The Faustian Bargain of Modern Attention

The title sounds dramatic, but the invasion was anything but. It came through convenience, safety, and the ordinary little arguments that no sensible person wanted to oppose.

The Bargain Looked Harmless

At first, the bargain seemed harmless. Who would object to carrying a phone in a pocket? It promised convenience, safety, speed, and connection. We could reach our loved ones anywhere. We’d never miss an important call. In an emergency, help would be only a tap away. It sounded less like technology and more like protection. That was the sales pitch, and most of it was true.

And to be fair, much of the promise was real. A child could call from the roadside. A parent could be reached from the hospital. A traveler could find a route through an unfamiliar city. No reasonable person wants to return to helplessness just for nostalgia’s sake. The problem is that the device did not stay in its lane. It moved from an emergency tool to an everyday companion, from the glove compartment to the kitchen table, from the nightstand to the hand, until the servant began claiming every idle moment. Continue reading →

Power rarely announces itself as domination; more often, it appears as procedure, opportunity, expertise, influence, or common sense.

For that reason, its true cost is difficult to measure until citizens begin to recognize that the choices available to them have been shaped before they ever enter the debate. What costs does American society incur when power becomes concentrated more rapidly than democratic accountability can constrain it?

This question is significant because power does not merely influence policy outcomes; it also determines whose perspectives are amplified, whose needs receive institutional attention, whose risks are minimized, and whose interpretation of reality gains public authority. The central issue, therefore, is not whether power exists in the United States, but whether citizens retain sufficient capacity to hold it meaningfully accountable. Continue reading →

It began the way these things often do: with my morning coffee steaming beside me, the first bitter sip still on my tongue, the news still turning over in my mind, and one ordinary click. I was looking for information on drug interactions and their possible link to cognitive decline – a subject personal enough to make me sit up a little straighter and pay closer attention.

The first video looked calm and reasonable. The speaker sounded confident. There were no flashing lights or an obvious sales pitch, just enough concern to keep me listening. So I clicked another. Then another… Continue reading →

America Isn’t Just ANGRY Anymore…

It’s suspicious of itself!

That’s how 53% of American adults describe the morality and ethics of their fellow citizens: bad, according to a global Pew Research Center survey reported by the Detroit News. Let that sit for a second. More than half of us don’t just think the country is off track. We think the people around us are.

That should bother us. Political disagreement is one thing. Moral suspicion is another. When Americans stop believing their neighbors can be wrong in good faith, every argument starts to look like proof of corruption, ignorance, hatred, or treason.

You can see it everywhere now: yard signs, bumper stickers, school board meetings, court rulings, elections, and dinner tables. Politics doesn’t just shape what people think anymore. It shapes who they trust, who they avoid, and who they assume is dangerous.

That’s where the Constitution comes in…

Continue reading →

NOTE: The Federal Observer published the first 5 entries to this series in late June of 2021. As of July, 2021, the author had completed the series and Part Six – And the winner is??? has now been added at the bottom of this post. ~ Ed.

Part I – The Big Question

Is this all real, is there a problem or is what we see manufactured by the people who profit from the chaos they create? Both sides of this conflict – yes, it is a conflict – claim the other side is wholly to blame.

So stop for a moment and think. Ask yourself – who really wins in this situation? It certainly isn’t the people involved in this violence or hatred or conflict, and it certainly isn’t the citizens of this country. Continue reading →

For the past several years, probably more than I care to admit, decisions have been made that affect nearly all of us. I’m referring to the Portable Altar of Enlightenment: the modern smartphone, or cellphone, as many people call it. I prefer the moniker I’ve coined, PAE.

This ubiquitous personal appendage is in nearly every hand, from age 8 to 80 and beyond, across the country. The latest count puts the number of wireless subscriptions at over 331 million, and because many people own more than one connected device, the total number of phones and related units exceeds 380 million.

The PAE is the quintessential communication device. It provides instantaneous, bidirectional information transfer across the globe. There are precious few places on this planet these devices cannot reach; where they cannot, the satellite phone – Sat Phone, if you prefer – can still find us.

So as we watch, we are also being watched. But that is not entirely my point. Continue reading →

For the past few weeks, I’ve been buried in a personal project, and the deeper I went, the more I kept running into the same disturbing pattern in American life: the steady normalization of socialist ideas under softer, friendlier names. ~ C.R. Dickens

I’m talking about the creeping stranglehold of socialist ideology in this country – not merely as a slogan, a campus argument, or some far-off theory, but as a practical effort to make ordinary people more dependent on centralized power.

