AN EXPERIMENTAL LIFE
There are three historical certainties - all of them negative. 1) Jesus did not found a religion of fundamentalist evangelicals nor ever suggest such a thing. 2) History is not a blank where nothing meaningful happened from St. Constantine to Martin Luther. 3) Neoconservatives had nothing to do with the founding of the United States of America or, as they contrive it, "America", let alone the … [Read more...]
I was at dinner the other night, and a woman at the table behind me was saying, "I get tired of being told we have to sugar coat our history so as not to offend some group." Add to this a way of talking that probably couldn't tell you in what century the French Revolution occurred. I think that pretty much says it all - who she thinks "we/our" is. Who she thinks "some group" is. And what she … [Read more...]
Point One: I think David E. Kelley's tongue-in-cheek legal (and educational) dramas (like Boston Legal & Boston Public) set the same brilliant standard that John Hughes did with the teen dramedy (Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink). Hughes seemed to make real Disneyfied crap after Home Alone 2. I've been pursuing the legal drama thing hard … [Read more...]
"West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette: In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court overruled its decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis and held that compelling public schoolchildren to salute the flag was unconstitutional. The Court found that salutes of the type mandated by the West Virginia State Board of Education were forms of utterance and thus were a means of communicating … [Read more...]
Normally, I'd wait until the end before posting about a book. But I'm reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I intended to ditch it as soon as I realized it would be first person. But I got stuck in its world. It starts out a bit YAD feeling, with what seems like it'll be a frame story. What King is actually doing is setting up a means of discussing time travel, which I really appreciated. In fact a … [Read more...]
Of course I had to read this one. Child fleeing abusive home. They're hunting him, and he has to learn to make a life on his own. It's a novella, and maybe another of Koontz's recent teasers. But I'm willing to be teased with this. There's a teaser for 77 Shadow Street at the end, but I found it bleh. Just horror. I'll pretty much read any more that Koontz puts out with the three main protagonists … [Read more...]
I've never undertstood people being willing to pay for training, college courses, a degree, certification, education, but who treat the money they've spent trying things out in life (experimentally) as money "lost" when they later choose another direction. Money spent on a house, and then you decide you don't want a house. Money spent on a degree, and then you decide you don't need the degree. … [Read more...]
Oklahoma was an experiment that lasted half my life. I lived in Oklahoma when I was 12, again when I was 15, from 17-23 (the rest of my boyhood) & 24-28 (the beginning of adulthood) and again from 30-31 (my experiment with on-campus grad school). I returned in 2000 as a married man and stayed for more than 10 years after that. It's on that 10year period I place most of my attention, because I … [Read more...]
To those who left us, who abandoned me or my wife or the both of us, throughout our lives, because we weren't finished yet, or we fell short, or because in some ways the world had shattered us like glass and we were looking up in pieces with sharp edges. You were foolish and impatient. You lacked integrity and were possessed of cowardice. You judged without reference to your own frailty. You … [Read more...]
For me, epistemology, judgment, and identity are the core variables that determine whether I engage people seriously or merely humour them. How do you deal with motivations and behaviors you don't understand? Do you superimpose meaning over them, thereby substituting an illusion for understanding, an assumption for reality, or do you allow yourself to remain in the dark and be comfortable with … [Read more...]
I break politically minded people down into two categories - liars and idiots. I'm not talking about politicians, which are either paid, professional liars or ideologically sponsored fools. I mean ordinary people who consume political news and either believe what they hear or see it as the arena for their ideological battle. The idiot is the true believer - the person who, for example, says we … [Read more...]
It's Thistle & Shamrock night, and Folk Salad night. I'm always surprised that people seem surprised, sometimes, because I listen to Celtic or Appalachian folk. Likewise, I have a straw hat I wore when I ran a company based on working outdoors. Normally I come off as either a bit Breaking Benjamin or just Wagner, though my secret passion is lesbian music. I'm a diehard Sarah Maclachlan fan, … [Read more...]
When I was younger, I bought into the sales pitch that zoos are rescuing animals from the jungles where, otherwise, they might be wiped out. Later, when we had more information about animal procurement, they changed their pitch. It became about 'raising awareness' so that people would care about protecting animals in those same jungles. I've come to believe zoos actually soften such awareness by … [Read more...]
When some people ask about my religion and, and I mention our traditions, they express surprise because I wasn't raised in it. Their point is that, if you didn't grow up in the Faith, speaking of "my people" or "our tradition" seems false or contrived. It has taken me some years to realize that, because they are inundated with fundamentalist 'messages' from every megaphone the world offers, they … [Read more...]
We live in an age of AntiChrist. I don't mean a fundamentalist theory that plays "who's the devil". I mean in principle, politically, and ethically, it's one of the ages of AntiChrist, of which there have been many - perhaps (as is my attitude) all of them. There are several core principles of AntiChrist or of an antiChristian ethos, many of which are supported fervently and even rabidly by the … [Read more...]