Random Thoughts February 2026

Ted Reads Random Thoughts

11:41

Some have questioned why I do this “Random Thoughts” thing, when what they prefer are the one topic blogs I also do every month. Fair question. For one thing I have so many thoughts every day it would be impossible for me to write in detail about all of them. So, I honor them by mentioning them by name, knowing that I could riff on any one of them for a couple of pages, at least.

I carry this notion that if I stay open to all of the thoughts I have that keeps the pipeline flowing for the ‘big’ ones. Mental hygiene. Keeping the conduits clean. They all start out as little ones. I always encourage others to do the same thing and feel complimented when someone shares one of their ‘random thoughts.’  I think that everyone’s thoughts, big or small, deserve to be listened to and honored. One never knows when and how the ‘big’ ones will show up.

They are sort of like little kids; once they figure out you really want to hear them out, you can’t shut them up. I am also of the opinion that our world needs our thoughts. All of us. All of ours. They serve a purpose and are sacred in a way. Otherwise (I make up) they wouldn’t exist.

This would go into the category of things that are a good idea but promise more than they can deliver. I am talking about the toilet ‘covers’ available in many public bathrooms. This is the deal. You intend to pull one out of the box, and most often two or three of their brothers come with it. What do I do with the extra? Then I have to remove the middle section which more often than not rips the part I’m supposed to sit on. What do I do with that middle part? Then I carefully place it on the seat exactly right, and as I turn around to sit, the toilet automatically flushes, sucking the seat cover into the bowl. So, do I try to do it again, or do I just give up on it and sit down. The final indignity is when I stand up, the tissue paper sticks to my butt, and I have to pull it off.

I now skip the whole thing. I do what a fellow marching band member taught me at band camp when I was 14. Tear off a piece of toilet paper and put it across the back of the seat, tear off another piece put it on one side and another for the other. You’re welcome.

There is an adage that suggests that time flies. What I have noticed is that the more present I am the faster it goes. When I am not ‘fully present’ it creeps along more slowly. More like a hot air balloon than a jet.

Oh, that we were more like our Bonobos relatives. (They share more of our DNA than any other species - 98.7%). They respond to potential threats by strengthening social relationships, without aggression.

So, those things inside oranges are called seeds, what are those stringy things called that show up on the banana after its been peeled?

I heard myself say, “I love the Dickens out of you.”  Where’d that come from?  Speaking of Dickens, how did it happen that it became associated with fear or lack of knowledge, as in “You scared the dickens out of me!”  or “What in the Dickens was that?”

My eight-year-old grandson was telling us about a dream he had. In that dream he was aware that maybe everything was just a dream. He, everyone, and everything. Nothing was real. I blurted out, “I think you’re right.” 

I just read a research study that suggests that slow breathing reduces levels of Alzheimer's-related proteins in the blood. Cool. I already do that. There is a great free app called (appropriately enough) “The Breathing App.”    

I just read another research study that suggests ‘helping’ someone, whether one is paid for it or not, for as little as two to four hours a week, is effective in staving off dementia.

WARNING: POLITICAL COMMENTARY TO FOLLOW

Question: What one thing do the following people have in common? Plato, Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouse-Lee, William Graham Sumner, Joseph Conrad, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, U.S. Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, C.S. Lewis, Francis Fukuyama, Larry Diamond, Erwin Chemerinsky, Aristotle, Polybius, Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Alexis de Tocqueville, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Oswald Spengler, H.L. Mencken, Joseph Schumpeter, Rein Niebuhr, and Larry Diamond?  

Answer: They all warn/warned that democracy contains the seeds of its own destruction. Without virtue, wisdom, and restraint, it tends to decay into chaos, corruption, and tyranny. I think we are there.

One those notables, John Adams, second president of the U.S. said:

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that didn’t commit suicide.” 

People around the world are telling us this is happening to us. America. Today. Now. Assisted suicide, for sure. I wonder if we have what it takes to take the weapons out of the hands of those actively doing that. I hope it isn’t too late already.

Who is the “they” I am talking about? They are the folks who publicly, unabashedly, and unashamedly prepared a list of what they were going to do in their project 2025 document. It’s here and they were not kidding. Great swaths of the American populace are now paying the price. I personally know of some of them.

Those folks have taken over. They are in charge. The US version of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Putin - Donald Trump, and his allies. His devotees. His apologists. None of this could have been done without the support of millions of loyal followers. Great swaths of Americans support the American version of loyal followers.

Loyal followers of Trump and his henchmen (and women) and what they are doing represent exactly who they are, what they have been waiting for. Thousands of applications to join the storm troopers (AKA known as Border Patrol/ICE). Thousands cheering on their team.

Hard for me to tell the difference. And it doesn’t really matter; the results are the same. People, many people, are dying. That seems to be part of the plan. Pruning the human population? Taking away food, water, and medicines from the poorest while building dance halls and golf courses? Under 65, no COVID vaccine for you. Susceptible to the flu? Tough. God’s will.

I do believe there are some who originally voted for this regime who are now appalled to some degree about what their choice has allowed to happen in America. They got swallowed by the vortex they got too close to. I haven’t heard many of them admit that, but I believe that there are some. Maybe that is more hope than reality.

I heard a person who helped vote this regime in, and still remains a loyalist say, “I just call ‘em the way I see ‘em.”  What in the world are they looking at?