When I see that others have what I didn’t, all I feel is happiness for them. Like this scene, for example. Lucky kid and fantastic man. The father is supportive to a superhuman degree, unashamed to show his love, proud, and uncompetitive. None of this “old lion versus young lion” stuff. “You are set for…
A post I’ve been told to not write, Part One
April 25, 2014
I’ve been told to not write this, but I’m going to anyway. I think it’s important that a misconception be addressed, and I also don’t like the direction our country is heading. I’ve been there, and you’re not going to like what you’re helping create. When I say it’s important to address a misconception, I…
A post I’ve been told to not write, Part Two
April 25, 2014
My economic history cont. To satisfy the gods of SEO, I must write “not write.” Having done so, back to my résumé. In January of 1992, I sent a proposal for an article to Jim Roberts, the editor of Bass Player. He accepted it, and it was published as “The Bass Gods of Japan” in…
Things I never considered, part 80 trillion
April 24, 2014
I just got an e-mail that prompts me to post about something I never considered. It was a long message full of instructions on how I should change the way I write and live. I’ll address just one point because in our current culture, the classes are pitted against each other, and I don’t want…
A squall
April 24, 2014
I had a very strange experience last night: a squall of uncontrollable emotion. It shows that things are always in flux. I guess I’ve buried some aspects of my life instead of accepting and incorporating them. The work must continue. After I take my nightly meds, I watch YouTube videos for a while, until I’m…
Estrangement
April 23, 2014
Today I read of two things that underscore my estrangement from what I guess would be called the mainstream world. But they also show how far I’ve come in my drive to banish the rage that shackled me. First, I saw a piece about a writer whose story is being covered by most of the…
Happy Easter
April 20, 2014
Happy Easter to everyone. Though I don’t identify as a Christian, I’m a theist, meaning I believe in God. The reason I can’t call myself a Christian is because I don’t meet the criterion. I can’t say that I believe that Yeshua Ben Yosef of Nazareth was the Christ, or son of God. It’s not…
Cautionary tales always become manuals. And win free e-books!
April 17, 2014
I just read an article titled “Ten Things Idiocracy Predicted Would Happen, and Sadly Already Have.” Though I haven’t seen Idiocracy, I’m not surprised. Cautionary tales always become manuals. This phenomenon is not new. And win free e-books by answering a question! I’ll tell you how later. In 1941 Budd Schulberg published a novel titled…
Conversation with a Secular Humanist, Part One
April 13, 2014
On April 12, 2014, the novelist Anne Rice posted the following video on her Facebook fan page and asked for comments. I obliged her. In the interest of full disclosure, I was raised a Catholic, like Rice was. She and I both left the church at eighteen, but I never looked back. I was an…
Conversation with a Secular Humanist, Part Two
April 13, 2014
The conclusion of my Facebook conversation with the novelist Anne Rice. Conversation with a Secular Humanist, Part Two Christianity, with its belief in a fiery and everlasting Hell has waged battles and wars of genocide against other peoples throughout its long and bloody and cruel history because it believes ultimately that it has the only…