8.25.2026 – who wants to get rich

who wants to get rich
falls into a trap of
ruin and destruction

Based on the Bible verses found at 1 Timothy Chapter 6, verses 9 and 10 where it says:

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Hey look, I’d like to be rich.

I tell the story often of the actor/director Orson Welles being asked what he would do if someone gave him an ungodly amount of money.

Give it all away,” Welles responded immediately in a loud, defiant voice.

There was a pause and in a lesser, quieter voice, Welles said, “… my actions would probably be different if someone actually gave me an ungodly amount of money.”

In the story of Fiddler on the Roof, our hero Tevye asks, “Would it spoil some vast eternal plan?

I think about that man in currently in office and his answer seems to be that, him being rich, IS the vast eternal plan.

I think about those folks who support that man currently in office and there answer seems to be that him, that man in office, being rich, IS the vast eternal plan.

And, if he can that rich, so can I and the longer he can work an increasing his wealth and what ever the steps are he needs to increase his wealth is okay by them as well as okay for them to work at increasing their wealth as well.

The effort to increase their wealth can be wrapped in all sorts of wrappers depending on current events.

They canwrap in a religous wrapper.

They can wrap in a patriotic wrapper.

Than can remove the wrapper and call it a money grab for all they care and for all anyone seems to be able to do anything about it.

But understand.

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Just before these verses is Verse 7.

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

The Parable of the Rich Fool (1627) by Rembrandt

8.24.2026 – mistrust of reckless

mistrust of reckless
economic governance has
makings of problem

Adapted from the article The treasury bond mess: is this the demise of the US as a safe haven? by Eduardo Porter, a journalist and writer focused on economics and politics, where Mr. Porter writes:

The US is scooping up treasury bonds in an effort to raise their price and push yields down – but it’s not working

The main threat to treasurys status as the paramount store of value in the world, though, comes from within. The supply of treasury bonds has been growing at a fast clip in recent times, to fund a budget deficit that is now hovering at about 6% of GDP. Supply has outpaced demand. These days, US government debt no longer has the top rating from the big credit rating agencies and must offer a higher yield than that of many other affluent nations.

Add in the increasing mistrust of Trump’s reckless economic governance and you have the makings of a problem. In the Trump era, treasury bonds no longer rise as they used to in moments of high risk. When Trump unleashed his volley of tariffs against everybody on “Liberation Day” in April last year, investors dumped treasurys just as they would a lowly emerging market bond.

What do I know about economics?

When I was the Grand Rapids Junior College, I was rudderless and didn’t know where I wanted to end so on the advice of friends I took a lot of ‘Business Math’ classes as it would come in handy somewhere.

Business Math used to be known as accounting – T accounts and double entry stuff and such.

When I transferred to the school in Ann Arbor my advisor looked over my transcript and the term ‘Business Math’ meant nothing to him and he mused out loud, ‘you have a lot of economics credits’ and he wrote on my record that I had satisfied all math and economic class requirements.

It was one of those odd moments in my life where I kept my mouth shut and let my record speak for itself and was spared any further math or econ classes.

For myself, when thinking of econ, I always come back to this passage from Gore Vidal’s novel, Lincoln where Vidal writes:

“I know,” said Lincoln, “that in the matter of the currency, we have, always, too much of it, which means too little of it.

This is highly metaphysical, as my old law partner, Billy Herndon, would say.”

My point is that we allow on the experts to solve these threats … not create them yet Mr. Porter writes:

The main threat to treasurys’ status as the paramount store of value in the world, though, comes from within. The supply of treasury bonds has been growing at a fast clip in recent times, to fund a budget deficit that is now hovering at about 6% of GDP. Supply has outpaced demand. These days, US government debt no longer has the top rating from the big credit rating agencies and must offer a higher yield than that of many other affluent nations.

Like Nato trying to convince Trump to stay or the World Trade Organization working to restore its relevance since the US left, financial leaders don’t yet know quite how to cope with the seemingly inevitable demise of the American safe haven. Indeed, treasurys maintain what is left of their status largely because it has not been easy for foreign countries and businesses to find somewhere else to keep their stash.

But the search is on. Bessent will have to do more than repurchase a few billion worth of treasurys to overcome mistrust in America’s Loony Tunes leader and ensure that there is sufficient demand out there to match the massive supply coming down the pike.

The main threat to treasurys’ status comes from within.

Will have to do more than repurchase a few billion worth of treasurys to overcome mistrust in America’s Loony Tunes leader.

This is highly metaphysical, as Lincoln’s old law partner, Billy Herndon, would say.

On the other hand, no it’s not!

8.23.2026 – have lived in peace with

have lived in peace with
each other century and half
We cherish record

A notable spirit of cooperation has been responsible for major steps in our past progress.

That spirit animates both countries today.

We enjoy between us a larger volume of reciprocal trade than do any other two nations in the world.

Our peoples move freely back and forth across a boundary that has known neither gun nor fortress in over a century.

Our citizen-soldiers have three times fought together in the cause of freedom and today we are as one in our determination to defend our homelands.

We have lived in peace with each other for nearly a century and a half. We cherish this record.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at the Formal Opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, June 26, 1959.

Ike closed his remarks with this:

So may this example be never forgotten by us, and may it never be ignored by others.

For in the reasonable resolution of the acute international problems of our time rests the single hope for world prosperity and happiness in peace, with justice for all.

I had no idea that when I came up with the idea of looking up President Eisenhower said on this occasion that I would find that past paragraph.

So may this example be never forgotten by us.

May it never be ignored by others.

For in the reasonable resolution of the acute international problems of our time rests the single hope for world prosperity and happiness in peace.

With justice for all.

