Author: amhlaigbh

amhlaigbh

JoeDog’s Random Thoughts on ‘Things’.

Today, I am mostly very happy. I took a very long stroll with my human at the crack of dawn. Though it was a bit foggy, it was cooler than most days this past week so we got a long distance in before breakfast.

While walking, I got to thinking about some recent experiences that have me ‘zooming’ around my house. I’ll bark about them here to see if the reader shares some of these or has others we might consider.

FaceBook.com contributions. Why is it that some of your ‘Friends’ feel compelled to repeatedly disgorge the most meaningless tripe as if all their ‘friends’ are going to be thrilled to consume it. Some of my friends seem unable to control their endless baying for a particular ‘old saw’ or repeating “Wordle” puzzles. I couldn’t sniff it out on my own? And, what’s with those short wildly inappropriate videos that pop up without being requested? How do you permanently purge them?

This Week’s Scripture Readings: Do you share my concern that Abraham was intentionally fooled by his ‘second wife’ and her ‘son’ to grab a birthright due another? Is there a mixed message in that?

Trump Derangement Syndrome. My family and I are staying in DC for a while and this place is a hoot! People here are so deranged by the Trump Administration’s actions across the entire front of the Executive Branch that they’ve lost all perspective, if not any semblance of sanity. I heard one person tell my human that the clown running for Mayor of NYC as a Democrat was not spouting antisemitic statements or touting old failed Communist solutions for NYC’s woes !!! Replacing Gristede’s Market with the empty shelves of a state run grocery (see Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, North Korea for experienced checkout and deli clerks) seems looney to me. And worse yet, she said my human was the victim of “repeated Republican lies passed along by their captive media’. Doesn’t she read? Think?

How about the knee ‘jerk’, Sen. Schumer, on the Senate Floor no less, calling for an investigation of ‘how the National Weather Service was undermanned by DOGE’s action and thus ill equipped for the Kerrville, Texas flood’. Unhappily for him, the facts came out ( the same day) that they were intentionally overstaffed for the emergency!!! Why not await the facts before bloviating? All the pups in my kennel know, he’s just trying to appear relevant in a pack of dogs that is fighting among themselves to pick a leader. The smart hounds won’t choose a mutt that soils his/her crate! Some guys, have exceeded their sell by date. Too bad they insist on demonstrating that every day.

US Department of Transportation. One of my favorites this week is the report that the Trump Admin, after only six months, is well on its way to correct the communication problems at Newark Airport which apparently have been a major cause of the flight delays and cancellations. Didn’t we hear Mayor Pete lament these conditions for four years of the Biden fiasco?

Lie, Blame, Lament, Deflect. vs. Confront, Address, Solve and Move On. If called upon to choose which style of leader I’d prefer, it seems like an easy choice. I’d howl in favor of action {but, I must admit that sleeping most of the day is not so bad- right Joe?}.

Computers. Mine is always on the fritz! Some say it’s my dew claws that cause my problems but I prefer to blame the tech companies. Why is Microsoft always challenging me to remember my password? Why don’t MS and Apple or for that matter all of them, give you more time to get the codes they texted you off your phone so you can enter them on the computer to reset everything important to them? And, what do some of these terms mean anyway? More on my tech woes another time.

Well, I’ll see you again. Did I mention I’ve been put on a diet by my humans? More on that also.

amhlaigbh

JOE DOG’S THOUGHTS ON HISTORY:

History – your own, your faith’s, your Country’s, the world’s, science, really just about everything (even the most menial) – is important, right? Why? I think it’s because it gives us a sense of self, of place and of connection with what led up to you in the present. History provides a foundation for who we are and how we live and even how we ought to live.

If we can agree that history is important in our development, why are we so lax when it comes to what actually is considered history?

