Contact me

...and Senator Collins Respectfully Can Go Fuck Herself

We’ll get back to it in a minute, but for now I’d like you to put aside all thought of the recent Supreme Court agitation and participate in a little thought experiment. It is intended for everyone—male and female, Democrat and Republican, conservative and progressive. It will take only a few minutes and doesn’t even have to …[MORE]

Out of Control

Lately it seems that, no matter what the topic, the essential issue is someone trying desperately to control someone else. The struggle between dominance and submission lies at the heart of many conflicts, both personal and political. I think it has always been so, but still as a society we seem to be at some fevered pitch.

Parents attempt to control …[MORE]

Draft of a Letter to My Congressional Representatives

Things we should NEVER have to say to any one of our elected representatives:

    • Lying is wrong
    • Cheating is wrong
    • Stealing is wrong
    • Betraying those who elected you is wrong
    • Betraying those who elected you for the sake of your own personal enrichment is just downright disgusting
    • Encouraging your peers to obstruct justice—not covertly, but publicly and blatantly—is not just wrong, …[MORE]

An Open Letter to Laura Ingraham and Those to Whom She Was Speaking

It’s really not hard. The way we learn about the world is to examine it with our minds.

If you live in a whites-only gated neighborhood, attend a whites-only church, send your kids to a whites-only private school and shop in a whites-only gourmet supermarket, it should be no surprise that to you the world looks mostly white. What is …[MORE]

People Like Us Do Things Like This

Marketer extraordinaire Seth Godin describes “tribes” as groups that develop a persona, along with a set of words, actions and symbols that convey the message: “People like us do things like this.” Whether it’s the charities you support, the iPhone you carry or the television programs you watch, these symbols signal your alignment with one tribe or another.

A classic tribal example …[MORE]

It Starts Badly, But Gets Better

One of the reasons I last disrupted this blog was my despair over the current political situation. I didn’t want my blog to spiral into a downward descent of ranting, but I wasn’t sure I could avoid it. Once or twice I’ve been moved to compose a long, impassioned essay about some hot potato or other, but so far …[MORE]

Pretty Damn Scary

I watch a lot of YouTube. Not only do I directly search for some videos, I also do a lot of clicking around on the other suggested links that load with every selected video. It’s a bit like going down the rabbit hole. You just never know what you’re likely to find.

Over the years I have found some pretty dark …[MORE]

The Яussians Are Coming! The Яussians Are Coming!

There are some metrics attached to a blog, so I can look at numbers and graphs to see how many people come here and when, etc. I also get an email letting me know when someone new registers on the blog.

It’s been a long time since there’s been anything in the way of emails received, so I took notice one …[MORE]

What Works vs. What Feels Good

There is one eccentricity of human behavior that leaves me dumbfounded. That’s when people will turn their backs on a successful strategy which achieves their goal, and embrace instead a failed strategy that makes them look and feel good.

There are a number of examples in our modern American life, but the one that made today’s headlines …[MORE]

Three Kinds of People

I needed to make a short trip this Sunday morning. I had a choice to either go via the freeway or navigate across the neighborhood. I usually choose the neighborhood for a lower stress factor, especially on the drive home. The return trip requires me to cross the entire breadth of Interstate 10 in about a quarter mile, …[MORE]