Google AI Overview

I have an Apple Computer.  The Web Browser is called Safari.  If I type in “Antietam Battlefield,” the first thing that pops up is the Park Service website for the Antietam National Battlefield.  Fine.  The facts are there.

However, if I search for “What happened at the Antietam Battle?” up pops a “Google AI Overview.”  I don’t want a goddam AI overview.  I didn’t ask for it. 

So I type in “Google AI Overview” to find out what is happening.  I get this:

“Google AI Overview (formerly SGE) uses generative A-I to provide concise summarized answers at the top of search results for complex queries, offering quick multi-step reasoning with links to source websites.  Available in select regions, this feature is integrated into searches and cannot be turned off, though it can be bypassed using the ‘Web’ filter to show only text based links.”

This is annoying.  I didn’t ask for this.  I don’t want this.  I don’t like AI, and I don’t know enough to use the “Web” filter to bypass it.  

I am not the only person annoyed by this.  See Brian X. Chen, “A.I.Is Bringing You A Personalized Internet.  You Have No Say in It,” New York Times, (Feb. 20, 2026), p. B1, B5.  The article points out that when you use a Chatbot, Google and Meta will use your conversation to target ads to your interests.  If you mention that you like to go hiking in the snow, you might get ads for cold weather gear. 

This is scary stuff.  Google’s share of the global search market is around 90%.  

I think there is something called DuckDuckGo.  Can I use that?  Does that track me?  I’m need to call my tech guru Debbie.

6-3; could this be a spring thaw?

About two weeks ago an 80-mile-long crack opened up in Lake Erie, crossing the lake diagonally.  It was about a mile wide.

I haven’t seen or read the tariff decision.  I haven’t even read a good analysis, but it does feel that a 6-3 vote giving the President a setback may be a crack forming in the ice.  When the six includes two members who were appointed by Trump, that feels like a thaw, like a warming breeze.  

Of course, it could be the excuse Trump needs to launch a war against Iran or do some other stupid thing.  Still, 6-3.  Not bad. 

Curses for the 21st Century

Remember “A plague on both your houses.”  I know you’ve heard it, but you might not remember it’s from “Romeo and Juliet.”  Three witches also cursed Macbeth, boiling all sorts of disgusting ingredients in their pot.  But those are so medieval.  Here are some more up-to-date invectives you might want to hurl:

May Social Security go bankrupt six months before you turn 65.  

May all your co-workers be MAGA.

May you be stuck with a Cybertruck no one wants to buy.

May your parents watch Fox News.

May you have a cat that needs to take a pill.

and this one that hits really close to home:  May you have a family member who doesn’t know how to text.

Credit goes to Bev Potter, “Updated Curses for the 21st Century,” Funny Times (March 2026), p. 20.

Setting Congressman Ryan Mackenzie straight

Congressman Ryan Mackenzie

121 Cannon House Office Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman Mackenzie:

The newspapers are full of articles headlined “Trump Orders That...” followed by some outrageous action on his part.  Increasing tariffs, bombing fishing boats, deporting kids, making deals for his family members, selling out Ukraine, pardoning drug importers, ending EPA mandates, re-writing history....  You can add to the list yourself. 

And where is Congress when this is happening?  I don’t know.  It seems to be in permanent hibernation.  I have a copy of your letter asking supporters for help in your re-election.  Why on earth would you want to be elected to a body that does nothing?  And why on God’s earth would you place at the top of that letter a photo of you standing and grinning next to a president who is doing everything in his power to make the United States into an authoritarian power.

You do not deserve re-election.  You are obviously not the solution to our country’s problems.  In fact, you are a large part of the problem.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

What you do matters

That’s the title of a booklet from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  It has pictures and stories of people who helped people escape during the Nazi terror in Europe.  Some were government officials, like Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, who issued about 2000 visas for Jews to get to Japan and from there to safe countries.

Ukrainians Tatyana and Ania Kontsevich sheltered Shimon Redlich along  with his mother, aunt, and uncle in their attic and shed.  Ania, who was ten, was in charge of bringing them food and water. 

When the Germans occupied Serbia, the Mandils, a Jewish family from Belgrade, escaped to Albania.  Mr. Mandil opened a photography shop and hired Refik Veseli, a 16-year-old Albanian Muslim as his apprentice.  When the Mandils were threatened by deportation after Germany occupied Albania in 1943, Rafik Veseli convinced his parents to hide the Mandils in their home village.  The children posed as Muslims.  Their parents lived in the barn until liberation.

