One of the basic rules of turning into an adult that my father taught me was thinking through — thoroughly through — almost any planned action. "Think!" he would say. "Think it through."
Because I wanted to please him I made that a regular habit, despite a teenager's proclivity for sudden spontaneous activities with unforeseen outcomes, often bad. I say regular because I must confess that I did not always follow this wise procedure, which often led to disappointing and even painful reminders of his theorem.
As I picked myself up after the bruising collapse of a poorly placed ladder, he might say, "So, I guess you won't be doing it that way again."
Check the gas tank before starting any engine. Do you have your wallet and driver's license before leaving the house? Before leaving a movie theater, always look around at the floor under your seat for any dropped item.
So, I have been perhaps more acutely attuned to government actions, especially hasty government actions that end up having unanticipated negative effects. "Two weeks to flatten the curve" comes to mind.
Now, after years of pushing people to install solar panels on their roof, comes word from California that there's a real problem with that — a problem that could well have been foreseen had they really truly thought it through.
Alas, for California, it did not have my Dad for a father. The Golden State's solar problem is what I discuss this week.
Obvious signs of Joe Biden's declining mental and physical condition have become predictable sights in our daily coverage of the 81-year-old's activities. Sometimes they're funny, even hilarious. But they all should be concerning for Americans, realizing that this shuffler controls the nuclear launch codes, among other important levers of power.
What is less often factored into our concerns, however, is the impact overseas of the appalling episodes of weakness sent out from the world's preeminent superpower.
It's quite frightening for allies and quite tempting for adversaries. Think Russia invading Ukraine. Hamas attacking Israel. Iran attacking Israel. Israel attacking Iran. Iran and its proxies attacking international shipping. China preparing to attack Taiwan.
That's the subject of this week's Sunday column. The US Faces a Far Worse Impact Than Garble From Joe Biden's Mental Decay.
Speaking of Joe Biden's erratic behavior, my colleague Nick Arama has the latest episode of his daft behavior. And this one too. He is now resurrecting stories of his fictitious career as a semi-truck driver and his historic days as a key civil rights activist.
Reading straight off his crib notes, Biden said, "I got involved, when I was a kid, in electoral politics, out of the civil rights movement!"
The most recent audio commentary analyzed Google's ongoing efforts to suppress conservative commentary and to strangle its revenues. I should say, our revenues.
The anniversary of the catastrophic Titanic sinking has come and gone.
But readers continue to read the latest in my Memories series, the day I flew over the site of the sinking to watch the U.S. Coast Guard complete a life's journey interrupted on the deck of what was to become history's second most frequently cited metaphor (after Waterloo).
