- Blog
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Accomplishments
The challenge today was to be alright with accomplishing nothing. Which turned into something else. I’m parenting solo with only one of the kids, my 3-year-old daughter, as my wife and 6-year-old son are on a whirlwind trip to visit friends in far-off places. I am enjoying the chance to spend solo time with my…
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Ye Who Are Unworthy of PEZ
I don’t care you if you blaspheme. You can take whatever lord’s name in vain that you please. You can desecrate any holy book that tickles your fancy. Heck, you can even bad-mouth Star Trek. Whatever. But, in the name of all that is good, how dare these people sully the pure, incorruptible symbol of…
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RT This Post for Dopamine Squirts
This piece by Darya Rose is about indulging in things that are bad for you, but that you think are making you happy, like alcohol and junk food. But it speaks to me in terms of what I have come to need from my creative pursuits: attention. Dopamine fools your brain into mistaking reward for real…
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Presidential Primaries Might Be a Terrible Idea
Political parties aren’t the government, even though the Democrats and Republicans have so entirely weaved their parties into the machinery of government and the electoral system. Constitutionally, the two major parties are no more “official” than the Natural Law Party or the Rent is Too Damn High Party. They are nongovernmental associations that organize to…
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“Shoot Me Instead”
I shouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t help it. No, I’m not shocked that there might be someone who wants desperately to attack Donald Trump. I am taken aback, however, by the Secret Service. Wait, taken aback isn’t right. Watch this. I’m moved. Did you see what those guys did? When a threat to their…
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Romney’s Game
Mitt Romney is trying to be president. When Mitt Romney took the stage yesterday at the University of Utah to inveigh against Donald Trump, there was a widely shared sense (if my Twitter feed is any indication) that he was making a noble attempt at saving his party, and perhaps the country, from self-destruction. Selflessly…
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Ben Carson Makes a Correct Diagnosis
Ben Carson, who for some reason believes himself to still be running for president, made what I have to assume was an accidentally astute observation about the GOP presidential race. In Irving, Texas on Saturday he said: We’re just trying to entertain people. It reminds me so much of ancient Rome — everyone wants to…
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Suckered by Chris Christie
I’m a sucker. I used to think that there was some modicum of integrity within Chris Christie. Yes, his brand was based on bluster and boorishness, and yes, he played the game of politics and sacrificed principles when necessary. But I always presumed that there was something honest underneath it all, something true, a genuine…
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Trump Can’t Be Stopped by Shaming His Voters
The editorial board of the Washington Post wants to stop Trump from getting the Republican nomination, citing Trump’s lies, threats, lack of an actual agenda, lack of experience, admiration for Putin, and the fact that “he wants the United States to commit war crimes.” Where do they turn? Certainly there are Republican leaders who understand all…
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Trump Will Be the Nominee and the GOP (Unfortunately) Will Be Fine
Donald Trump will be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. I thought this months ago, and today it’s blindingly obvious. What baffles me is that this is only now dawning on the political class. He was written off as a joke when he entered the race (and in the case of Huffington Post, officially…
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Jeb the Human
Like almost everyone the past few months, I’ve not felt inclined to be kind to or about John Ellis Bush. This was justified in my mind largely by the fact that life has been so incredibly kind to Jeb in the 60-some years previous, and likely will for many years more. I deeply resented the…
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Malleable
Former President Jimmy Carter would take Trump over Cruz, and so would I. Jimmy says: The reason is, Trump has proven already he’s completely malleable. I don’t think he has any fixed (positions) he’d go the White House and fight for. On the other hand, Ted Cruz is not malleable. He has far right-wing policies…
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Ironic Imaginary Conversations
Tom Jacobs at Pacific Standard reports on research that shows how animosity toward nonbelievers can be reduced by the religious having an imaginary, positive conversation with an atheist. And most of the subjects said they didn’t know any atheists personally: Those who engaged in the imagined conversation “expressed significantly less distrust toward atheists” than those who simply ruminated about…
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Trump is Exactly What We Wanted
I was not a Trump skeptic when he entered the race. I didn’t know how far he’d get, but I knew he’d be a big factor, and as he plowed ahead and stayed on top, I was also not one of those who thought he’d implode. His support, I believed, was rock solid, with a…
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‘Twas the Night Before Iowa (Which Probably Won’t Matter)
Here’s what I think of the state of the race on the night before the Iowa caucuses. The polls right now for Iowa are more or less meaningless. Yes, Clinton and Trump are both up a little in the final pre-Iowa poll, but it doesn’t really matter. Save for the poor bastards in single digits, the…
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