The title of a CNN article by Aaron Blake is, “Trump Launches the Regime-Change Effort in Iran that he Pledged to Avoid”. But President Trump did not start our wars with Iran, America did. We live in a republic where we choose our representatives. Their actions are our actions. The blame and shame for Israel sending three missiles into an elementary girls school in Minab in southern Iran to prevent the girls from developing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, is ours. We murdered more than 100 children in what Israel called its preemptive opening act of self-defense. We share Israel’s shame and blame for this crime; but we did not have the right to elect Benjamin Netanyahu. … [Read More...] about It Is On U.S.
Gavel Gamut
Recent Articles
The More Things Change
President Trump gave his 2026 State of the Union address last night, 24 February 2026. He spoke for almost two hours on several topics. One of the most important was the survival of humanity as highlighted by his insistence that he would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. After the world saw the destruction the United States rained down on Japan in 1945, rational people realized we humans had finally “progressed” to the ability to make ourselves extinct. Or as former mathematics professor turned folksong singer Tom Lehrer (1928-2025) wrote about WWIII during his stint on the television show That Was the Week That Was: ♫ So long Mom I’m off to drop the bomb So don’t wait up for … [Read More...] about The More Things Change
One Thousand Years
The first Olympic Games were held at Olympia, Greece in 776 BC. They were held at Olympia because they were a paean to Zeus who supposedly presided there. The games were designed to be held every 4 years until the Roman Emperor Theodosius the Great ordered them stopped because his Christian sensibilities were offended by the worship of Zeus. Theodosius was born in 347 AD and ruled from 379 AD until his death in 395. Rome had finally conquered the Achaean League (Greece) in 146 BC after about a century of strife. What became known as Greece was a conglomeration of city states, Corinth, Athens, Sparta and the Kingdom of Macedonia, that competed and cooperated for several hundred years until … [Read More...] about One Thousand Years
Bad Bunny vs. Bad Donnie
Metaphors are never perfect. If they were, they would be identical copies, not learning opportunities. A more perfect metaphor for Donald Trump’s vision of America versus Bad Bunny’s vision of how Donnie treats Puerto Rico would have had the New York Jets play the Seattle “Sharks” in the 2026 Super Bowl. This would have left no doubt of the half-time show message. My northeast coast bred wife, Peg, said about five minutes into the spectacular production of telephone poles, sugar cane bundles and salsa rhythms, “Hey, Jim, this is West Side Story!” With my small-town Southwest upbringing I got it a little more slowly, but I had to agree. Donald Trump’s MAGA view of America (the white Jets) … [Read More...] about Bad Bunny vs. Bad Donnie
Tick Tock
It is 3:00 am and the moonlit prairie outside the cabin window supplies the quiet solitude that is required for my contemplation. Most of my thoughts that become writings occur when my daytime procrastination eases into compelling concerns about the past or the future. Most of the past is a jumble of warm memories punctuated by occasional regrets; wasn’t that pleasant intertwined with why did I say or do that and why can’t I re-live the good and re-do the painful? And most of my forecast of the future is paved with unrealistic hopes and dread I will repeat missteps in spite of learned lessons I should be able to apply to similar new experiences. My circadian rhythm probably developed much as … [Read More...] about Tick Tock
Legends
What turns a passing incident into a legend? Fear is often involved or at least, apprehension. Hatred perhaps or maybe just sublimated envy. Villains and heroes, sinners and saints, hangers-on and barely aware casual observers may be recognized or may be unnoticed. Accurate observations may be misidentified while surmise and self-fulfilling yearnings might be confused by societies distracted by the sturm und drang of living. What we can be assured is that an occasional legend is required if we are going to sublimate our daily ennui and manage to muddle through. Great legends of history often arise on a “just-in-time, just-in-place” happenstance. Often, they appear as individuals but, more … [Read More...] about Legends
Coach Cignetti, The Philosopher King
