I just read an incredibly long piece by Allison Hope Weiner, titled “A Journalist’s Plea On 10th Anniversary Of ‘The Passion Of The Christ’: Hollywood, Take Mel Gibson Off Your Blacklist.” Ms. Weiner says that she misjudged Gibson, that he isn’t an anti-Semite, and she now considers him a friend. Right off the bat, I’ll…
The problem with politics
March 11, 2014
I never discuss politics publicly. Unfortunately, everything in American culture is now politicized, so my statements are viewed as political even when they’re not. That’s the problem with politics. Too many people personalize their political views, so having a different opinion from them is seen as a repudiation of their entire being. But facts don’t…
Podsnappery
March 7, 2014
I like to research things, just for fun. A few days ago, I decided to look up Victorian American slang. No reason; it was just something I wanted to know about. I’m glad I took the time, because I learned an extremely useful word. Podsnappery: noun. Willful, complacent determination to ignore the objectionable or inconvenient, at…
A terrible death awaits you
March 4, 2014
I just wasted an hour trying to download the new Apple operating system for my computer. Apple is in a death spiral. They don’t send you disks anymore; you download everything fro the App Store. The problem is that the App Store will often not recognize your Apple ID and/or password. It waits until you’ve…
Awed and humbled
February 24, 2014
We in the United States can easily lose perspective and forget that compared to most of the world, we have no problems. Watch as unarmed Ukrainian protestors are shot down by police and military snipers. But they don’t give up. It’s heartbreaking, ghastly footage. Unbelievable. Could you do that? I couldn’t. And they did it…
No context for male beauty
February 23, 2014
Our popular culture is very cruel. I know, because I spent ten years in the factory that creates it. This cruelty bleeds over into the rest of our culture, which is deeply unhealthy. We hear on a daily basis about the stresses women are under to be beautiful. Although I have a certain amount of…
Lip servicing ourselves into hell
February 19, 2014
I recently joined Facebook. Against my will. Alas, it’s turned out to be what I feared: a place where uninformed opinions based entirely on emotions are hurled around like…like…this. “It began with a food fight between children.” That’s what Facebook is like, unfortunately. Today the Horror That Must Be Stopped was the bill that Democratic…
Stereotyping and making assumptions do not help
February 17, 2014
When actress Ellen Page announced that she’s gay, social media went wild, pro and con. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve seen Page only in Juno, a movie that I wasn’t able to finish. I’ve known too many people whose shtick is endless one-liners. My own father, in fact, hid behind puns, jokes, and…
Concentrating on the important things
February 15, 2014
I’m not a sports fan. Though I don’t dislike sports, I’m just not interested. I’m also not a breast fan. It’s not that I have an aversion to breasts; like sports, they just don’t interest me all that much. If I have to chose my favorite part of a woman’s body after her brain and…