Today I read a long blog post about how “90 percent” of us are furiously jealous of all good fortune that others enjoy. It’s only natural. If someone else is happy, successful, attractive, physically fit, talented, healthy, wealthy, and wise, the overwhelming majority of us wish ill on the person and hope they suffer calamity….
Unsolicited advice for those in crisis
June 15, 2014
Today I got the message I was expecting. It completed the metamorphosis that began January 16, 2013, the day both my parents were diagnosed with cancer. What I was told today was that my twelve-year friendship with someone was no longer “productive.” It’s not a word I’ve ever applied to friendship, but it turns out…
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…
The customer is never right
April 6, 2014
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…
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…
Is culture a good thing?
February 12, 2014
First, no news on the Mike Albee and Lura Dold front. As you may know, they defrauded me of $40,000 by exploiting the suicides of my parents in 2013. I’ve made a few inquiries here and there, and I’m planning a couple of things that may result in more exposure. Right now I have to…
Mom’s favorite song
October 14, 2013
Mom was a music prodigy. She gave her first public piano recital at the age of four. She quit playing when she was sent to boarding school at five due to family problems. Someday I’ll write about that. Mom’s time in the boarding school led directly to her death eighty years later. Since there was…
Dead in the water
October 12, 2013
Everything I’ve read about WordPress says it’s wonderful for search engines. Techies are ecstatic. Right out of the box, WordPress is perfect. But in this avalanche of accolades, I run across little “buts.” For example, WordPress doesn’t need no stinkin’ tags. Those are from the Stone Age. So, when I found out a few days…