 

Celebrating the 250th

I’ve been to a number of meetings in which the participants have discussed celebrating the 250th anniversary  of the U.S.  They are using the Declaration of Independence as the starting point, although that was no sure thing in 1776.

I can let that slide.  What I can’t understand is how people can discuss celebrating when it is clear that we are losing our republic.  On Feb. 8 the Opinion Page of the New York Times contained a line graph of 12 Markers of Democratic Erosion.  One end of the line was democracy; the other autocracy.  For every marker the indicator was moving toward autocracy.

Here are the 12.  Incidentally, the two markers in which the indicator had moved the closest to autocracy were “Vilifying marginalized groups” and “Using power for personal gain.”

Stifling speech and dissent

Persecuting political opponents

Bypassing the legislature

Defying the courts

Declaring false emergencies

Using the military at home

Vilifying marginalized groups

Controlling information

Trying to take over universities

Creating a cult of personality

Using power for personal profit

Manipulating the law to stay in power

You look at that list and tell me what on earth we have to celebrate.  

Congrats to Brazil

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the gold medal for the Men’s Giant Slalom at the Olympic Winter Games.  It was the first gold medal won by Brazil at the any of the Winter Games.  In fact it was the first gold medal won by anyone from South America at the Winter Games.  Nice work.  

The midterms

It is obvious that Trump knows he is in for a drubbing at the midterms, so the Republicans are already gearing up to cheat on the elections.  They began months ago with the gerrymandering of congressional districts.  Now they are pushing for ID’s that many poor and older people and married women who changed their names won’t be able to produce.  

I will.  I have a passport.  How many MAGA people will be able to produce either a birth certificate or a passport?  This may backfire.  Of course, if they are white or carrying an assault rifle or wearing MAGA gear, the ID requirements will be waived.

Don’t worry about the elections being cancelled.  Russia holds elections.  Hungary holds elections.  Authoritarian governments don’t cancel elections; they rig them. 

The World We Live In

In a recent interview with Jake Tapper, Trump advisor Stephen Miller said “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”

I don’t like living in a world with Stephen Miller, but that sure does sum up the attitude of a lot of people in the Trump administration.  They don’t even pretend otherwise.  And they wear those cute little crosses around their necks.

The Rich Get Richer...

According to an article in the business section of today’s Times “The net worth of the top 1 percent of households climbed to a record share of nearly 32 percent of the national total in the third quarter of 2025, according to data from the Federal Reserve, which started tracking household wealth in 1989.”

I wonder if that has anything to do with a front page article in today’s Times

entitled “G.O.P.’S Cash Edge Gives Democrats Midterm Anxiety.”  

That article noted that Elon Musk himself had donated tens of millions of dollars in the last few months.

It is soon time for the torches and the pitchforks.  

Worshipping the Golden Ass

Exodus, Chapter 32, verses 2-4 (with some slight modifications)

2.  And Trump said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters and bring them unto me.

3.  And all the Crypto Bros broke off their golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Trump.

4.  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten ass, 15 feet high, with a thinned-down tummy, and the Crypto Bros fell down and worshipped it, and he blessed them.

For more info see David Yaffe-Bellany, “A Golden Idol for President Trump Created by Memecoin Worshipers,” New York Times, (Feb. 11, 2026), pp. B-1, B-6.

Way too many deer

Our field bordering Station Street looks like a football game was played in the snow.  Instead of a nice white expanse, the entire field is roughed up and full of holes.  A herd of deer did that.  Our neighbor who farms the field planted daikon radishes in the fall as a cover crop.  The deer had been eating the tops before the snow.  

Now they are back, digging down through 14 inches of snow with hooves that aren’t really made for digging.  Desperation and starvation are driving them to improvise.

While I feel slightly sorry for them, it is obvious that Pennsylvania, or at least our area of Pennsylvania, has way too many deer.  Our coyotes are not really capable of pulling down a full grown whitetail.  We really need the reintroduction of wolves–or cougars.  I’m not picky.

Is Donald Trump insane?

I’m not being funny.  It is a serious question.  Who stays up at night issuing strange messages on social media?  Who has that much antipathy toward people he thinks are enemies?  Who would want to name tunnels and buildings and ships after himself?  Who would want to build a giant arch, or issue a National Park pass with his picture, or rename the Gulf of Mexico, or rip down a portion of the White House, or take credit for all kinds of things he had nothing to do with.  Who would show so much anger at reporters, or threaten so many people, or spout so much nonsense in a non-ending stream?