What I found is not just another political disagreement. It is a pattern: movements that promise fairness often begin by asking for trust and end by demanding control. When government institutions gain authority over healthcare, housing, education, wages, and information, they do not merely influence private life; they begin to define the terms on which ordinary people are allowed to live it. Continue reading →

Every promise has a price. Every political bargain sends someone the bill. The question is not whether America should help those in need; it is whether Americans understand what they may be asked to surrender once the word “free” enters the room.

As this republic approaches its 250th anniversary, I want to celebrate it by asking an uncomfortable question:

Why is America flirting with socialism without first understanding the bill that comes due? Yes, I am addressing socialism in America; the question was only when. I recently wrote about people who make bold claims but do not follow through when the cost arrives. That phrase belongs in this debate because socialism is often sold with confidence, wrapped in compassion, and paid for later by people who were never told the full price. Continue reading →

“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.” ~ Mark Twain

Self Denial by Richard Cook

Denial is the mind’s way of refusing an uncomfortable reality in order to avoid anxiety, pain, or overwhelm. It can soften the blow in the short term, but over time it stalls growth, blocks necessary action, and deepens the very trouble it tries to keep at bay.

This article has been percolating for a while. This morning, it boiled over…. Continue reading →

Companion Article for The Business of Cancer Care: What Survival Costs in America’s Cancer Economy and why the patient still comes last

As I was writing the column listed above, another question kept surfacing: If AI can synthesize enormous volumes of information, what kind of healthcare system would it recommend for the United States?

AI is not a person, a conscience, or a substitute for judgment. It is a tool trained on vast amounts of public and licensed material, and its usefulness depends on how it is built, what data it can access, and the assumptions embedded in its design. Even so, it can be useful for framing difficult policy questions.

So I asked a simple question: What would be the best alternative healthcare solution for the United States?  Continue reading →

                                        Cancer a Metabolic Disease – Not Just a Genetic One

My brother-in-law asked me a question I have not been able to forget: would you pay $100,000 for another 10 minutes of life?

The question came from his neighbor, who has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. My brother-in-law is also a cancer patient. So far, the disease has cost him a kidney and possibly part of his liver, but he is still alive. Several people in my circle are living with cancer.

Their experiences point to a question medicine alone cannot answer: “When survival depends on treatment, when does care become business?“ Continue reading →

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” ~ Charles Dickens – opening paragraph from A Tale of Two Cities (1859) ~ Link to the book [Link]

A Tale of Two Cities, First-Edition, Rare (Estimated value $8,800.00)

A ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ is set during the French Revolution and explores its impact on ordinary people’s lives in London and Paris. At its core, it is a story of love, revenge, and ultimate self-sacrifice during one of history’s bloodiest eras. Written by legendary English author Charles Dickens and published in 1859, it is widely celebrated as one of the most famous and best-selling novels of all time.

It’s really interesting to read the opening paragraph with America in mind, rather than England and France, and to consider the impact of the two-party system’s intense political and social polarization on America. I find little love or self-sacrifice in Merka, yet the parallels are striking, almost as though Dickens saw our future; his novel was fictional and almost prophetic. And, oh, by the way, there was a lot going on in America at that time.

The opening paragraph of the book highlights the stark contradictions and social inequality of the late 18th century. Dickens uses opposites to show that the period leading up to the French Revolution was marked by conflict, passion, and uncertainty. It conveys the extreme polarization of opposing forces, with no middle ground amid near-total chaos.

Now, consider the parallel with modern America. Continue reading →

Technology was supposed to make life easier. Instead, it has made life faster, louder, more dependent, and, too often, more exhausting.

This may sound like another article about AI, but it is really about something older and larger. AI is simply the newest layer in a familiar story: each generation is promised that technology will simplify life, save time, and reduce friction. Lived experience often tells a different tale.

The title is deliberate. Convenience was the promise that accompanied modern technology: less effort, less delay, less friction. Yet what was presented as liberation has too often become the opposite – a system that consumes time, thins patience, and insinuates itself into nearly every corner of ordinary life. Continue reading →

Or… more than you ever wanted to know about computer networks, though you were smart enough not to ask.

