Richard Dean Zehringer, RIP

Better known to the world as Rich Derringer passed away yesterday, 26-May-2025. He was 77 years old.

When I was in high school, my grandmother gave me a two 45 records, one of which was Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo which I thoroughly enjoyed. The other 45 was the Carpenters' Top of the World, so there's that. Derringer had already achieved majors success as the front man for the McCoys and their hit single Hang on Sloopy, to which the following link is worth a glance, he looks so young. The students at Ohio State should be in mourning today.

After his solo hit single, Derringer worked with many well known performers such as such as Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter Group, Steely Dan, Bonnie Tyler, Cyndi Lauper, Barbara Streisand, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, B.B. King, Roger McGuinn, and Leslie West.

Rest in peace.

The War on Warriors

Bought the book about a year ago after watching him on television discuss his work and hinting at how his military career was torpedoed by politicians and sycophantic officers. I started the book immediately, got bored, but then the author chosen and confirmed as the Secretary of Defense, so made quick effort to read the darned thing.

Fully titled The War on Warriors, Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, the book is short at only 256 pages.

A majority of the book focuses on how public political theories creep into and corrupt proven military processes. Particularly how the Obama and Biden regimes inserted DEI dogma into many facets of military operations and training. 

I suppose that this is the nature of politicians in times of peace, and the nature of military leadership to relax at the simultaneously. They cling to their positions more than reality, often until it's too late.

The book itself started weakly but did recover and end well.

If you like Pete Hegseth, it is a nice short read.

The Creature from Jekyll Island

The Creature from Jekyll Island is a book that, for me, a wonderful gift from my brother Kye. Written by G. Edward Griffin, the book was published in 1994.

As said the book was a gift, a couple of years ago. At roughly 700 pages and being somewhat technical in nature, it took me a couple of months to read, amongst other books.

The author is not loved by academia or media types, but it does present a reasonable theory as the way banking works in the world.

Basically, the process is this banks love for governments, and not just the United States to spend more than they bring in. This motivates governments to generate revenue by increasing the money supply, aka inflating the currency. The revenue is supplied by, in the US, issuing notes to the Federal Reserve, who intern lend that money to commercial banks, who in turn can lend the money out to whomever why maintaining, theoretically 10% in reserve. The commercial banks can now leverage that remaining 90% into multiple or the original amount. Essentially creating money that is never printed. 

The book in depth discusses fiat money and how the true value of money should be tied to gold or similar. Anchored currencies are the safest, but the politicians hate being tied to a commodity and the bankers can't profit on reserves not in play. So, we are likely doomed to a future of more of the same.

I might add that most financial systems are subject to dynamic forces, no system is perfect, all have had booms and failures.

Loved the book, recommend it highly. Don't be too public with it, you might be judged a right wing not rather than a financial scholar.

Enjoy