I was in the office restroom washing my hands when the water pressure failed, and the sink started to sputter water. For half a moment my heart sank, and panic washed over me as I began to wonder whether this was a sign that California’s drought-stricken reservoirs had finally dried up. Then the water pressure…
The secret to leading a happy life in the First World is learning how to compartmentalize the trivial and the mundane from the terrifying and the consequential, and regarding them with equal importance. It saves you the trouble of twisting yourself into knots out of existential dread or the perpetual empathetic agony that comes with the realization that at every moment of every day, people are suffering.
Image Source: Reuters It’s difficult to be frivolous in writing some days when there are so many reminders that the world is rife with cruelty and relentless suffering. Most recently, my thoughts have turned to Syria. I feel a need to acknowledge this most recent chapter of human tragedy, but I have no greater aspirations…
Casey: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_greek_riots.html Kevin: damn, that’s nuts Kevin: compelling pictures Casey: too bad they didn’t put the phone number for hot protester chick in #7 Kevin: lol dude i was thinking the same thing. is that wrong? Casey: never Kevin: she’s fighting for social justice and government reform and shit Kevin: and we’re just thinking about…
The surest way to attract derision on the internet is to express a strong opinion about politics. I’ve kept this blog fairly apolitical for a variety of reasons, but mainly because I just don’t feel like pissing off my friends and picking fights with strangers. To fully understand what I mean, I invite you to…
Good job, America. Who needs logic, truth, equity, international support, or even proper grammar when you’ve got pure, unadulterated dogma?
It’s funny the way mass-media has grown to perceive the blogging community. In light of Dan Rather’s Bush-bashing blunder, commentators on various news broadcasts have begun to paint a noble image of what bloggers represent. We are the new wave of grass roots political activism. We are all highly literate, immaculately well-informed scholars who can…
I remember watching television with my father on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. All day long, footage of the flaming buildings kept flashing across the screen, but I never looked away, even when I grew tired of seeing it. I was paying penance for all of my past years of blissful ignorance. There inevitably…
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore got the boot today for his refusal to remove a monument honoring the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the state courthouse. When I first mentioned Moore in my blog, I was visibly irritated and admittedly antagonistic. But now that Moore is out of work, I can’t help but feel…
One thing that especially moved me on September 11, 2001 was the fact that a good deal of interview footage that aired on television that day went uncensored. I remember staying awake until 3 AM that night, watching the towers collapse from every angle, and hearing what New Yorkers had to say about the attack…