If one makes the effort to check out the Official White House website today, this is what you find in the section under Presidential Proclamations.

Temporary Suspension Of Additional Duties To Offset Canadian Discrimination Against The Commerce Of The United States With Respect To Alcoholic Beverages, Dairy, And Motor Vehicles

I found as a fact that Canada is discriminating against the commerce of the United States through Canada’s motor vehicle tariff scheme; that this discrimination places the commerce of the United States at a disadvantage compared to the commerce of other countries; and that Canada’s imposition is unreasonable, is not equally enforced upon the like articles of every foreign country, and places a burden on the commerce of the United States.

In Proclamation 11046 of July 20, 2026, by The President Of The United States Of America.

I found as a fact that Canada’s imposition is unreasonable.

I found.

I.

For reasons many of my readers might understand that speech of Al Pacino’s in the movie, Scent of a Women, when Pacino’s Colonel Slade passionately defends Charlie.

Pacino’s speech ends with these words:

It’s a valuable future.

Believe me.

Don’t destroy it!

Protect it.

Embrace it.

It’s gonna make ya proud one day, I promise you.

Truly now, be honest.

Deep down, be honest with yourself.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “dark night of the soul where it is always three o’clock in the morning” honest.

No one and I mean no one can read Ike’s word and not feel that what Ike is talking about IS and HAS a valuable future.

Where you are honest you don’t want to destroy it!

You want to protect it.

You want to embrace it.

You know it has made you proud.

You know it’s gonna make you proud again.

I promise you.

And deep down, I feel in my heart, most Americans and I bet, most members of the current administration know this.

They know this example should never forgotten by us, and may it never be ignored by others.

They know that in the reasonable resolution of the acute international problems of our time rests the single hope for world prosperity and happiness in peace.

They know what it means to say with justice for all.

And I promise you this.

Thinking about the current administration.

It will never make us proud some day.

And those folks in the current administration know that too.

8.22.2026 – great wide sea wherein are

great wide sea wherein are
things creeping innumerable
both small and great beasts

Atlantic Sting Ray off Hilton Head Island, photo by Leslie Hoffman (this image has been slightly enhanced by ai)

Today’s haiku is adapted from the Bible verse, “So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. Psalm 104:25 (KJV).

An unusually high number of jellyfish are crowding Delaware’s beaches this summer amid climate change and other environmental factors – keeping some beachgoers out of the ocean and stinging lifeguards as well as bathers.

Beach safety patrols in the state have reported hundreds of daily stings as the jellyfish have increased with intensifying environmental factors, including warmer waters, hot and dry conditions, and water circulation favorable to the invertebrates.

Jellyfish have been spotted in the water and washed ashore across popular beach destinations, including South Bethany Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach and Lewes Beach, and the frequency of stings has alarmed beach lovers.

Nico Caceres, the Rehoboth Beach patrol captain said in an interview: “The jellyfish for the past couple weeks have been very plentiful … The type of stings we’re seeing this summer, we haven’t really seen in past summers.”

Caceres, who has been stung “plenty of times” himself, explained that the effect of stings he has typically seen in past seasons last between 30 and 45 minutes, but that this summer’s stings have caused pain and other symptoms lasting an entire day.

“We have been seeing a lot of smaller children who actually end up vomiting a lot,” Caceres said. Along with many beachgoers, the lifeguards on his team who have also been stung have been avoiding going into the water out of concern about being stung again.

“People think we close the water because no one’s going in, but it’s just because people don’t want to get stung. It’s pretty much a guarantee you’ll get stung if you go,” he said, adding that since the end of July, his team has recorded between 150 and 200 stings a day.

From the article, ‘Its pretty much a guarantee you’ll get stung’: jellyfish keep swimmers out of Delaware beaches, by Maya Yang in Lewes Beach, Delaware in the Guardian, 8/22/2026.

Me NOT practicing the beach shuffle, where you slide your feet and avoid stepping on … things

Sorry to report, not just the beaches in Delaware but the last couple of weeks of calm off shore breezes, blazing hot temps and no storms, the water at Hilton Head is hot, swampy, salty and filled with starfish, jellyfish and other things you would rather not know about.

I have been stung by jellies over the last three weeks and today, the wife and I spotted a large Atlantic Sting ray in the surf and then later in our day at the beach, we got chased out of the waves by another ray coming right for us.

As I ran past my wife to get out of the ocean, she asked why I didn’t try to get her out first.

Told her I thought that the sting ray should have been all the motivation she needed.

8.21.2026 – clearer about sunrise

clearer about sunrise
the sea-bottom lifts itself
towards the surface

The early morning air of the African highlands is of such a tangible coldness and freshness that time after time the same fancy there comes back to you: you are not on earth but in dark deep waters, going ahead along the bottom of the sea.

It is not even certain that you are moving at all, the flows of chilliness against your face may be the deep-sea currents, and your car, like some sluggish electric fish, may be sitting steadily upon the bottom of the Sea, staring in front of her with the glaring eyes of her lamps, and letting the submarine life pass by her.

The stars are so large because they are no real stars but reflections, shimmering upon the surface of the water.

Alongside your path on the sea-bottom, live things, darker than their surroundings, keep on appearing, jumping up and sweeping into the long grass, as crabs and beach-fleas will make their way into the sand.

The light gets clearer, and, about sunrise, the sea-bottom lifts itself towards the surface, a new created island.

Whirls of smells drift quickly past you, fresh rank smells of the olive-bushes, the brine scent of burnt grass, a sudden quelling smell of decay.

From Out of Africa by Karen Blixen (Putnam: London, 1937).

Sunrise over Broad Creek on Hilton Head Island, 8-21-2026