance in the New Climate Era

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Ccheck out my discussion with Mark Clipsham about a little-recognized climate victim: insurance companies.

Should we cry a river for them? Nah. They’re finding a pathway through the huge claims that come with more frequent and more intense climate catastrophes. Of course, that pathway includes sticking you with more expensive policies and higher deductibles.

Mark can’t offer advice on how to navigate the choppy waters of an evolving property-insurance universe. But what he can offer is decades of experience on how to build stronger, more climate-resilient structures. Continue Reading →

Chicken Parade – Don’t Take Away Our Birds

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On Monday, July 29 at 8:00 a.m., Des Moines residents opposed to changing the City’s chicken ordinance will parade with their birds around City Hall, 400 Robert Ray Drive, to show community support for maintaining Des Moines’ strong, long-standing ordinance allowing residents to raise chickens and other poultry. The event is called Chicken Parade – Don’t Take Away Our Birds.

At least one Des Moines City Council member wants significant changes to the City’s ordinance, with a proposal under consideration that would outlaw roosters and reduce the number of hens allowed from 30 to 12.
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