Author: Bob Bates

Former shelf-stocker, monkey-tester, plant worker, English teacher, community youth worker, and disability adjudicator. In retirement, thoroughly enjoying celebrating life and learning. Loves reading a broad variety of nonfiction, dancing with his wife Judy, playing tennis, baseball, cooking/baking, grunt gardening, leaving a miniscule carbon footprint, sunny days.
Books, History

Big Brother IS Watching You: Edward Snowden and Government Surveillance

Bob Bates — In 2013, the US government charged Edward Snowden with violating the Espionage Act for releasing National Security Agency (NSA) information, specifically for what the NSA termed its “bulk data collection program.” At the time the mainstream press focused on the material released, its content, and what it implied about US government surveillance of US citizens. The press also focused on questions about … Continue reading Big Brother IS Watching You: Edward Snowden and Government Surveillance

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Culture and Society, Film and Television

A Life in the Neighborhood

Bob Bates — The brown wooden door opens and Mister Rogers enters, looking directly into the camera. Stepping over to the closet, he slips out of his jacket, hangs it up, and dons his zip-up cardigan (always knitted by his mother). He casually sits down to flip off his loafers and put on his blue canvas deck shoes—all while liltingly singing “It’s a beautiful day … Continue reading A Life in the Neighborhood

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Books, Science

In the Midst of the Sixth Extinction

Bob Bates — In May 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an international panel of more than 450 scientists from 109 nations, unanimously reported that the status of life on planet Earth is in grave jeopardy. Drawing upon 15,000 documents compiled by global environmental researchers, the panel noted that species loss has accelerated at a rate of tens to hundreds … Continue reading In the Midst of the Sixth Extinction

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Books, History

The Persistence of White Power Movements in America

Bob Bates — The topic of Kathleen Belew’s recent book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard University Press, 2018), addresses a disturbing thread of the American fabric. She begins her book with a succinct account of the long history of violence at the hands of colonists and American citizenry and government, mainly white initiated, from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. But … Continue reading The Persistence of White Power Movements in America

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History

American Fighter Pilot: A Tribute to a Veteran and Gentleman

Bob Bates — Toward the end of World War II in the turbulent skies over France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, thousands of rounds of German ground artillery exploded around American P-47s of the 406th Fighter Group’s 514th Squadron. Flying close support in a grouping of twelve surrounding an American B-26 heavy bomber, Lieutenant Warren Webster in his red-nosed P-47 Thunderbolt often found himself and his … Continue reading American Fighter Pilot: A Tribute to a Veteran and Gentleman

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Culture and Society

A Difficult Learning Curve: Starbucks in Context

Bob Bates — During the morning of April 12, 2018, in a Philadelphia Starbucks coffee shop, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were arrested for trespassing while awaiting the arrival of a business acquaintance. They had not been there long and the shop was not crowded, but they had not made a purchase. The Starbucks manager called 911 to summon police to remove the two 23-year … Continue reading A Difficult Learning Curve: Starbucks in Context

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History

Labyrinth of Enigmas: The JFK Assassination

Bob Bates — When Jack Ruby died in prison on January 3, 1967, barely three years after he ended Lee Harvey Oswald’s life with one fatal shot to his gut, any information Ruby had on a JFK assassination plot went to the grave with him. The Warren Commission, operative between December 1963 and September 1964, had attempted to interview Ruby early on in their information … Continue reading Labyrinth of Enigmas: The JFK Assassination

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Books, History

Daniel Ellsberg’s Doomsday Papers

Bob Bates — Daniel Ellsberg is universally known as the “man behind the Pentagon Papers.” However, with the publication of his new book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Ellsberg’s legacy of inestimable importance in the course of history takes a quantum leap. Ellsberg, with a degree in economics from Harvard College, also studied at Cambridge University and did post-graduate work at … Continue reading Daniel Ellsberg’s Doomsday Papers

