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Grousing and Freedom
We do love to grouse. We complain about our bosses, our neighbors, our spouses, dumb TV shows, music we don’t like, and on and on. It’s an idle habit, and almost nobody who grouses does anything about the trouble they’re concerned with. It’s like complaining about the weather: so what? The problem with grousing is […]
Posted in: Politics, Society & Culture
Don’t Worry, We’re Only Here to Help
June 6, 2013
An up-and-coming political blogger posts some thoughts on the recent news that the U.S. government has engaged in wholesale spying on American phone calls, in particular those placed through the Verizon system. The blogger allows that he’s not much of a fan of the ACLU, but that its warnings in this matter lead him to […]
Posted in: Politics
Best TV Quotes
May 23, 2013
Years ago, I posted on my website a page of great quotes from motion pictures. Readers chimed in with their own favorites, and pretty soon the page got really long. But that was fine: we were having fun. Since then, I’ve thought about adding a page of best TV quotes. Finally — to paraphrase TV’s […]
Posted in: The Arts
How Free Are We?
May 15, 2013
“Do not allow to slip away from you freedoms the people who came before you won with such hard knocks.” — DH Lawrence When I was young, a favorite thing to say was, “Go ahead, do what you want. It’s a free country.” Nowadays I never hear anyone say that. “Society had a crime problem. […]
Posted in: Politics
Law Porn
April 22, 2013
I’m a bit of a film buff, but I’m picky: I like movies that appeal to my interests and are well made. Porn fits one of those criteria but not the other. Finished guessing which? Pencils down! Answer: they’re poorly produced. The acting usually sucks. (Pardon the pun.) The sets and lighting are substandard. And […]
The Warrior’s Song of Death — a short story
April 15, 2013
We dropped onto the retail mall’s parking lot from a silent anti-grav paratroop plane. My commanding officer hit the pavement first, then waved up at me, and I followed. The fall was eighty feet, and we had no chutes, but we were cyborgs, so the landing did us no damage. The tarmac got some dents […]
Posted in: Fiction
What Can We Know?
April 8, 2013
“The secret to life in two words: not always so.” — Shunryu Suzuki “Nullius in verba.” (“Take nobody’s word for it.”) — The Royal Society “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” — Richard Feynman “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of […]
Posted in: Religion & Philosophy
June 12, 2013
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