Monthly Archives: July 2025

Talk To Me….

Well kids,I have come to the conclusion that the whole world is nuts. Many of you have already gotten there but I always hold out hope. A couple of great friends, who used to be Army brass, have told me many times that hope is not a strategy. Tragic flaw on my part. 

I keep looking for a middle ground on anything. Israel seems to be starving Gazans but Hamas and friends brought this on themselves. They are living in underground tunnels and so you have to bomb the crap out of them but everything is already back to the stone age. Where is the solution?

Ukraine blows my mind. We supply them with arms but only so much. We don’t want to get Putin mad. Putin is certifiably stark raving mad already! His Hairness says he and Vladimir are on good speaking terms. I would love to know what language they are speaking.

And young people on both sides are being wasted in a war of attrition. Haven’t we made any progress since the Huns and the Tatars?

The stock market has always been risky, but it is now the world’s’ largest casino. You can bet long,short, buy, sell and the wizards of Wall Street come up with a different wrinkle every day to figure out how to make money out of you and me. Meme stocks are the rage and the only thing good about them is that they confound the big shorts. Crypto,Sports gambling? What is the harm? Samo,samo.

I read an interview this morning with Yuval Harari, a very heavy duty thinker about AI. I have gotten through a good portion of his book, Nexus,and I am still as lost as ever. We have Generative AI which digests enormous amounts of data and spits out some translation or analysis. Like reading mammograms or analyzing an impending pandemic. Now we have Agent AI. This little beauty can create its own thought process, edit and correct itself and make decisions without any human interaction. It is said it can read your emails, respond to them and then give you a list of ones you should review. Not trying to be an old fart but isn’t this bordering on mega(not MAGA) dangerous? Maybe that too. 

It seems to me a whole lot of things are about to go TILT. We mess with tariffs, DOGE and going back over Russiagate, impeachments, stolen elections and Hunter Biden. Yet the looming imperatives of immigraton, Social Security, Medicare and unfunded pensions go wanting for lack of interest. Congress is taking six weeks off. The Trumpster is playing golf in Scotland and NYC is going to elect a socialist or pervert, depending on the results. Is it just me? 

Kabul is out of water. Nada, zilch! Who cares about Afghanistan? I really don’t, but is this the canary in the coal mine? Wildfires everywhere from the vast wilderness of Canada to the Western slope of Colorado to the Greel isles. Coincidence? Our oceans are now chock a block with microplastics, which are ingested by fish, that  healthy people are supposed to eat to live longer. Makes perfect sense. 

Now, if you are the average earthling, you probably have three responses. First is, I really don’t give a shit. Your little corner of the world has no effect on mine. Secondly, I have my own worries to think about. Food, rent, entertainment and travel are in my wheelhouse, so get out. Lastly, these problems are so complex that I can’t possibly have any effect on them. I am going to go with one side or the other and just roll the dice. 

Why don’t people speak up? I have thought about this quite a bit. With what I do, I spend a lot of time talking to people. Some special friends say I can talk to a tree. Thank you so very little. But it is true, I love to engage people. I revel in a good deep conversation. Someone’s wife told me once that her husband never talks to anyone…but me.  How does that happen? 

I could take you through the difference between monologues and dialogues, but I think you get it. I ask questions. Look for common ground or hot buttons. I want to be interested in what they have to say. Of utmost importance is that they know, It Ain’t going anywhere! 

People don’t like to look bad. They don’t like to buck the party line. There is a big air of vulnerability that happens in good conversation. Are my ideas stupid? What will the other person think of me? It is so sad, what you really want to say, never comes out. We put people down. Bury them with criticism. Bully them and bowl them over. That is the surest way to success. 

I have a couple of good friends I can go down and dirty with. We have talked at times for hours and I treasure it. I have patients and families in hospice that are beyond kind and trusting to let me into their world and their hearts. No matter what they say or feel is incredibly valid.They are more than worthy. They are so important. 

Bottom line is that we really run the risk of losing that. We have sacrificed our point of view to pundits and politicians.Bottom line is that we really run the risk of losing that. We have sacrificed our point of view to pundits and politicians. I don’t think we remain silent because of shyness or embarrassment. We all have very valid viewpoints and philosophies. We just have no one who will truly listen. We are all too busy or just not interested. You know when you are at a cocktail party and meet someone who, while talking to you, is scanning the room for someone more important to talk to. Hey, good to see you. Let’s get together soon. They never do. 

I am going to go out and look for a tree to talk to. Maybe I will just send you a note because it has been so long. I have no special talent. We all can do it. Maybe I will just get out of myself. Who knows? It might work.

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

A lack of communication can lead to misunderstandings, damaged relationships, and increased stress, particularly in personal and professional settings. Emotional distance with family and friends. Damaged morale and missed opportunities at work. 

The line “What we have here is failure to communicate” is a famous quote from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke.

