Learning by Trying to Find Love with a Visible Disability

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about my continued single status and how I wish it would come to an end. Maybe it’s that we’re nearing the end of another year. Maybe it’s the arrival of another holiday season I will spend single. Maybe it’s the reality that I simply can’t believe I’m still single. Maybe it’s the truth that I feel like things I have always wanted are slipping away with the passage of time. Maybe it’s the understanding that my life isn’t, in this important way, what I ever imagined having. Maybe it’s the frustration that I’m not sure how my single status will end. Maybe it’s the recognition that my single status may never end. Most likely, it’s all of the above that have resulted in me thinking ore about my single status lately than I have for months.

Personal Updates for November 17, 2019

This post has updates on Ufi, Aunt Barb, and me.

November 16, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

Thoughts on the First Week of Impeachment Hearings

With the first week of public impeachment hearings in the books and three very credible witnesses having testified, it’s time for a few thoughts.

November 15, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

Reviewing Elevator Pitch

Elevator Pitch is another exciting novel from Linwood Barclay. I enjoyed the characters and their complexities. The ending was a surprise. If you like mysteries, Elevator Pitch won’t disappoint.

November 10, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

Reviewing Presumed Innocent

Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent is an exciting legal fiction that had no trouble keeping my interest.

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It has been years since I read something from Scott Turow. Remembering I liked his work and looking for new fiction, I decided to read Presumed Innocent. Having finished the book, I’m glad I rediscovered Turow’s work.

Prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus was murdered and sexually assaulted. Rozat (Rusty) Sabich, the assistant prosecutor is investigating the murder even though he previously had an affair with Carolyn.

As the story unfolds, there are several interesting twist and turns. Some of the legal situations are also intriguing. What made the story, though, was the surprise ending.

At one point I started thinking I knew who did it, but I couldn’t quite figure out how. By the end, the pieces made sense.

The moral questions raised by the characters actions were not so clear. Rusty Sabich had some good qualities, but I didn’t wind up liking him very much. I don’t need to like the main character to appreciate a book’s value. So, I would recommend Presumed Innocent.

November 10, 2019November 10, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

Reviewing All the Shah’s Men

Stephen Kinzer’s All the Shah’s Men is one of those books far too few Americans have read.. In All The Shah’s Men, Kinzer details how the CIA led a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Iranian government of Mohammad Mosoddegh after his decision to nationalize Iran’s oil industry.

Since many Americans don’t realize the reality that America has a long history of overthrowing democratically elected governments in favor of governments that will enable corporations to exploit their people,, I will share two links. Here, the CIA publishes a review of All the Shah’s Men. While it is unwilling to go as far as Kinzer has, the review makes it very clear that the CIA played a leading role in overthrowing Mossaddegh and that the regime change era it embodied hasn’t worked out well for America.

The State Department has released reports on the United State’s action in Iran providing numerous details about the CIA-led coup in Iran.

November 3, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

Reviewing Overthrow

Stephen Kinzer’s Overthrow reviews a century of America’s overthrowing governments from Hawaii to Iraq. Overthrow is simply one of the most consequential books I have ever read about American foreign policy. Given what is happening in Syria and Chile and the reality of the 2020 election, people interested in politics would do well to read Overthrow now.

November 3, 2019November 3, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

Reviewing Beaten Down Worked Up

Steven Greenhouse’s Beaten Down Worked Up is a critical look at the past, present and future of unions in America. While Greenhouse’s work, as he acknowledges, doesn’t provide the detail into historical incidents other books do, Beaten Down Worked Up is an important read.

October 29, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

Missing Emma

It has been more than two months since our beloved Emma left us. Mom and I still talk about our sweetheart every day. Her ashes still sit on the couch, where she loved to sleep. We talk to her when we walk by her favorite bush; the bush she would almost always pretend she was hiding under. Our Emma may be gone. She will never be forgotten.

October 29, 2019October 29, 2019 Jonathan Simeone

The Teller and Platt Amendments Explained

I consider myself a student of history. I like to believe I have a good grip on why American history has unfolded the way it has unfolded.

Yesterday, I learned about the Teller and Platt Amendments for the first time. I’m writing about them because they say so much about the dominance America wishes to hold over other nations, the way American imperialism was a driving force behind Castro taking over Cuba, bungled foreign policy, oppressing people of color in the name of corporate profit, and outright racism and white supremacy on the part of the United States.

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