Everywhere you look you see the new way of governing and doing business: “The customer is never right.” This is what happens when decision makers become rigid, power mad, and self-deluding. It’s also a terrible time to adopt such short-term thinking, because capital is more mobile than ever. Consumers have more choices than ever. In…
Everything goes into the open file
April 3, 2014
Yesterday a soldier carried out a mass shooting at Fort Hood. The CNN report I quote does everything to make the reader think this was a combat veteran who snapped. Because of agendas, everything I now hear goes into the open file. Basically, all the the reporting from April 2, 2014, was utterly worthless. It’s…
War requires love
March 30, 2014
On my home page today, I saw a banner ad for Axe deodorant. It had a slogan I hadn’t seen in over forty years: “Make love, not war.” This is silly on so many different levels it’s hard to know where to start, but the most glaringly obvious flaw in this mindless catchphrase from the…
Projection
March 28, 2014
The obsession with Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church is the most transparent case of psychological projection I’ve ever seen. There are several definitions of projection. Here’s the one I’ll use for the purposes of this post. A defense mechanism of denying flaws in yourself while attributing them to others. There’s no other explanation…
On friendship and geopolitics
March 25, 2014
The Russian annexation of the Crimea has put a huge strain on my friendship with the Russian colonel. It’s a shame because he’s a nice man. To my sorrow I’ve discovered that when it comes to friendship and geopolitics, the former depends on the latter. For many people, that is. Not for me. I didn’t…
Another valuable concept destroyed
March 20, 2014
Jill Filipovic recently wrote a piece titled, “We’ve Gone Too Far with ‘Trigger Warnings.’” It’s about how university students are demanding that virtually everything unpleasant have a “trigger warning,” meaning a disclaimer that will alert sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder that they may read or see something that could trigger a flashback. The result? Another…
Online outrage porn
March 19, 2014
I just read a piece titled “Why We’re Addicted to Online Outrage,” by Michael Brendan Dougherty. In his essay Dougherty links to “Outrage Porn: How the Need for ‘Perpetual Indignation’ Manufactures Phony Offense,” by Ryan Holiday. According to Holiday all the online outrage is fake, just a way for Websites to get publicity. He doesn’t…
You won’t like living in the Third World
March 18, 2014
I was born in Venezuela and lived there until I was ten. Venezuela was and is a Third World nation. A significant percentage of our fellow citizens want us to be a Third World nation. You won’t like it. This photo was taken in Caripito on March 25, 1966. I’m in the hard hat, Tim…