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“Three — it’s the magic number.”

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I wish every high school in America taught three things.  Actually, I wish every high school in America taught a lot of things, but these are the things I am focusing on right now:

  1. A basic rundown of logical fallacies, but especially the straw man argument, the false dichotomy, and the sunk costs fallacy;
  2. An understanding of apophenia; and
  3. The meaning of cognitive dissonance.

It would utterly change political, social and religious discourse in this country.

If you’re unfamiliar with these terms, then Google them.  I swear they’re easy to understand, even if they sound a little esoteric.  I’m like half an imbecile, and I totally get them.

 

 

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Angelo Dall’Oca Bianca’s “Pain,”1876

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Oil on canvas.

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Mascaron in Strasbourg, France (Photo)

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Photo credit: By Ecelan (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Olin Warner’s “Memory,” 1896

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Bronze door at main entrance of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building.

 

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Well, THAT was a little scary!

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I smelled something burning, and I thought I’d left the stove on downstairs.

Turns out it was only the Reichstag.
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Estonia, nice knowin’ ya.

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So, Trump says he might not defend certain NATO allies unless he’s satisfied they’ve paid a requisite amount of money owed to the United States.

Hey, what do you expect when a landlord wants to be President of the United States? This is, after all, the Manhattanite who was collecting overdue rent from city tenants during the Vietnam War.

*****

BELOW:  U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Kyle Page (right), a team leader with 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, attached to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and an Estonian Defense Forces service member make their way over rubble in Northern Now Zad, Afghanistan, as a controlled detonation explodes behind them on Oct. 26, 2008. Marines are conducting a clearing operation of a known enemy stronghold in support of an Estonian Defense Force vehicle checkpoint.

Defense.gov News Photo 081026-M-9389C-163.jpg

Photo credit: By Sgt. Freddy G. Cantu, U.S. Marine Corps – This Image was released by the United States Armed Forces with the ID 081026-M-9389C-163 (next).This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required.

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Throwback Thursday: 70’s-era water pistols

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I loved these cheap toys when I was a tot in the late 1970’s.  They were a favorite gift from any aunt who might be visiting during the summer.

Some websites list these as 1960’s toys; I’m guessing the Chinese manufacturers were simply using the same molds a decade later.

I seem to remember cracking or breaking one on more than one occasion, which is weird, because they weren’t made of glass.  I also needed an adult to fill them for me, when I was very little — you had to fill them via a tiny hole in the back that was plugged by a small plastic stopper.  It required a little finesse, as you had to run only a thin stream of water from the faucet to make that work.

I distinctly remember that dark blue Luger that you see at the bottom.

 

 

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Stay safe!

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I don’t imagine this needs to be said, but I hope all the candidates, staff and attendees at the Republican National Convention enjoy a safe and secure event, as part of a peaceful political process. (With so many diverse dangers in this violent day and age, we should be thankful for that alone.)

Even if we disagree, of course we should wish each other well as fellow Americans.

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Follow “The Bees Are Dead” on Twitter!

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Oscar Wilde wrote that “life imitates art.”  Well, let’s hope not.  Because the world is so insane lately that I’m worried that my beloved dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature will come to be regarded as just … y’know … literature.

Nevertheless, if you do enjoy dystopian prose, poetry and photography, then remember to stay current “The Bees Are Dead.”  You can do so quite easily by following B.A.D. on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TheBeesAreDead

Stop in and enjoy some excellent poetry by Wayne F. Burke and Prerna Bakshi!

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I’ve just finished what I hope to be the Great American Novel.

It’s called “To Kill A Mockingbird,” and it’s dedicated to Melania Trump.