Jeff’s Journal

2025-01-25 The Fall Begins: Bearing Witness to Democracy’s Decline

The first post of my new Series, "The Fall," meant to discuss the decline of democracy in our country and ...
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A Brief Introduction to Crypto Currency

A brief introduction to cryptocurrency. Consider this a primer ...
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After the Fall (post-election)

Me, trying to deal with the aftermath of emotions following Trump's win ...
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An Evening with Richard Dawkins

A brief discussion of my attending a talk by Richard Dawkins ...
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July 2024 Catching Up!

In this post I describe the experience I had ingesting magic mushrooms for the first time in 50 years ...
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Remembering Tommy Johnson – A Friend for Life

A memorial to my life-long friend, Tommy Johnson, from Duluth, Minnesota ...
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Catching Up!

Wow, it’s been more than a month since my last blog post. I guess a lot has been going on, ...
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They Don’t Necessarily Know What They Are Talking About!

The following is another anecdote from my childhood This one has to do with the time I had a grade ...
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The Boy in the Window

If you are anything like me, you probably have some occasional childhood memories that pop, unbidden, into your head from ...
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The Dune Litany, Re-purposed!

If you're a Dune fan like me, you've read most of the books and watched the movies, old and new, ...
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Are Religion and Science Incompatible?

I say, “Yes! And Ne’er the Twain Will Meet!”[i] Some might read the title of this post and think, “That’s ...
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How Did I End Up in Duluth?

The way my grandmother told it, is that she was at home in Duluth one day when she got a ...
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Introducing Jeff’s Journal

Greetings! While I have been writing some about my passions, like philosophy, science and travel, I have been wanting to ...
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How I Got the Surname of Drake

"I have been working on my family history for over 30 years now. That’s a long time, and I’m forced ...
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Something Happened

I have a photo of me with my mother in the hospital where I was born. She looks happy. I’m ...
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“And All Her Bearing Gracious” (1 of 2)

This is a beginning, I think. I imagine that I will be writing more about my mother, Mary Ellen Drake ...
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The Thinking Atheist

Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic? Explain Please!

For those who may be curious how I lost religion and gained common sense ...
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In Memory of Jim Duff

Please note: In 2010 I was invited to be a speaker at a wake in Indianapolis for one of the ...
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“And All Her Bearing Gracious” (2 of 2)

Well, I called Part 1 of my mother’s saga, And All Her Bearing Gracious, “a beginning,” and sadly, this looks ...
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The Thinking Atheist

A Blast From the Past

This post is a copy of a paper I wrote as a freshman in college in 1972. Actually, it was ...
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When the World Was Young

When all the world is young, lad, And all the trees are green; And every goose a swan, lad, And ...
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On Being Alone

I recently exchanged emails with a friend about an idea that has been bouncing around in my mind - that ...
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Jeff Drake

In defense of philosophy

Let’s face it. Many of us have been here before. Your child has entered college and is figuring out what ...
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Worth thinking about!

While searching through material I've written over the years, I came across one of my very first philosophy papers written ...
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Jeff’s Journal