Sometimes life plants the seed of an idea that takes time to germinate. This one took a few years to take root. What began as a personal frustration with government paperwork led me to a broader question: why, in an age of nearly instantaneous information retrieval, must citizens still repeat the same information across multiple agencies and systems? Continue reading →

“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

The title should make it clear what’s on my mind today. As for my soul, that’s a topic for another day…

Let’s jump right into this content without delay. There’s a lot to cover, and I won’t waste time on pleasantries.

As William Shakespeare wrote in Henry the 5th, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our American dead.” Continue reading →

Enemies Really Do Serve a Crucial Purpose… but there are also significant problems.

First, let’s agree on the definition of ‘enemy’.

An enemy is an individual, group, or nation that actively opposes, hates, or seeks to harm, injure, or overthrow another, or that seeks to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent. It denotes a state of profound hostility, threats, or conflicts, ranging from personal adversaries to opposing military forces in war. Common synonyms include foe, adversary, antagonist, opponent, and rival. An enemy intends to cause harm, unlike accidental hindrance, and usually involves strong emotions such as hatred, fear, or jealousy.

We hate enemies because our brains are hardwired with ancient survival mechanisms that protect our “tribe” from perceived threats.

Continue reading →

Words and actions have prodigious corollaries…

My subtitle highlights the immense and far-reaching consequences of what we say and do. It suggests that even small gestures or brief comments can trigger a massive “ripple effect” of logical or incidental outcomes. These outcomes can be far larger than their initial causes; careful consideration of both speech and behavior is essential to creating positive change.

Groucho Marx famously described politics as “the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies“. Julius – Groucho’s real name – was a self-described liberal Democrat who supported left-wing causes in the 1930s. He often mocked authority, politicians, and political institutions with cynical, witty humor, famously claiming he wouldn’t belong to any club that would accept him as a member. Continue reading →

The actual title of this piece is Freedumb. Be patient… you’ll understand.

I marvel at what this country is and what it’s become, frequently wondering out loud and, more often, in writing, my favorite way to think. It’s enlightening that I can begin with an idea, and in the process of explaining it, it becomes whole in my mind. I find that by giving my thoughts form, they coalesce, gaining substance… I always discover more than I choose to share, mostly personal things you don’t need to know and will never understand.

I consider myself a very lucky man. I have a loving wife/partner and a comfortable home. It is the freedom America offers that brought us to where my wife and I are today. For us, that freedom is opportunity. It’s the liberty to make choices and decisions that allow us to follow our chosen paths, and that’s given us everything we have, including each other, and although we don’t always agree, we honor that freedom and the country that provides it.

Our life together hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t grown any easier over time, except that we’re learning to make better choices. That’s part of the opportunity I mentioned. We’re free to decide what’s best for us. We can choose our own paths as partners and as Americans. That’s real Freedom.

Freedumb in Merka 

Continue reading →

This Isn’t What the Govern Meant…

I’ve been watching this dumpster fire for as long as I can remember, and I hit the end of my tether today.

I was sipping my morning coffee while perusing the news feeds, and reading a few posts on various sites, when it struck me… All We Ever Do Is BITCH about things – me included. I have offered some suggestions from time to time, but all the bullshit I’ve encountered in the past several years has been hyper-critical bitching and no… not one suggestion on how to resolve or fix any problem. These are superficial gripes and even some really detailed harangues, but not one single suggestion on what to do… Only bitching!

You know, you’re right… You do have the right to complain about anything and everything. That is your right. But I have the right to ignore your incessant bitching. This leads me to how I respond to your constant complaints. I’m going to recommend reading Aesop’s fable ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf.’ Continue reading →

“No one is above the law” is a fundamental democratic principle called the rule of law. It states that everyone, regardless of wealth, power, or status – including presidents and public officials – must be treated equally under the law and be held accountable for their actions. This principle ensures that no one is immune from legal consequences and helps prevent abuses of power.

“No one is above the law” means that every individual, regardless of status, wealth, or power – including government leaders like presidents – is equally subject to the law and must follow it. It highlights that no one can act without consequences or receive special treatment, promoting accountability and equality in a democratic society.

The U.S. Constitution doesn’t explicitly say ‘no one is above the law,’ but it expresses this idea through the rule of law, particularly through the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Supremacy Clause. These parts of the Constitution require that everyone, including government officials, be held responsible under the law. Continue reading →