- Blog
-
My Atheism Will Not Save the World
After working professionally in the atheist movement, something about my passion for the cause dwindled. This happens a lot to me — I take on a given subject as my profession, and I subsequently grow disillusioned in said subject. Something about a thing becoming one’s job can spoil it. But after putting aside theatre a…
-
Know Thine Enemy, Or Look Like a Damned Idiot
Might as well be Hitler. Few things are as frustrating to do-gooder liberals like myself as when other do-gooder liberals go off the deep end. Whatever the cause, however so worthy it might be, crossing the line from passionate to goofy is so easy, and happens to often. Then, of course, the cause itself loses…
-
Superiority over the Superior
David Brooks, from his fixed position as Moral Center of the Universe, bemoans our collective feeling of superiority over those who failed to stop the horror of the Penn State scandal. Commentators ruthlessly vilify all involved from the island of their own innocence. Everyone gets to proudly ask: “How could they have let this happen?”…
-
The Fashionably Late Don’t Get to Be President
I don’t think anyone could have foreseen Rick Perry’s dizzying drop in support during the past few weeks. I, for one, definitely feared him as some kind of unstoppable teabagger-infused jugger-nut who might very well fool the American electorate into making him president by virtue of his swagger and love for Jesus. It’s happened before. And I still…
-
The Fashionably Late Don’t Get to Be President
”Hey, ev’rybody! What’d I miss?” ** I don’t think anyone could have foreseen Rick Perry’s dizzying drop in support during the past few weeks. I, for one, definitely feared him as some kind of unstoppable teabagger-infused jugger-nut who might very well fool the American electorate into making him president by virtue of his swagger and…
-
It’s Not Meningitis!
So, I thought that getting through the anniversary of my violent encounter on the streets of DC would be something of a relief, a release of some psychological pressure that’d been building up for some weeks. As I noted, the event itself passed almost unnoticed by me when it actually came, so there was some…
-
The Attack, Ctd.
This past Wednesday marked one year since I was assaulted by two thugs outside a DC Metro station, and everything changed. What’s odd is that I had been kind of bracing for the first anniversary of the event, as though there was a sort of rent in the universe where it happened in time, and…
-
Don’t Bother Facepalming for Jon Huntsman
So, it turns out Jon Huntsman doesn’t actually speak “fluent” Mandarin. He can apparently garble his way through, which is way more than I will ever be able to do in any language other than English, but this notion pushed by his campaign and by the lazy media that he has mastered the Chinese tongue…
-
Why, Oh Why Must I Have Mitt Romney’s Back?
”I’m delightful now!” I still hate Mitt Romney, but it continues to get under my skin when he gets knocked for presentational hangups he had four years ago, but has now largely gotten over. As much as I adore Rachel Maddow, for example, her hammering of Romney night after night for his rich-guy persona is beginning to border on…
-
Harold Ford’s Qualifications for Being a Political Analyst
Harold Ford is on TV a lot. He’s on Meet the Press and Morning Joe more often than the hosts themselves. I’m fairly certain he has a cot under David Gregory’s desk. And once he rises from that cot, rubs the sleepiness from his eyes, and grabs a quick bite from the NBC commissary, he can be relied upon…
-
Man vs. Terminal Services Session
Friend-of-the-blog Jason Guy was an early influence on my decision to switch over to the Apple ecosphere back in 2004. A recent email from him somehow perfectly illustrates the difference in corporations’ business ethics, their notions of efficiency and respect for the customer, and the overall usability of their products. I’ll just let Jason explain:…
-
Grieving an Ethos: Thoughts on the Loss of Steve Jobs
Most of the people I work with are, naturally, having very strong feelings about the death of Steve Jobs. But not all, and that’s fine. My wife is also not what I would call crushed by his passing, but she is extremely sympathetic and supportive; she understands how I revered the man and what he…
-
The Steve
Peace be upon him.
-
“If They Like Printed Books, They Should Be Buying the Damn Things”
Richard Nash validates my take on what I call the “But I Love the Smell of Books” argument against the digitization of the traditional codex, focusing on the fact that if books are so important as physical artifacts, they are not being treated as such by the industry or even consumers: If they like printed…
pav dot quest 