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Science

Current Status of Global Warming and Climate Change

Bob Bates — In 1896, Swedish Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius calculated that increases of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere contributed to the “greenhouse effect” of trapping heat close to the planet’s surface. Based on this observation, he predicted incremental global warming proportional to the added amounts of CO2 above natural levels. Decades before, with the advent of the Industrial Age in the early … Continue reading Current Status of Global Warming and Climate Change

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History, Sports

Baseball and the World Series: Context and Contests

Bob Bates — Two months after the first “World’s Series,” Wilbur and Orville Wright made their first flight at Kitty Hawk. Baseball’s only rivals for popularity among Americans were horse racing and boxing. Teddy Roosevelt was president. Silent films were all the rage. In nine years the unsinkable Titanic would plunge to the depths of the Atlantic. U.S. entry into The “War to End All … Continue reading Baseball and the World Series: Context and Contests

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Philosophy and Religion, Science

Uncovering Enigmas of the Universe

Bob Bates — Over a century ago physicist Max Planck, functionally an intellectual mentor of Albert Einstein in making scientific breakthroughs with prodigious consequences, reflected on what he was uncovering. Planck asserted, “All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. … We … Continue reading Uncovering Enigmas of the Universe

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Books, History, Philosophy and Religion

Innocence Lost: From Babes to Bloodshed

Bob Bates — In his book Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (2013), Paul Bloom, psychology professor at Yale University, reports on the work he has conducted with his team of experimental researchers that addresses fundamental issues regarding the bases of morality in humans: good vs bad, right vs wrong, fair vs unfair. What makes their psychosocial studies unique is that their subjects are children, ranging from infants … Continue reading Innocence Lost: From Babes to Bloodshed

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Sports

Jeanie’s Hope

Bob Bates — Mark Richardson’s moving essay entitled “My Mom, Baseball, and Me,”  published previously on Wise Guys, is my motivation for posting this baseball poem I wrote about someone very dear to me. The poem is a combination tribute and eulogy to Jeanette “Jeanie” Sotka Hofmeister, who married my cousin Daryl “Sonny” Hofmeister in 1954. In his baseball-playing days, Sonny was a slugging outfielder … Continue reading Jeanie’s Hope

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Philosophy and Religion, Science

Creation: A Process Continuing

Bob Bates — The age of our universe is about 13.8 billion years old. Our solar system began forming about 4.5 billion years ago, with planet Earth being a part of this process. These are big numbers and signify eons of time that has passed. The initial stages of life on planet Earth began about 3 billion years ago. Our genus, homo, began its development about … Continue reading Creation: A Process Continuing

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Sports

42

Bob Bates — In his epic tour de force, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams has his all-knowing, all-wise Grand Computer named Deep Thought delve into the answer to the great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. As Deep Thought assesses and ponders (in deep thought), tensions rise and suspense builds until, voila! Deep Thought authoritatively “with infinite majesty and calm” announces: “42”. Cosmic non sequitur … Continue reading 42

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Books, Philosophy and Religion, Science

The Disappearance of God: A Divine Mystery

Bob Bates — One of the most provocative books I’ve read that deals with religion is Richard Elliot Friedman’s The Disappearance of God: A Divine Mystery (1995). Subsequent editions of the book are entitled The Hidden Face of God. Friedman is a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature, holding multiple degrees, and is currently Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia. In this … Continue reading The Disappearance of God: A Divine Mystery

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Books, Culture and Society, Politics and Economics

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Bob Bates — Sociologist Matthew Desmond’s widely acclaimed book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), a study of the city of Milwaukee, pounds at a reader’s emotions until they become raw. Daily struggles and their grinding effects on America’s poor who are forced to rent housing in contexts of landlord neglect of substandard structures will likely make you both nauseated and enraged … Continue reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

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Politics and Economics

How Much Is Enough?

Bob Bates — Most thinking humans for a long time have known an effective societal problem-solving process: (1) identify needs, (2) identify ways these can be met, (3) apply analysis, prioritizing, and strategic planning to deliver solutions, (4) coordinate necessary labor, equipment, and distribution operations to address the problems, and (5) continue follow-up procedures to work out any bugs and improve each part of the … Continue reading How Much Is Enough?

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