The Invisible Power of Shame

When people ask me what I want to replace violence as the main motivating force to behave in our society, I instantly reply “shame”. I think a lot of people believe that I’m kidding when I say this. I am…

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Zero Sum Games and Conservativism

I’m working on the budding theory that, if you can afford to quit your job, it may be at least a little immoral to keep it. Unless, I guess, you’re much better at it than someone else would be and…

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Senior Retreat and the Infinite Sadness

My image of God isn’t really an image at all. I think we’re all to an extent overly influenced by religious, Biblical, and societal depictions of the divine as a white-haired bearded father sitting on a cloud and looking vaguely…

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Droning On

Planes are in the news this week, though the one getting most of the attention was manned. People are desperately trying to discern the motive for 27-year-old German Andreas Lubitz’ decision to calmly place his passenger jet into a gradual…

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Ted Cruz and the Elaborate Troll Hypothesis

People simply cannot get enough Ted Cruz these days. The Senator, one of two representing the state of Texas, perennial hotbed of Presidential candidates successful and otherwise, recently became the first official candidate to take the office of the Presidency…

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The Myth of Linearity

Sometimes, life gets worse. You wouldn’t think that would be such a controversial statement. You might think, off-handedly, that it’s kind of trivial or obvious. People go from better situations to worse situations all the time. They lose jobs, relationships,…

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New Orleans March

The nights got suddenly sultry this week, as the bobbing of 40s and 70s and back again gave way to 80s and March did its job of actually transitioning the seasons over into something warmer and more life-giving than the…

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15 Years and a Day

It is perhaps fitting that I went with Introspection-style dash-bullet-points to summarize my experience in yesterday’s post. After all, yesterday was the 15th anniversary of my opening salvo into blogging, the first post of Introspection. Like so many things done…

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Wait, Wait, I’m Going to Tell You

Spoiler alert! I mean that in two senses. I am going to use this post both to tell you a few things about this weekend’s upcoming episode of “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” (sometimes hereinafter referred to as WWDTM) and…

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Choices: Too Many, Not Enough

“It’s a typical situation in these typical times too many choices… Oh, everybody’s happy everybody’s free we’ll keep the big door open everyone’ll come around. Why are you different? Why are you that way? If you don’t get in line,…

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