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Glenn Gould and me

If you look up the word “eccentric” in the dictionary, you’ll see an image of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. Not just because he performed sitting on a sawed-off chair with his eyes nearly level with the keyboard and with a flat-fingered style. Not just because, like Keith Jarrett, he would sometimes vocalize while playing. No, it was mainly because of his iconoclastic interpretations. I have his notorious 1956 recording of the Goldberg Variations. I’m not sufficiently versed in Bach performance style to critique the recording, but it has certainly elicited strong reactions among the Bach performance critics. I also have Keith Jarrett’s harpsichord recording. I like them both for different reasons. I’ve owned an LP recording of Book 1 by Anthony Newman and Book 2 by Wanda Landowska. Both are harpsichord performances. Of the two recordings, the Landowska is by far the most eccentric—not only because of her decidedly romantic stylings, but because it’s performed on a Pleyel instrument...
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Another ICE murder in Minneapolis

ICE murdered an ICU nurse in cold blood. I would love to see ICE completely defunded and disbanded. Do we need immigration and customs enforcement? Sure. But this program isn’t doing that. It’s simply being used by the Trump Administration as a provocation to justify martial law. At the end of January 2026, the only lever of power Democrats have against the lawless Trump administration is the budget. But even if it were possible to line item veto the ICE budget, it would make no difference. “ Top Democratic appropriators who will support the package argue that a shutdown triggered by opposition to ICE would not actually stop ICE operations, but would instead hurt other agencies and programs funded under the DHS bill, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Disaster Relief Fund, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and more.   “ICE received $75 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In the event of a lapse in funding, ICE w...
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The cat rescue myth and vaccines

My dad, an MIT-trained chemical engineer, was a practical man. He was scornful of efforts to rescue cats out of trees. His response was: “Look around; how many cat skeletons do you see in trees.” Setting aside the merits of the cat rescue argument, the larger point is to use critical thinking to assess whether ambient reality justifies your fears. In the case of vaccine safety conspiracy theories—vaccines kill or cause RFK Jr voice—the fact is that billions of humans all over the planet have been vaccinated. So where are the bodies? How come everybody I meet—including me—doesn’t have the creaky RFK Jr voice? Look, vaccines ± thimerosal and ± aluminum adjuvants have been given to billions of humans by now. Hundreds of millions of pregnant women have taken acetaminophen during pregnancy. If these things cause autism, everybody you know, including you, would be autistic. Can I “prove” that vaccines *can’t* cause autism or JFK Jr voice? No, I can’t. But that’s the wrong question.  (a) ...
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RFK Jr’s weird voice

RFK Jr sounds weird. I don’t mean his ideas about vaccines and contagious disease. I mean that when he vocalizes, it sounds . . . creaky. RFK Jr has a condition called “spasmodic dysphonia.” It’s known to have a genetic component. But this is RFK Jr, so of course he blames vaccines. “In an interview with the outlet, Kennedy said he took annual flu shots until the mid-1990s, then stopped in 2005 "when I began looking at the side effects."   "I was preparing litigation against some of the flu shots several years ago and one of the entries that was listed on a lot of them was spasmodic dysphonia, which is an injury I have to my voice. That's why my voice is so screwed up," Kennedy said.   "That turns out to be a vaccine injury," he continued. "Do I know it was caused by the annual flu shot? I have no idea."   “When pressed by the interviewer, who asked if he suspected it was caused by the vaccine, he said it's "a possibility."   ...
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About social security

I still see folks claiming that Congress “stole” Social Security, that SS is a Ponzi scheme and that SS is bankrupt or will be soon. All myths. Here are some core truths about SS that everyone needs to know. • SS is separate from the general fund. SS doesn’t affect the federal deficit or national debt. Those who claim we must cut SS in order to balance the budget are lying; • By law, unexpended SS taxes must be invested in US treasuries. That means that, just like your passbook savings account, the money isn’t sitting around in a box, nor has it been “stolen.” Treasuries are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government;   • There is no account with your SS payments in it, like your savings account or your 401k. Your SS payments were/are being used to pay the benefits of current retirees. Future taxpayers will pay for your retirement. Thus has it ever been;   • Your SS benefit is calculated based on the top 35 earning years. If you haven’t paid in for 35 years by th...
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Grifting for Gaza

If you want to understand Donald Trump, follow the money. That includes foreign policy. Kidnap the president of Venezuela for the oil. Take over Greenland for the minerals. And Gaza? Certainly not for the Palestinians or Israel. “Countries on   Donald Trump ’s “Board of Peace” for   Gaza   will be asked to contribute $1 billion in order to keep their membership for more than 3 years, according to reports.     "Each Member State shall serve a term of no more than three years from this Charter’s entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman," a draft document first reported by   Bloomberg News   shows.   “It adds that the three-year term “shall not apply to Member States that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter.” Where does this billion dollars/country go?   “ The draft also reportedly suggests that Trump would control the money himself.” So it’s not about peace...
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Action/reaction

In an effort to extort Greenland from Denmark, Trump has ordered a 10% tariff on goods from EU nations that have opposed the US expropriation effort beginning in February. He has threatened to raise that to 25% if they don’t capitulate. A couple of points: • The tariffs are mostly a nothingburger for EU economies: “ At face value, a 10% tariff rising to 25% would have minimal economic consequences, Capital Economics chief economist Neil Shearing said in a note Sunday, estimating they would reduce GDP in the targeted NATO economies by 0.1-0.3 percentage points and add 0.1-0.2 points to U.S. inflation.” • Europe owns a lot of treasuries, which helps keep America’s debt service low. “European countries own $8 trillion of US bonds and equities, almost twice as much as the rest of the world combined,” Saravelos pointed out. “In an environment where the geoeconomic stability of the western alliance is being disrupted existentially, it is not clear why Europeans would be as willing to play th...
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