Well, perhaps it’s because we’ve gotten away from the historical facts themselves and have somehow substituted what we think the facts probably were/are or otherwise have embellished them because of the ‘context’ of the times or the events surrounding the actual facts. I BLAME THE ENLIGHTENMENT for this ‘contextual history’. {Right now, you’re thinking, “What gives this old hound a platform to question such a monumental change in the course of Western thought?”}

Don’t get me wrong, I fully recognize and agree that the Enlightenment was perhaps a divine gift to humankind. In so many aspects of life, the Enlightenment was a defining and positive change in human development. For all the wonderful things brought to us by the Enlightenment’s opening of our thinking and approach to governance and political thought, art, music, literature, medicine, religion, etc. etc,. etc., it also brought the notion that is was legitimate to question long held ‘common’ wisdom and patterns of thought. That is in itself is a good thing. However, in respect of history, many modern thinkers have recast the facts to suit their more current interpretations of our past.

Rather than belabor the Enlightenment, I’d like to growl at how perhaps a contextual overworking of historical events, norms and beliefs can actually erode the basic truths that gave rise to the belief, event, etc. I know that there can be a good faith examination of the past but I am looking at another motivation.

Of particular concern to me is the 24 hour news cycle’s ( particularly cable news) ability to manufacture its own particular version of truth by using a “news alert” or the embellishment of a report by a host on cable TV in the early AM show. Then they repeat it throughout the day as if it was THE FACT(s). And, cement it in viewers’ minds by bringing in other commentators from their stable of flacks to discuss and validate the statement/report by the very fact that it is a serious topic to examine until, lo and behold, at the late evening broadcast, this report is locked in the viewers’ collective mind as “truth”.

Sure, sometime it is accurate. All too often, our experience in the last 20+ years shows it is later found to be made up or twisted to fit the bias or preferred narrative of the particular news reporter or media organization. Clearly, there are professional reporters and ‘honest’ news organizations that would prefer to cease to exist than to engage in this behavior – but wouldn’t you agree they seem few and far between these days?

So, a dishonest politician makes an outrageous claim about another and it is reported as factual by news organizations so often and evaluated so thoroughly as if it is factual by panels of “captive experts” that, before you know it, the report becomes the norm. Does that mean it is ‘history”? To be looked at in the future for an understanding of how our society functioned at the time the event/other supposedly occurred?

Add to this the fact (I believe, indisputable) that our schools have all but given up teaching students how to analyze such things. Tell me that you believe that exercises in critical thinking and/or an emphasis on the importance of getting to the “bottom” of some matter(other than science) is on the curriculum of our high schools and colleges ( already too late for my money), and I’ll sell you my old kennel ! Which BTW is under a bridge!

So, now we have generations of cell phone babies lapping up the kibble put in front of them by unprofessional and inadequate, if not unscrupulous, (but intentionally designed as very compelling) media and you have a grossly uninformed and betrayed populace which expects very little else because they don’t know what ‘else’ could exist.

Without getting too politically oriented, I think the several ‘grossest” examples of this over the last 2 decades are: Al Sharpton – in just about everything since 1987; Hillary Clinton and Alan Schiff’s Russia Gate and the Biden Administration’s lies about Joe’s fitness to serve as President or Kamala’s as a serious candidate for President. The USA has been treated to the ‘poop’ these people have left on our lawns for far too long. Of the three, I am most unhappy about Hillary because I had believed she was smarter than she has demonstrated and could actually have done some lasting good things for us. But, disappointment in our political class seems too often the result of an uniformed populace. {A classic case of chasing one’s tail around and around.} For the other two, I harbored no illusions about their ability to get it right. It’s not one sided, I well recall that GW Bush saw ‘weapons of mass destruction’ hidden throughout Iraq and sent thousands of young men and women to find them. Thereby, thoroughly complicating a Mid-East already a mess.

There are some positive signs that Americans are waking up to the ‘pandemic’ of a national loss of basic honesty, the poor service rendered by our Press and Media and the failure of our schools to really educate our children to critically observe and to reason. Other Western nations suffer the same malaise. But, getting our act together requires that we recognize and publish the truth of our situation and take affirmative steps to correct our contrary behaviors. Paraphrasing a trainer I once had: “We also need to call out and reward integrity and punish falsity.” I’m gnawing on how I can personally help this process.

Otherwise, what is said in the future about our times might have little relation to the actual factual history.

amhlaigbh

JOEDOG’S THOUGHTS ON : WHAT HAPPENED TO HONESTY?

