jEFFSTANA on May 2nd, 2009

Rather than closing entire elementary schools (as recently dictated in several locations in the Phoenix metropolitan area), over a very few confirmed cases of a successively mild form of flu; we might have turned to informed disease specialists. Instead, our mass media sold panic to the bored denizens of TV land. If the notion had […]

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jEFFSTANA on August 8th, 2008

On August 4th of this year, Personal Investment Reporter — Russell Wiles of the Arizona Republic filed a page one story about the viability of Social Security. Wiles spoke concerning “long-term financial dangers”, and referenced a recent report by the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees (SSMBT). So far so good, that is what […]

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jEFFSTANA on July 1st, 2008

In practice it works something like this… somewhere known falsehoods sprout up as if out of nowhere (perhaps it is said, Barack Obama is a radical Muslim or, the Earth is flat, as examples). It necessarily follows that once one meticulously researches these claims, such bold given statements are demonstrably shown to be largely, if […]

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jEFFSTANA on November 23rd, 2007

There’s something insidious about email from an anonymous source which cajoles a course of action, uninvited — that is bad enough, but when the pitch is passed innocuously by family or friend, the treachery carves even deeper. Specifically, over the Thanksgiving break the following message arrived from a friendly source: What a simple way to […]

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jEFFSTANA on August 26th, 2007

The below included essay was received as email and is a very good read as far as it goes. It is important to understand the implications for our democracy, when authoritarian belief systems are tolerated or ignored. Fanaticism is a mental negligence — a ceding of rational thought and strategy to raw emotional belief. Whether […]

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