Curt Cignetti was hired to be Indiana University’s football coach beginning with the 2024 college football season. In 2022 IU’s record was four wins and eight losses. For 2023 it was three wins and nine losses. In 2024 IU lost two games, one in the College Football Playoffs, and won eleven. IU just won the College Football National Championship for 2025-26 by being the only undefeated college team and posting sixteen wins and zero losses. IU started 2025 as history’s losingest college football program based on over 700 losses. A couple of basic questions are: How did IU go from the whale dung of college football to Marathon type victors (490 BC) and who wrought this miracle? Those are … [Read More...] about Coach Cignetti, The Philosopher King
Hallowed Halls of Laurel
HALLOWED HALLS OF LAUREL It is kinda’ like how I felt when the sister and two brothers I grew up with became a college professor, a world-class musician and a leading legal scholar. Where did that come from? Gentle Reader, you probably have had the same puzzlement about the neighbor kid you played house or marbles with who is recognized later in life by others as brilliant. You most likely ask yourself, “Who snatched their body away and replaced them with this heroic icon?” This Gavel Gamut could not be written until after Indiana University’s football team won the CFP semi-final game against Oregon on 09 January 2026; IU did! So, now the ultimate issue to be decided is, will IU beat Miami … [Read More...] about Hallowed Halls of Laurel
Therapy
America needs therapy; about 350 million counselors seems about right. Where to find them and how to compensate them are the seminal issues. As therapists always approach client treatment with the same, lone question, “How do you feel about that?”, the answers to America’s dilemmas and to each of our personal problems must lie within. We need only to bring forth for analysis the quandaries we are facing, then have other individuals or groups help us solve things for ourselves. For example, a Catholic penitent might say, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned”; he or she divulges the sin, then does whatever penance, say ten Hail Mary’s, the priest decides will expiate those transgressions. … [Read More...] about Therapy
Highly Resolved
Abraham Lincoln published one of our nation’s solemn resolutions in his address at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863. The over three thousand dead Union soldiers were the particular men Lincoln referenced that day. However, since President Lincoln’s main focus of the Civil War was to hold our country together, most likely he had in mind all the dead and wounded on both sides when he said: “…[W[e here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…” That resolution was not made for a New Year, but it was a noble hope for our country’s future. From 1863 until 1914 this goal was fractured by almost continuous death and … [Read More...] about Highly Resolved
The Reasons For The Season
Clark Griswold is a Christmas everyman. He is to a family Christmas reunion what Oedipus was to reunions with his father, whom he kills, and his mother, whom he marries. Both Oedipus and Clark performed well intentioned acts which resulted in disasters. That illustrates one of the main problems for all writers after the Classical Age of Greece. Such playwrites and philosophers as Sophocles already wrote 2,500 years ago the plots the rest of us just keep repeating in different formats, such as this Gavel Gamut column. As for the hapless Clark Griswold, all he wants is to provide his family with “A good ‘ole family Christmas” and fate punishes his every move. By the end of the National … [Read More...] about The Reasons For The Season
Books
Unanimous for Murder
Live on Amazon.com and Kindle eBooks!
Unanimous for Murder picks up where JUDGE LYNCH! left off. A gripping story of small town murder and judicial shenanigans on the western frontier when the western frontier was east of the Mississippi.
Echoes of Our Ancestors: The Secret Game
Jim’s new novel tells the exciting story of a long hidden but important football game that occurred between representatives of Haskell Indian Institute (now the Haskell Indian Nations University) and professionals from the then Kansas City Cowboys in 1924 at a secret location on the Osage Indian Nation near Pawhuska, Oklahoma - where Jim was born.
JUDGE LYNCH!
“Judge Lynch Holds Court!” That was the banner headline in a Posey County, Indiana newspaper after seven African American men were murdered by a white mob during October, 1878.
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Gavel Gamut Greetings from JPeg Ranch
“Gavel Gamut Greetings" is an anthology of topical and historical selections mainly about regional events and personalities that have appeared in my weekly newspaper column, Gavel Gamut.
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