As a puppy, I recall repeated lessons on the importance of always being honest. If you weren’t honest and fair in your dealings, didn’t tell the truth (okay, sometimes you ‘shaved’ a bit!), didn’t honor your given word, you were not a serious or reliable person. You could not be trusted and should expect to be ostracized. YOU WERE NOT HONORABLE.

Our human interaction and society itself has essentially been built on the ability (nee necessity) of one person to rely on and trust another. We see its importance in both Old and New Testaments or the histories of the lying scoundrels populating our past. In all those, it wasn’t good to be a liar. You may get rewarded for a time but you would get your just deserts in the end, in this life or the next..

Our schools used to teach honesty as a fundamental attribute of life. Our families used to pride it and scorn those without it. Our institutions used to require it as a basic requirement to deal with them. Heck, even our currently wobbly legal system still swears people in before they testify and punishes those who lie to law enforcement and courts.

For years, I told clients that you could have a 100 page contract with someone but, if the person or enterprise was not honorable, you really only had a roadmap for litigation. A deal is really made between people who trust each other and the mutual outcome.

Okay, I know tomes are written on being honest with self, with others, even how honesty is relative! I am not going there. I pose a more simple ( maybe not ) question.

So, why in 2025 does it appear that honesty is no longer an essential personal characteristic or, as we used to say, a virtue?

Last evening I had dinner with a dear friend. He shocked me by saying that ” honesty in no longer relevant in our society”. Can that be true? if so, whither we goest?? When I objected, he said: “the current environment doesn’t really prize honesty. It thinks that competition or success is the gold standard and honesty often gets in the way of achieving those goals.” When asked what caused this. He demurred but offered “the influence of our pervasive sports and entertainment role models as well as the over emphasis on beating the competition have brought down personal qualities of loyalty and good behavior as models to follow.”

Before you say I’m off my kibble, please consider the corrosive effect of the last 50 + years for some support for my concern. Without belaboring it: our TV watching preferences have migrated to violence, betrayal, antisocial behavior and lawbreaking. Our news, fueled by Cable’s need to fill 24 hours has devolved into one big mess of unprofessional, false news reporting and sensationalism rather than dispassionate journalism that encourage the viewers’ independent thought. Sure in the old days, newspapers corruptly sided with one view /person over another, practiced Yellow Journalism, even started wars. but for the most part they took a long time to spread the ‘word’ and surely did not command the ear, eye and ‘brain’ as the 24 hour TV news cycle does.

Do we care that lying is pervasive? Have you tossed your hands in the air in despair for future generations as my friend fears? Are our leaders and thought influencers educating our kids in the wrong direction by their example as well as their words? Prominent people paying to falsify their kids’ credentials for admission to preferred schools. Government leaders stealing official papers they have no right to possess and hiding them in a garage or a mansion basement. Body counts that have no more meaning now in Gaza than in Vietnam 50 years ago. Elected leaders from both parties lying through their teeth to get elected (Santos) or to command TV time (Schiff:”I’ve got clear evidence of Russian collusion”), etc.,etc.,etc. For the latter: one punished one rewarded!!!

Would you hire a known liar to care for your infant? Would you willingly give cash to someone whom you know is going to do evil with it, because they just lied about the purpose for asking? Would you have a surgeon operate on you whom you know has lied about his track record or expertise?

If Honesty is on a steep decline, what can we do about it? I try to think about my kennel play group. You know, one to one. On a one to one basis, we can “do better”. But do we have the time to wait for all these one to ones to comprise the vast majority of interactions? I don’t believe so.

So, how about a more basic universal moral movement to reintroduce honor and honesty into our national discourse. Don’t reward liars by reelection. Critically evaluate the Press that befuddles if not alters the news instead of simply reporting it. Here, I pause to recognize again that the US has always had a history ( see the Hamilton Burr or Burr -Jefferson press wars , the lead up to the Mexican or Spanish American Wars or, most recently, the non-reporting of the universally ( except by the White House press who saw him every day in person) observed Biden decline.