“Talk To Me” is a creepy horror movie about kids with an embalmed hand. which I have not seen. Maybe Ted’s Head is a horror flick in its own right. 

We think faster than someone else can speak. On average words are spoken at the rate of about 125 words per minute. However, our mental capacity to comprehend what was spoken is much higher; around 400 words per minute. As we are using only 25% of our mental capacity, this leaves ample room for our minds to wander. It takes work and practice. 

People have many sides to themselves. A person can be a Teddy Bear at one time and an Orca the other. Not a Jekyll and Hyde but just something that makes life interesting . 

In My Opinion…..

As I hit the keyboard once again, I am asking myself a very important question. I have been doing this for over fourteen years. What right do I have to interject my thoughts on so many people? Who the hell do I think I am to wax poetically about this or that? It is really just my opinion. 

There are so many learned people out there. They have studied philosophy, the sciences, and the arts. They have a lot of knowledge under their belt. They have written dissertations, given speeches, and been interviewed by all sorts of media. These dudes and dudettes really know what they are talking about or do they? 

I always put factoids into my missives. I try to cross-reference them a couple of times because you know how fast and loose people play with the facts today. There are two I use when something seems particularly outlandish. One is Snopes and the other is factcheck.org. Not infallible but they give one the confidence I am employing some sort of due diligence. I try not to get too crazy. 

It becomes habit-forming. To the chagrin of many I speak out on things that I think are wrong. I like to point out what I think are train wrecks about to happen. It is not really complaining but just speaking my mind. To a fault, I am not a diplomat. I just hope my argument wins you over even if my demeanor sucks. Of course, there is a better way to schmooze and convince. I just write it off as one of my many tragic flaws. But I do my homework.

There are so many ways to solve a problem. Mine is just one of many. When someone just rattles off a party line I wonder how much of their belief is just regurgitating some sort of pablum or have they really thought about it? Our thinking is the result of months and years that pass while dealing with a concept. God, Immigration, abortion, poverty, LGBQT, Communism, War. I could go on and on. I guess one can say it sets up their version of morality or even reality for a start. 

I spend a lot of time thinking. It is what gets my juices going. I love to read columns of all sorts. Guys like Brooks, Friedman, and Zeihan are fun to read and listen to. Not to be sympatico, but to just hear what they have to say. I like to read reports from the front lines, whether it is a war zone or a demonstration. A market analysis or a theory on psychology. It probably fills my little brain with too many ideas but I rarely consider that to be the God blessed truth. It is someone’s opinion or interpretation.

This does not always win me friends or associates. People do not like to have their beliefs and theories put into question. I am not so much challenging them as to whether they are right or wrong, but in the tiniest way, ask if could their input be flawed? I question all sorts of my thinking after a good conversation. And I do adjust. Not wide u turns but gentle nudges one way or another. For me, that is healthy. 

In the winter here in Flalaland, I go to Bible study on Tuesday mornings at 7:30. I had never gone to anything of this sort before then. We were led by a very cool minister who put everyone at ease. There are 20 or so guys that do so. We are encouraged to speak our minds, and it is fascinating how many do so. That’s right, ladies,sluggo guys baring their souls and nothing more, thank God. And we all walk out of there feeling something. Maybe religious, but maybe even more just being alive. Neat stuff. 

I am pissed off at our discourse today.

We want to shut down any contrary thinking. The debacle of the Big Beautiful Bill was disheartening. Not because of what was in it, but because so few spoke what was on their mind. To succumb to threats on both sides of the aisle was embarrassing. Fall in line and shut up, or I will destroy you. Is this where we are? We can shake our heads, but don’t we do the same things in our own lives? Equivocating is so easy. 

Opinion is: a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. Ironically opinionated is: conceitedly assertive and dogmatic in one’s opinions. We are all so quick to fall under the banner of this or that political view. We are convinced the leader is all-knowing. Read through the precepts. Are we all truly left or right?

Just think about this, kids. None of us has all the right answers. There are flaws in every argument and we would be fools to ourselves if we didn’t admit it. Don’t hide behind resolve as an excuse to not admit our flaws. We can all bend and not break. We can all look at a different side of things. But then again that is just my opinion.

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids

 Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign asked participants to categorize 12 statements about current events as facts or opinions. They found that 45.7 percent could do that correctly no more than half the time.

Examples of facts include “The Earth is round” or “Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius”. Examples of opinions include “Chocolate ice cream is the best” or “That movie was boring”. Facts are objective. Opinions are subjective

In the same temperature room, some will feel cold and some will feel hot. Who is right? You will not win that argument with your spouse or significant other.

There are approximately 48,000 news analysts, reporters, and journalists. There are over 100 syndicated columnists. Tell me you have that figured out. 

Pew Research polls thousands of people on a number of topics annually. Interesting stuff. Give it a look