John T. Reed’s news blog

I just saw the Eagles Zach Ertz, the Eagles tight end, fail to make a needed block on a qb read option keep. My son and I were his first football coaches freshman year of high school.I was often mad at him then because he seemed uninterested in the play unless he was tackling the ball carrier or carrying, throwing, or catching the ball.On defense, he would go where he thought the probability of his making the tackle was maximized, often leaving his area of responsibility to do so. At outside linebacker, he cost us the Cal game that year...

I need a summary article on the assets that are religions. They are gold, bitcoin, and Amazon stock. I use the word religion here to describe fervently held beliefs that are based on faith, not on facts or logic. I hasten to add that in both the more common use of the word religion (centered on a supreme being) and this use, the adherents to the religion swear that they DO have facts and logic.   I have a detailed article about why gold is a lousy hedge against inflation: https://www.johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-hyperinflation-deflation-blog/60940227-disadvantages-of-gold-as-an-inflation-hedge Bitcoin Do I have an article on bitcoin? I...

West Point has long had a Board of Visitors. It is a group of non-West Pointers designed to offset the quite rightly identified inbred nature of the place. But they must be a Board of Lap Dogs. In all my 53 years as a West Pointer, I have never heard a peep out of them. They have an annual meeting where they rubber stamp the current supe. West Point needs another board of grads who know the place and how it is supposed to work and who will raise hell about West Point losing its way.Curent issues:• football record and standards...

I am reading a book titled Getting Risk Right as research for my book How to Spot dishonest arguments and Keep Your Own Thinking Straight. It is a book about medicine. I just finished the chapter on Aristolochia—a Chinese herb and an Eastern European weed.It kills people but so slowly that it took centuries to figure that out. And those who figured it out had to overcome a ton on Eastern Hemisphere cultural bull!@#$.There was a higher incidence of a certain kidney disease in Yugoslavia and Taiwan—China too, but they do not publish the stats that would reveal it.Then a...

I have just seen a letter from the West Point superintendent about the open letter sent by retired LTC Heffington. Here is Heffington’s letter then the supe’s then my comments on both: Open Letter to Grads from LTC(ret) Heffington: (This was written by LTC (USA, ret.) Robert M. Heffington, as an open letter to graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point. It has only been edited for format, and may differ in that respect from the original. My apologies to Lt. Colonel Heffington if this has been misrepresented in any way) Dear Sir/Ma’am, Before you read any...