Category Archives: Politics

The New Normal

crazy-town-exitThe 1991 movie Grand Canyon, which I wrote about recently, in large part is about how insane life has become. In the 25 years since, the insanity has grown. Perhaps most are so focused on just getting through their life or are so taken up by the distractions and toys of modern living, that they never stop to realize just how really crazy the world has gotten.

I don’t mean the apocalyptic reality presented by TV news, or by the GOP; I mean the sheer insanity of how we go about our business these days, what we accept as “the way things are.”

I mean what we’ve come to accept as normal.

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High Ground

questionsWhen did we change? When did we decide that torture was an okay idea? When did we begin to so tolerate the very presence of nationalism, racism, and gender politics? When did we decide to so forsake the values that defined us as a nation?

Why do we think popular or successful means — even defines — what is right? Why do we cling to clearly false beliefs rather than accepting demonstrated facts? Why do we confuse what we like with what is good?

Where is our moral high ground, the set of values espoused by the founders of the USA and which, until recently, have largely been at the center of our national identity. Where is one of the most important questions of all: Is it the right thing?

What is wrong with us that an obviously unqualified raging narcissistic reality TV show star has even a chance of being elected President of the country? How can we possibly be this foolish? What makes anyone think he can even begin to deliver?

Who will we elect, someone who — like her or not — is clearly qualified to run the country, or an ignorant human monster surfing a wave of hate, fear, and angry frustration? Perhaps more importantly, who are we as a people?

Who do we want to be?

Which way will we turn? Towards the Dark Side? Or towards the light?


On This Day We Remember

911-stampIt’s one of those days you remember better than any birthday or wedding. Those were planned; these hit you suddenly, stunning your mind, breaking your heart. “The shuttle blew up!” “The Towers fell!”

The impact was even greater if you saw it happen in real-time. If you watched the shuttle launches. If you caught the breaking news before the second tower was hit. Saw the second plane, realized at that moment, “This is no accident!”

Even if you saw it after, you saw it; saw it as an attack.

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BB #56: Sour Bubbles

BrainFireLooking back over the trail of sour bubbles, obvious themes emerge: Society, Politics, Media, The Interweb. Important topics that affect and reflect us. Topics I find filled with dire signs and portents, chill winds carrying a hint of smoke that makes my neck hairs stand up straight.

For example, Vin Scully is retiring. If that’s not a sign of the coming apocalypse, I don’t know what one is. Adding insult, my Minnesota Twins are having a bad season of truly biblical proportions.

So, a strange sour silly summer…

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BB #55: Thunder Bubbles

astonishedI was thunderstruck — brought to a speechless halt — by a thought I had last night while hanging out with friends and (as required by urgent social custom these days) the talk turned to the candy corn-colored bag of GOP chickens come home to roost.

The thought suddenly that occurred to me: We might actually end up being very grateful for Donald Trump for the very simple reason that Hillary Clinton might well be losing against any reasonable, and sane, GOP candidate!

We might otherwise have been looking at strong odds on a Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio presidency (and, no, poor Jeb! never had a chance; he just doesn’t have the right stuff).

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BB #52: Orange Bubbles

poll

Election chances as calculated by the FiveThirtyEight website.

How is it that I live in a world in which the graph above is real?

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BB #50: Blog Bubbles

BrainFireThere is no question ‘the urge to write is strong in this one’ but these days I’m weary (on many levels) of writing structured blog posts. At the same time, after so many years of writing for presentation, it’s hard to relax one’s own rules enough for a major style change. But it’s what I keep reaching for.

Seeking that, as well as catharsis from a world that has either gone mad, or — at the very least — is driving me mad, I realized, a-ha: Brain Bubbles! While intended for off-the-cuff passing thought posts, many turned out as collections of related (or unrelated!) thought bubbles.

So pop the cork and let the bubbly flow…

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The Week of Aug 14

notesWith modern live moving at such a fast pace, the span of a week often moves things along rapidly (even when one has deliberately taken the rat race off-ramp). My personal life doesn’t change much (because of that whole off-ramp thing), but the world at large careens along in its usual Zippy way.

But as I continue the summer project of converting my long-time storage room into an office-library (as intended when I moved in back in 2003), I do unearth long-lost personal archeology finds that take me back. A few bits go back to high school, but a lot of it is from college.

One significant find is from a few years after…

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Stupidity Is Winning

face palm - gecko

And whiplash from SMH!

I’m having a tough year; damn near everything pisses me off these days. I’ve never been angrier at the human race than I am lately. My disdain for people is at an all-time high, and that’s a sick way to be. It’s not at all natural for me.

In fact, retirement brought me a long-time-coming epiphany of sorts. I’ve long been known as one of those angry, critical types. A high school friend once named me “the angry young man” (so this has been going on a while). I’ve always accepted it as true. What I finally realized is that it isn’t me…

It’s you.

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Over and Over

cow jumped moonCome over here. Go over there. Let’s go over the bridge, over the wall, and over the plan (while we still have a roof over our heads). But let’s not get over-confident and allow our enthusiasm to spill over. (For that might over-turn the apple cart and we won’t get a do-over!)

Something can be over — that is to say finished, done. And one can be over something (finished with it, done with it). I’ve been struck, lately, by a number of things that are over as well as by the realization that I’m over some things.

The former make me a little bit sad, and a couple of the latter, especially one, took me a bit by surprise!

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