Another School Shooting Homicide/Suicide
Such sadness.
Such outrage.
People pray.
(Don't you know
there is no god
and even if there was
he wouldn't save you?)
Take Away Their Money but Change the Narrative, Too
Reality is that, while our access to information and our ability to communicate resistance is faster than ever in history, change is still and always will be a slow grind. Change takes patience and persistence. Change takes generations rather than spokespeople. Change is not limited to advancing legislation and requires a shift in the mythology we hold dear.
I Believe… [WOLVERINES!]
...that, if you think high school kids can’t be heroes, you never saw Red Dawn. WOLVERINES!
Armed Educators: What Your Kids' Teachers Say
I could list 50 things that could go wrong [with arming teachers] before I could list one thing that could go right. They’re going to know immediately what teachers have the guns. What if they jump you? An eighth grader could easily jump a smaller teacher. Or think about the parents. I don’t want to have a meeting with a parent and they know that I might be armed. You lose a measure of mutual respect when there’s implied violence. It develops a culture of fear and that’s not what we’re teaching. We’re teaching a culture of respect.
Your Life is a Work-in-Progress
From the moment we are conceived and a heartbeat begins pumping and a series of brainwaves commence, we have begun our death sentence. And life is the process of surviving the plethora of obstacles and events that strive to make the sentence shorter rather than "long-lived."
Our Heroes are Socialists
“In this nation, athletes are heroes. In bedrooms all across America, boys and girls have posters on their walls of Tom Brady, Lebron James and Tina Charles. All of them card-carrying socialist union members. Imagine that, Americans of every stripe cheering on socialists in bars across the country. If they only knew...
Notes from the Post-it Wall — Week of February 18, 2017
• There’s a special sense of accomplishment, renewal and thrill of driving your brand new car off the lot for the first time. I’m glad my wife was finally able to experience that this week.
Dickheads with Engines
Every car owner's nightmare: Your car is dead. You relied on some professionals to fix it, but it turns out they ain't so professional and you're fucked to the tune of a few grand. That shit sucks, but it's pretty run-of-the-mill sucky shit.
American Shithole #5 — Fuck You, NRA
So we will cheer as these brave children that have survived another horrific American school shooting, share impassioned pleas for sanity and meaningful action — even though we all fear their voices will fall on deaf republican ears. That nothing again will be done. Nothing that will have any effect, anyway. Certainly not with Trump in office. I am writing this as of Tuesday, a few days will pass before this posts, and their young, beautiful, powerful voices will fade into the background static as the news outlets are forced to focus on whatever new insanity emerges.
I would really, really, like to be wrong.
Like Paint Thinner on Canvas: Painting the Fear Away
I share a collective sense of powerlessness with the general population when it comes to changing the world. Of course, I’m no genius and have no real answers for what ails our lives, but when true pioneers come along humanity has a long history of destroying their progress. These pioneers are artists that were trying to paint better futures for us.
The Minutes of our Last Meeting – GOP Emergency Meeting for an Action Plan to End Gun Violence
"Seriously, abortion is just the worst, unless it’s a pregnant mistress."
Adding Your Voice to the Cacophony
“That’s the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. ‘Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?’”
— Mary Oliver, Long Life: Essays and Other Writings
Tuesday
Trash day. Last night's rain warped everything. Grass. Lawn chairs. I never know how it does.
Little pieces of tree and leaves are coming down out of the tops and spreading everywhere. Tiny dried up late-springtime bits covering the ground. Clods of them tearing by on this windy mid-morning when all else is quiet.
My sister saw the house with the eviction notice as we went through the old neighborhood. I remembered two kids, a dog, a trampoline, while we looked toward the empty open mailbox. Rain soaked tongue of its door lolling like an unwanted dog. If a house could be a loveless dog preparing to die.
Everything is wet.
I Believe… [Trump is Us. Own It.]
…that anyone who uses social media to insult, shame, name call, posture and overtly self-promote is in no position to castigate Trump for it because you are playing from the exact same playbook as our Idiot Savant President. The biggest tragedy of the 2016 Election is that we finally elected someone just like us.
For The Broken Hearted: A Post-Holiday Advisory
A significant chunk of my emotional power, my passionate heart had been all tied up with these feelings for this woman for close to a decade. Finding some sort of closure helped me to finally release her. This opened a tremendous amount of room in my heart for new love to be born.
We Hate Our Jobs | Why Americans Are So Pissy
There is a sense of frustration and despair in the faces I see across tables in cafes and restaurants. A feeling of just keeping heads slightly above the encroaching tide. I believe that this sort of non-stop anxiety is incredibly unhealthy. I believe that swimming in it is a choice. As Sam Harris likes to say "Reframe." And as I like to say, "If you hate spending eight hours a day doing something that causes you to feel small or stupid or worthless, get the fuck outta there, bub!"
In the end, work is work. You sacrifice a piece of yourself to make enough dough to live. The question is how much of yourself do you give and for what return?
The True and Unbending Stink of Destiny
The Romans, I'm guessing, probably thought that all of history up to that point had led to their ascension. It's likely that they could not see past their own dominance of the known world at the time to comprehend the idea that their empire had an inevitable shelf life. Like the jellyfish in Quinn's tale, the average Roman citizen couldn't see past the "lip of the vast bowl that holds the sea."
I'd hazard a guess that the Aztecs were no precognitive than the Romans. Neither were the Greeks. The Han Dynasty? Nope.
Notes from the Post-it Wall — Week of February 11, 2018
• Every time I meet with a recruiter, I feel as if they’re sizing me up for how they can best exploit my talent for their financial gain. The next time I meet with one, I’m going to blast out a sonic-rattling fart then let its heat and stench consume the oxygen in the room before breaking the tension with, “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
Natural Causes — Part III
The visitor’s eyebrows arched at the sound of his name and he entered the room. He took Mary’s hand from C, then turned his head upwards exhaling blue smoke to the ceiling. And with great fanfare Massimo kissed her hand, precisely on the wedding ring she still wore.
American Shithole #4 — What Treasures Await Within The Failure Box?
“Mom, can I have more shelf-stable milk?”
“Now Timmy, you know you have already had your governmentally allotted granules of dehydrated, dairy product! You know the billionaire class needs every cent the rest of us can spare, for really important reasons, like they want it. Now help your sister open the meat.
“Aww, mom! But I need strength in my bones for the Trump Parade!
Well, now that the Trump parade is every second Thursday of the month, I guess you’re right, son!”
Jake and Caroline’s first date was at The Whistler. They talked about Ronnie, how much they loved The Diplomat, and debated the better ride-share service, Uber or Lyft. She was Uber, he was Lyft. They got wasted on Sazeracs and had sex at her apartment. It was incredible for both of them. Caroline stopped taking sex advice from Ronnie.