Solutions are Easy; Wresting Control in Order to Implement Them Is Another Thing Altogether
I wonder how many genuine solutions to current problems get bogged down in meetings demanding a certain power-hungry consensus.
Tribal Allegiance Didn't Save Anyone from COVID
I'm not into tribes these days. Tribalism did not save one person who contracted COVID and died from it. It won't save the next, either.
I Believe... [Dying Breath]
...that, if one spends more than a few minutes a day being anxious about money, a serious re-evaluation of what is and is not of value is in order. No one expends their final breath to brag about their credit score.
Sometimes You Just Gotta Buy a $6 Million House
BLM Co-Founder Patrisse Cullors says she's thriving. No shit.
Masculinity is Not the Problem
Where are the lines between masculinity (nature's way), hyper-masculinity (the ego's way), and toxic masculinity (the villain's way)?
I Believe... [Supporting Dictators with Food Choice]
...that if you’re canceling Russian dressing but not Korean BBQ, Chinese egg rolls, or Middle Eastern Falafel, you’re a dietary dictatorship apologist.
American Jobs—Cleaning Up Bars on a Graveyard Shift
It felt like I was living two lives. Each day surrounded by hopeful, enthusiastic, and highly dramatic college students. Lots of chatter, lots of noise. Each night it was as if I had transported to a movie about the dystopian end of mankind.
I Believe... [Bullies Always Gotta Punch the Little Guy]
I believe... that Chris Rock was the victim of assault and still held his poise. Will Smith was the much bigger kid hitting the class clown for making fun of his wife like any other garden variety bully. And the room gave him a standing ovation for it like the cheerleaders after the high school quarterback punches out the drama kid.
American Jobs | Waiting Tables for the Son of Satan
"So what's the worst customer story you have?" I asked.
I Believe... [Cartman as Greek Prophecy]
...that South Park turned out to be the funny Cassandra prophesying our fate.
I Like to Watch | Nostalgia Porn
As a GenXer, I've started to notice what can only be called Nostalgia Porn as it is the practice of taking cherished memories of movies and recreating them with the same actors playing the same roles with a fresher coat of technological paint.
Excerpt: My Kind of Corporal Punishment
The following is an excerpt from the book "Strippers, Guns, and The Holocaust Museum: OR: How I Survived My Time as a Chicago Public School Music Teacher"
I Believe... [Public Education, My Ass]
I believe... that you either give teachers appropriate compensation or authority in the classroom. One or the other. Take away both and you get completely unqualified babysitters searching on their phones while your kids become a modern version of the boys in Lord of the Flies but with TikTok.
Things Discovered Upon Quitting That Cushy Gig
The easy road is to accept that age is a prison. You become obsolete over time. Just resign yourself to that obsolescence and retire to a corner, whittling stick figures and rocking in that chair. I've never been one to take the easy path and I'm starting now.
You Don't Mess Around with Jim (after COVID and he has a gun now)
And you don't take a completely irrational population, after spending a few years in lockdown in fear of an invisible virus and prone to yelling at each other for either wearing or not wearing a cloth mask in a Sbarro, and give them unfettered access to the largest arsenal of personal weapons in history. It's just dumb. It's dangerous. It's catastrophic.
I Believe... [Rushin' Cancellations]
...that cancelling Russian food, Russian television show, Russian dressing, rushin’ around in traffic is a sign that Americans are a bit too dense to enter any European wars anytime soon.
Seven Things Learned from Taylor Sheridan's '1883'
1883 is the tale of the Dutton ancestors traveling along the Oregon Trail (just like the early video game most of us GenXers played on ancient home computers) on the way to Montana to settle the Yellowstone/Dutton ranch. Featuring Sam Elliot, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Isabel May, I gained an appreciation for Sheridan's work (he is the sole writer of every episode) and just finished it last night.
[From the Archives] America is Not the Amityville Horror or Poltergeist House
The house that is the United States, if it were an actual house, has plenty of flakey hemoglobin on the grounds.
I Believe... [Taiwanese Anxiety Disorder]
I believe... that the most nervous government on the globe right now is Taiwan.
I Believe... [Nevada—Dumb But Fun]
...that Nevada has a worse record in education than Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi which supports the conclusion that only the dumbest people gamble on the regular. We do have lots of booze and exposed boobs, so there’s a plus side, right?
...that intense and deep aren’t the same thing even if you’ve convinced yourself they are. Intense is momentary and fleeting; deep is the result of time and energy.