Podcast 503

Slipping Into Summer. Hard to believe, after a long upper midwestern winter, that we are Slipping Into Summer. As the Memorial Day Weekend approaches, some thoughts about the origins of ‘Decoration Day’, Arlington National Cemetery, the Civil War, and our modern day commemoration of those who have given their lives in service to the United States. This is not a national holiday of celebration. It might be suggested it is in fact supposed to be a sober, if not somber day to reflect on the sacrifice of those who did not return home. Some people confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day. If you’re on the radio, or in public media that is a mistake you will make once. On Veterans Day we honor all those who have served. On Memorial Day we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. With all that, it is still the beginning of summer — even though summer doesn’t start until June 21st — and for kids still in school it means a week or so of school left, depending on how many snow days may have accrued during the brutal winter. It brings back memories for this podcaster. Memories of summers that stretched out like a sea of opportunity and ended all too quickly on Labor Day. In the Upper Midwest, this time is ‘GO’ time, especially for kids, because our summers are so short and sweet. The end of May can be cold, rainy and unfriendly and quite uncomfortable if you are opening the lake cabin and putting in the dock. The end of May can also be warm, sunny and friendly, and Memorial Day kicks it off with its ad hoc parades, and BBQ’s … the first three day weekend of the summer. So people might be forgiven for not remembering some of us will be privately thinking about those they lost, who will not be able to enjoy the great spring weather, the parades and BBQ’s. Here’s to them. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. (Editor’s Note: In describing the mast of the USS Minneapolis, which is at Lake Calhoun, I confused the Cruiser, USS Minneapolis with two US Navy Submarines currently in service. The USS Minnesota is a Virginia Class Submarine, and the USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul is a Los Angeles Class submarine.)

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Podcast 476

No Trump. No Trump in this podcast because it is a Trump Free Zone. Time to tackle something fun! The End Of The World. Lately, everyone seems to wonder ‘what’s going on’? The answer is usually some form of ‘the end of the world’. Aliens, Planet X, Comets, Global Warming, Famine, Disease, and General Weirdness. You name it, someone thinks that’s causing the end of the world. There’s a definitive answer for the question, is the world ending? Yes. The world is ending. The world you grew up in, regardless of your age, is slowly ending. For some, the specter of a new time, with new demographics, new ideas, and new tools is too frightening. So, the bogeyman in the closet takes many forms. Now, these days we do face a number of challenges; Economic, social, political and personal. At the same time, some of the institutions created in this country decades ago to deal with problems current at the time, are crumbling. This is inevitable. The question is how we deal with this change. Do we run from it? Stick our fingers in our ears and demand that no one discuss it? Retreat into endless discussions of conspiracy theory, the arrival of some rogue planet, and alien bases on the dark side of the moon? Or do we get all hands on deck, trim the sales, and get ready for the storm. Yes the world has changed. Some things that were great are gone. Some things that are great have arrived. A great age is upon this country and this world. Some of the changes will be very positive. Some changes will be very negative. Either way, it is coming and it cannot be avoided. It’s time to turn off the cable news shows, let the election proceed, and start examining what we think about, how we think, and how we greet each new day, sometimes referred to as ‘the future’. You can be afraid and run from reality, or you can take it head on. Which one do you prefer? Sponsored by Brush Studio and Hydrus.

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Podcast 419

Time Travel. This Walk and Talk Podcast starts out with some observations about the media reaction to Candidate for the Republican Nomination Donald Trump. The Bob Davis Podcasts will never endorse a specific candidate, tell you how to vote, or cover the presidential election process with an undisclosed point of view, with the intention of pointing listeners in the direction of a specific candidate. Comments here about Donald Trump are only observations, but one thing is clear; The establishment media’s reaction to the Trump candidacy prove he is the front runner. Punditry predictions about how Trump ‘will fade’ keep coming up, but the New York Times and The Atlantic are already treating the New Yorker like the nominee, doing their best to notch him down, starting with a hatchet job on his financial credentials and education history, a commentary written by republican moderates regarding ‘anarchy’ in the House with the resignation of the Speaker, and a ridiculous piece in the Atlantic that asserts American Prosperity until 1980 was the result of Unions and High Taxes, saying if Trump wants to return ‘White America’ to this halcyon time, he must be advocating for Union and High Taxes. What tripe! It was the Atlantic piece that began a flight of fancy on this Walk and Talk about Time Travel. If you could return to any era, would it be as history described it? Which era in history would you most like to return to? (Editor’s Note: My problem is I want to go back to all of them.) If you went back hundreds, or thousands of years, would you even be able to understand what was happening. Would you need time to physically absorb the context of the time, from language, immunity to germs and disease, smells, sounds, even a different blanket of stars in the sky. It is said history is written by the victors. How different is real history from the history we’re taught, the history we read, and the history we experience on a day to day basis in our time? Sponsored by Baklund R&D and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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