‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
I Bet Trump is a Bad Cook
from the series Peace House Community Journal... Marti Maltby By MARTI MALTBY One of the worst pieces of advice I ever followed was that I should throw a piece of spaghetti at a wall to test whether it was done. Looking back, I realized the person who told me this was either playing a practical joke or was the victim of someone else’s joke. Too busy trying to decide what to look at to do anything else! All that throwing spaghetti at the wall accomplishes is a waste of food and a mess on the wall. It is so much easier to just bite a piece of spaghetti to see if it is as soft as you want it. Whether spaghetti sticks to the wall has nothing to do with its consistency or flavor. Of course, this is where we get the expression “throw it at the wall and see what sticks”. It means trying every option all at once and seeing what works. So far, that seems to be a pretty good description of Donald Trump’s Presidency. I’m sure that Trump (or at least the people who [...]
Journalist, Heal Thyself
from the series Peace House Community By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I know several people who are trying to avoid the news these days for various reasons. I myself pay less attention to current events than I should, partly from laziness, but also because so much of the “news” coverage focuses on the wrong things. Despite how easy it is to get information, one has to work quite hard these days to get to the actual news. Staying informed, it turns out, is vastly different from staying aware. The news coverage of the tariffs that were recently announced and then paused provides an excellent example. While journalists talked quite a bit about the stock market’s reactions to the changes, they also focused on the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands. Many news outlets pointed out the absurdity of placing tariffs on islands inhabited only by animals. I understand that such a blunder is amusing, but in this case amusing and important stand miles apart. Many of the same [...]
Efficiency Be Damned
from the series Peace House Community Journal Marti Maltby By Marti Maltby Like many people, I have watched Elon Musk’s dismantling of the federal government with everything from bemusement to unspeakable foreboding. The bemusement comes from Musk’s own claims that he is making the government more efficient. If that was the real intent of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk would be the equivalent of the kid whose dad throws him into a deep lake to teach him to swim. He flails around a lot but doesn’t accomplish much, and eventually he sinks out of sight. Musk has made many claims about how much he is saving the government, but the claims are not believable in the slightest. Compare Musk’s approach to the investigation into Feeding Our Future, an organization that fraudulently billed the government for $250 million. The investigation required numerous investigators, working for years, to bring charges against hundreds of individuals. By contrast, Musk [...]
