Chasing the Dead Today is Samhain (pronounced “Sow-win) in the old Celtic calendar. The Irish of pre-Christian time — and still these days with New Agers and would be witches and druids — believed that the veil between the living and dead worlds was thinnest at this time. To those who march up dark hills […]
The Complete Posts
Shame on You, Shame on Me, Shame on Nobody
Part II of The Reconsidering Shame Campaign He that deceives me once, it’s his fault; but if twice, it’s my fault This quote comes from a 1651 book attributed to Anthony Weldon, “The Court and Character of King James”. In this spicy collection of gossip and dissing, the narrator, supposedly Weldon, claimed this saying was […]
Come back, Shame
A Philosophy of Shame by Frederic Gros Matches the Moment — Mostly Growing up in the 1950s, the local NYC area television stations like Channels 9 (WOR) and 11 (WPIX) showed a lot of Westerns. Shane from 1953 proved a favorite for young boys. Bad guys, nice decent father, beautiful mother, gunslinger hero, Shane, hero-worshiping […]
Not The Greatest
What makes a thing or person ‘the greatest’? How did we judge it to be “having the “most significant effects, importance, distinction” over all other similar items? With Muhammad Ali saying he was the greatest the proof was in all those other boxers stretched out on the canvas, but even then my uncles would say […]
Claims Will Always Matter, But Sadly Bob Mislevy Is Gone
Recently, my attention in these writings focused on rebutting the prevalent notion among the punditocracy of the left (center, far, handed) that the problem with the corruption, unconstitutionality, and general havoc of the current federal government our electorate chose came about because a certain large segment of our citizenry were bedeviled and bewitched by misinformation. That […]
Attitudes And Beatitudes Part III: Cornel West & Robert George Give Me The Perfect Ending For This Trilogy
Yes, that Cornell West and that Robert George. That leftist, rapping, divinity school teaching preacher and that deeply conservative, Latin mass going, James Madison worshipping establishment professor. Those two guys. But first, let me remind you of my argument from Part I and Part II. It drove me nuts that so many people write posts, […]
We’re All Outfluencers: Attitudes & Beatitudes II
Whether what we write, broadcast, or otherwise put out there changes the attitude and subsequent actions of someone, anyone, depends more upon them than us. Doesn’t the best writing come out of a kind of frustration? The angsty sense that people have it wrong (whatever ‘it’ might be at the moment) or that something is […]
Attitudes and Beatitudes
Part I: Catching An Attitude Robert Reich is likable. Much of what he proposes as solutions for our country makes sense even if I find the adoption of these desired progressive systems increasingly unlikely. The compelling and articulate economist, however, started to frustrate me greatly when again and again Instagram fed me advertisements from him […]
What’s a Metaphor? The Case of the Symbolic Capitalist
My Aunt Bess died last week; my father’s youngest sibling, the last of that generation. She was 96 and had a full, exciting, and satisfying life. Seeing her discomfort in the hospital (they remain horrible places in which to lie) affirmed that her death brought relief to her and to the family especially my kind […]
Old Friends
Old friends can be countries as well as people, and we do well to realize the value of such relationships.