The significant difference in the olden times and now is that back then ( 50+ years ago) we enjoyed a right to a freer expression of dissent. Today, oftentimes criticism of reported mistruths is viewed as extremism by whatever side and our courts and institutions knee-jerk a response to restrain what is viewed as inflammatory hateful discussion. Today, simple disagreement can become violent as if it were a hooligan traipsing from stadium to stadium after its favorite soccer team.

I’m sure I don’t have either a complete answer or any clear roadmap to one. But, I genuinely believe that if we personally recognize and promote the honorable among us and set aside the dishonorable we are on the right (read correct) foot. Also, if our churches and schools loudly proclaim that they are reemphasizing basic teachings of morality in one’s personal conduct we might get a few steps further along the road. In this, I was encouraged a few years ago by reports that some notable business schools were bringing ethics into their normal course load. While a welcome start, it focuses on adjusting the grown dog’s behavior. Start younger – when we puppies are more trainable.

I’d be grateful for your thoughts? do you agree? if not Why? Ideas for improving our situation? maybe one will catch on more globally.

Next time!!!

amhlaigbh

JOEDOG SHARES HIS THOUGHTS

It’s been quite a while since JoeDog has passed along his views on subjects that pique his interest. Much has gone over the dam since my last note and I’m brimming with thoughts.

It’s probably a good idea to remind you that JoeDog’s name was given him by his Uncle Danny more that 25 years ago and has no relationship to the well known Pubs of that name in Canada and elsewhere, though JoeDog hopes someday to visit them and mooch a beer or two.

Today’s note is: Finally Grasping the Importance of Continuity in Life.

I don’t know why it takes some of us so long to realize that connections to our past – people, places, faith, even inanimate objects- are critical to our growth and well being through life. Experts tell us that these are the buildings block of our character, but what few mention is that these connections, if nurtured and even loosely maintained, ground us in times of stress and can even help guide us in periods of challenge.

As I’ve aged and the years have flown by since I left the kennel, I have come to realize that oft-times in my past I have abruptly altered my course – left family and friends in my rear view, forgotten many happy circumstances of my life and, neglected to dig deep into the reservoir of faith and family lore that provided past generations with the courage and fiber to carry through to the benefit of all around me.

Before you run for the hills, this is not some maudlin recasting of a life but rather a paen to the gifts of opportunity to self reflect and the time to do better. Recall that St. Francis is famous for saying ( I paraphrase), “while you have time do good”. I may be pretty old and certainly not all that healthy but I am awake and energized and grateful for the window I have.

In this space, I might offer my views on many topics – current events, politics, religion, family relations, etc., etc. In each instance, these subjects have hit a nerve and I hope to illuminate the topic even a bit with my thoughts. After all, my father once said: ” How will people know what you are thinking, if you don’t tell them? ( I promise to be a bit judicious in that.)

Here’s just a few thoughts that prompts me to do this:

I recently had a dream that someone who had been very close to me and significantly impacted my life had died. I checked it out online and learned that indeed it was so ( how crazy was that dream?). I also realized that we had unfinished business that was troubling me. So, after careful thought and helpful input from others, I decided that I was not going to let the host of past friends and family disappear from my life without an effort to reconnect. For sometime now I have been doing just that- even reaching back over 50 years. So far, every successful reconnection has been positive, rewarding and reinvigorating. Of course, it’s not only my fault that the connection had been broken over this long time – we each pursued careers, families, moved away ( some time often ) and made new contacts. But, so what?

I live in DC and Florida. Both places have lot’s of bamboo. Every time I see bamboo, I think of the many Summer mornings I rose at 5 AM to be fishing on the dock with my younger brother by 6AM. We rode our bikes to the West Sayville pier balancing our bamboo snapper poles and a metal bucket with enough coins to buy bait. One day, my brother kicked the pail so that the crabs we had caught spilled out all over Montauk Hwy. at rush hour, stopping traffic while we scrambled to put them back in the bucket! My mother found out when the local grocer told her ” your sons stopped traffic yesterday”. Could that be a more fun and happy memory of a simpler time and place? I’m still pondering the lesson in that, (Maybe, good balance?).

I expect to draw on my reacquired “wisdom” and experience to offer some comments on our shared current state of affairs and, of course, my own.

Hope we can share soon. JD