I really believe he has crossed the line between being strange and being mentally ill.  My fear is that this won’t be recognized by enough people around him, and many of those people he surrounds himself with actually have a major self-interest in seeing that he stays in power.  

I thought Nixon was a terrible president, but it never occurred to me that Nixon would launch a nuclear war for some kind of personal vendetta.  With Trump I think that is quite possible.  It is something that should be discussed openly–and soon.

The Bad Bunny Halftime Show

Toward the end of his life, my Dad, who was a country-western fan of sorts (had a guitar, could sing the old classics from the 30s and 40s), didn’t know any of the more recent country-western musicians, although he did see the Oakridge Boys at Penn’s Peak.

I find myself in the same situation.  I own (and play) literally hundreds of albums from the 50s through the 90s, but it ends there.  I never get the rappers clued in the New York Times crossword puzzles, and I can’t sing along with even one Taylor Swift song, although at least I am aware of who she is.

One problem is that unless you stream or download music, you really don’t hear it.  It is not on the radio.  You can find oldies there, and right-wing blowhards, and an all news station, but none of the stations play current hits.  They come over your cell phone, which I don’t have.

Having heard of Bad Bunny and also having heard that he annoys Trump and also that he sings in Spanish, I had to check him out.  I have never watched a Superbowl halftime show before, but I did tonight.  I was entertained, and Bad Bunny seemed like a nice guy.  I didn’t care for the music, but there is a rule about music.  You must listen to a song at least five times before you make a decision on whether or not you like it.  

Can I even get an album with a selection of Bad Bunny songs?  Probably not.  

The 7 principles for the Conduct of a Newspaper

The principles, issued on March 5, 1935, were written by Eugene Meyers who bought the Washington Post at auction in 1933.  They were quoted in an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times by Carlos Lozada, who worked for the Post.

Since the current owner of the Washington Post, billionaire Jeff Bezos, is turning the Post into a shell of its former self, I thought the principles were worth printing.

1.  The first mission of a newspaper is to tell the truth as nearly as the truth may be ascertained.

2.  The newspaper shall tell ALL the truth so far as it can learn it, concerning the important affairs of America and the world.

3.  As a disseminator of the news the paper shall observe the decencies that are obligatory upon a private gentleman.

4.  What it prints shall be fit reading for the young as well as for the old.

5.  The newspaper’s duty is to its readers and to the public at large, and not to the private interests of the owners.

6.  In the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifices of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good.

7.  The newspaper shall not be the ally of any special interest, but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and public men.

I’d like to think that I subscribe to these on this blog, although I might have a problem with numbers 3 and 4, and I’d add “and women” to # 7.

A Minneapolis Buddhist speaks out

She is an assistant to a Buddhist priest.  This is a portion of her recent talk to a gathering of Buddhists. 

Right now we are witnessing the suffering caused by three poisons–greed, and most vividly anger and ignorance.  Not only in others, but within ourselves as well.  If we can look beyond our anger and ignorance we find the true wisdom that transforms into compassion.

Here in Minnesota, we are seeing that transformation take place:  oneness in action, the interconnectedness of our lives.  In response to the infiltration of 3000 federal ICE agents and the shooting of Renee Good, more than 50,000 marchers braved the brutal winter cold, marching through downtown Minneapolis and refusing to be chilled into silence.  Minnesotans rose up to have a voice.  We saw peace through power in numbers.  The energy was disciplined and organized–a broad coalition of clergy, labor unions, immigrant-rights groups, Indigenous organizers, and everyday Minnesotans demanding justice and accountability.

But tragically, the very next day we were thrown back into the realms of anger and sorrow with yet another senseless killing, that of Alex Pretti.  The community came together again in unity to hold vigils in Alex’s memory and to continue supporting those in need–those living in fear.  A contagious wave of kindness blanketed our communities with care and compassion because our neighbors are living in fear and suffering financially, psychologically, and economically.  The people of Minnesota have channeled their anger into compassionate action.  Neighbors are protecting neighbors, strangers are reaching out with empathy offering every kind of service possible:  groceries, shelter, rides to work, protection for children at bus stops, towing for cars abandoned after abductions, repairing smashed doors, pet care for abandoned animals.  People united in oneness to love and care for each other–remarkable workings of great compassion.

That is a model of behavior that I hope I have the courage to emulate.