Author Archives: JohnM

About JohnM

Academy Founder

Foreign Policy

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     Principles           Facts                               Solution

 

 

Side A

 

 

  

If you have the power to stop bad things, you have a duty to do so.

 

  

The defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan would not have happened without US intervention.

 

  

Intervene with decisive first at an early stage to prevent horrific consequences down the line.
 

Side B

 

  

War is hell and must be avoided at all costs.

 

  

Vietnam was a terrible mistake and the 2003 Iraqi intervention a total disaster.

 

  

Stick to multi-lateral, diplomatic solutions to world crises.
 

 

Side C

 

 

  

The right thing to do at any time and place depends on getting the details right.

 

  

The lessons of Munich and of Vietnam are both true.

  

No one size fits all solution.

 

 

Israel-Palestine

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           PRINCIPLE                                 FACT                                         SOLUTION

 

Imperialism is bad and Palestine belongs to Palestinians.

 

 

  

Israel is the creation of imperialist powers –

Britain and the United States after World War II. Secretary of State Marshall was right and President Truman was wrong.

 

  

The annihilation of Israel.

 

 

The clear message of Ali Khamenei.

 

 
 

Israel is the homeland of the Jews who have a right to self-defense.

 

  

If any people on the earth have the documented right to any specific land, it is the Jews to Israel. Jerusalem is to the Jews as Mecca is to Muslims.

 

  

Give full support to Israel who should not give an inch because are surrounded by tyrannical enemies who seek its annihilation.
 

Both sides are equally

right.

 

 

 Both sides have committed atrocities.  

Split the difference.

Two state solution

One state solution.

Business as usual.

Status quo.

 

 

 

Political Process

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Principle                        Fact                               Solution

Side A  

 

No real democracy without proportional representation.

 

  

First past the post disenfranchises even large minorities and facilitates gerrymandering.

 

 Adopt proportional representation’
Side B  

Money is corrupting politics.

 

 

 

  

The more money you have the more political influence you have.

 

  

Over turn citizens United.

 

 
 

 

Side C

 

 

  

Non-elected officials from the judiciary to the Fed have too much power.

 

If Congressmen don’t read bills, who writes them?

 

 

 

  

The Fed Chairman is the most powerful economic actor in America.

 

One swing voter on the supreme court has the power to overturn legislation backed by the vast majority of the American people.

  

Adopt a rule-based monetary policy.

 

Abolish Life tenure for judges.

 

Make unanimity a requirement for Supreme Court decisions.

 

Gun Control

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Principle                Fact                         Solutions

Side A Public Safety is the first job of government.

Greater the availability of guns,

the easier to kill.

The Second Amendment had to do with militias.

 Thousands of deaths by guns per year.

More than half are suicides.

Many mass murders committed

by children

 Ban all hand guns.

Police too.

 
Side B Self defense is the most basic of human rights.

An armed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

 

 States and countries with high crime rates have strict gun control.

Gun ownership deters criminal aggression.

Gun ownership levels field with criminals and that between men and women.

 Universal gun

ownership and training.
Side C Gun control is a distraction from real issues:

Mental illness,

Family structure,

Poor schools, gangs, zip code safety gap.

 The evidence is mixed. Focus on more important issues.

 

There are so many issues. Which matter most to you? Why?

Country Music: Stuff Worth Remembering

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1.) “ Country music is three chords and the truth” (attributed to Harlan Howard, among others) Lou Reed’s riff: “One chord is fine. Two is pushing it. Three and you’re into jazz.” There’s a list of rich and famous rock stars who never played more than three chords: (too long to be included) What are the standard three chords? I-IV-V (rock and country) Alternatives: I II V, I VI V

2.) What do you get when you play a country song backward?

You get your house back, your wife back, your dog back and your truck back.

3.) David Allan Coe and Stephen Goodman’s application of this compelling recipe:

I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick’er up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck,

She got runned over by a damned ol’ train

YOUR TURN: What’s your favorite country music song?

Tritones and Sub5s sound complicated but they are super cool and super fun.

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I’m in search of the clearest explanation in a paragraph and in a video. Can anybody help?
My best shot: tritone substitution is replacing one chord with another three whole steps
up or down from the original. Example: replacing a G7 chord with a Db7 chord.
Typical context: replacing the V7 chord in the standard II V I sequence in jazz with
the chord three whole steps up or down. This works because both the orignal
chord and the new chord share two critical notes that in both cases resolve by
half steps. For example, the G7 chord consists of G, B, D, F and the Db7
consists of Db, F, Ab, and Cb. But Cb is the same as B. So, two notes in common:
F and B.  In the V to I progression both the F and B resolve down a half step.
Annoyingly technical, but the results are super cool.
YOUR TURN:
Say your favorite song or songs.
Or your favorite tips for breathing, posture, or relaxation.
Or some insight into the history of music….
Or just something random about music… like a joke about drummers,
jazz, rock….or share an episode or chapter
in your musical autobiography.

Art Day: the blind men and the elephant

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The classic story of not seeing the forest for the trees is the story of the “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” Each man touches a different part of the elephant and comes to a different conclusion as to what it is. The man who touches the leg concludes it is a tree. The man who touches an ear concludes it is a fan. The man who touches the tail concludes it is a rope. In the last 100 years specialization has accelerated. Making sense of the world is harder and harder when your teachers are only trained to study a smaller and smaller patch of it. This is only exacerbated when the issue at hand is policy-related. There the quest for truth plays second fiddle to partisan spin.

 

 

Best Fitness Tip Ever: the proper angle of the head

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1) The greatest obstacle to achieving proper posture is that for most humans it does not feel right or natural. When a typical human is told to stand tall, the response usually involves raising rather than lowering the chin. But it is the slight lowering of the chin that maximizes your height.
The chin feels slightly “in” rather than “out.”

2) When the chin is ever so slightly in, the sternum rises and the core muscles are engaged.The constant engagement of the core muscles strengthens them.The proper angle of the head doesn’t only make you look stronger, it makes you stronger. The proper angle of the head not only makes you look taller, it makes you taller.

3) But it is a very slight adjustment. Finding the perfect angle is an art and a science and usually takes quite some time to find it, cultivate it, and maintain it without stiffness. But the results are stunning and clearly visible whenever an Olympic athlete, ballerina, or soldier walks in a room. The angle of their heads is always perfect and always the same. Their careers demand it.

The math of democracies and republics

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1) Democracy: 2 wolves and 1 lamb deciding what to have for dinner.

2) Republic: 200 wolves and 100 lambs voting for 2 wolves and 1 lamb to decide what to have for dinner

3) Constitutional Republic: A Constitution saying you can’t eat lamb but a Supreme Court made up of 5 wolves and 4 lambs deciding that mutton is not lamb.

Source: attribution unknown

Simpson’s Paradox: How statistics can mislead

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What hospital to go to: A or B. Well, hospital A’s patients survive 90% of the time and hospital B’s survive 10% of time. Clearly, hospital A is the right choice. Well, not necessarily. Hospital B’s patients could be a much sicker group to begin with. Should you buy stock in company A or company B. Well, A has higher margin and faster growth, So clearly company A. Well, not necessarily. Company A also has too much debt and its growth is all from acquisitions. Company B’s growth is organic and its balance sheet is debt free. Similarly, is there gender discrimination in at college x. Well, say 60% of women who apply are admitted while 90% of men are. Clearly there is discrimination, right? Not necessarily. Perhaps the women are applying to more competitive departments. It is extraordinarily easy to come to the wrong conclusion based on incomplete data. Demagogues love twisting your emotions with data that sound compelling when critical, granular data is omitted.