Mid-Valley Voice

Hi and welcome. This is Dr. Obnubilator.

My posts are observations of my own and reflect my thoughts, beliefs, and ideas and those of no one else, except perhaps for the contributions to that thought by my partner, Dr. Cultural Historian. She and I both hold PhDs in modern European history from a major US university, as well as MAs and BAs from institutions of similar caliber. Except that hers are better.

I do apologize for the earnest nature of most of these posts and try, as much as my limited ability allows, to make them interesting and sometimes even amusing. I hope that you find them at least thought-provoking and possibly even a little provocative. The subjects range far and wide and are in no particular sequence, except that they generally follow current events as they happen and I'm motivated or appalled enough to comment on them or what I see as their underlying significance. There may even be times when I strive to elucidate the implicit premises upon which these events are based or which I feel are being purposely obscured. I also sometimes try to point out the spin that the newsmakers attempt to sell to us. I have no pretensions to being a visionary, but I may, at times, even venture to predict the future effect of policies, events or ideas.

As a student of history and human nature I may delude myself occasionally into thinking that I have some insight into a particular incident or episode and want to share it. Now, if I'm foolishly arrogant enough to think I may be on to something in particular, I still make no claims to accuracy in those predictions or insights. Time will tell. The truth will out. We'll see. And any other cliché that you can think of that says you have to wait to find out what will happen.

My posts are usually motivated by my outrage over some totally unbelievable incident, policy or other atrocity. Nevertheless, I do try to bring logic and reason to bear on any question. My partner tells me that I'm too stuck in the 18th century idea that reason is something about which anyone cares. However, that just shows what a cockeyed optimist I am, despite all of my experience to the contrary.

I'd like to thank you for taking your valuable time to check out my rants and I hope you'll find it worthwhile. I've been told I can even make a four hour class seem like three, max. So, welcome to my peculiarly skewed perspective on life and enjoy.