Never trust a prophet.
Continue reading “Propheteering”Propheteering
Tic-Tac-Toe is not a Challenging Game
Talking with some folks is like playing tic-tac-toe against a chicken at the county fair. The chicken only knows a couple simple rules, but keeps beating you because you don’t understand that the point of the game isn’t to beat the chicken…
…but to keep you playing at a quarter a pop.
Faith is an Indicator
In a world where a claim to “faith” protects one from scrutiny or accountability, those who claim to faith must be considered likely to want to avoid scrutiny or accountability.
Continue reading “Faith is an Indicator”A Battle Of Ancestors
The biggest advantage to private bathrooms is that no one tries to tell you “You don’t belong here” because private bathrooms are for the person occupying them. This notion that bathrooms must be sex-segregated seems a bit silly and old-fashioned anyway.
Continue reading “A Battle Of Ancestors”Not all Bootstraps are Equal
Americans pride themselves on being able to “lift yourself up by your own bootstraps,” and to succeed based on “your own efforts, will, wits, and determination.”
Continue reading “Not all Bootstraps are Equal”The Free Market Needs Your Help!
Vaccination ruined the child coffin business. Just ruined it.
Won’t people think of the child coffin business before they decide to vaccinate their children?
Homo Sapiens ELE
I’ve been fascinated the past couple years casually studying Extinction Level Events.
At a gross level, these are events triggering, or short periods of time describing situations where there have been rapid die-offs in the history of the planet.
Continue reading “Homo Sapiens ELE”Show me the Metric!
I don’t think “what’s your metric?” qualifies as a threatening question when someone says “things are way better now!” or “things are way worse now!”
Continue reading “Show me the Metric!”I Think the Needle Needs to Point in the Opposite Direction.
Adults tell children “No, you can’t do that. Stop that. Put that down. Don’t put that in your mouth. Only one cookie. No ice cream after eight. No watching five episodes of Battlestar Galactica in a row” and when kids object, adults tell them “When you live in your own house and pay your own bills, you can make your own rules.”
Continue reading “I Think the Needle Needs to Point in the Opposite Direction.”A Variation on a Theme
With Spider-Man, everyone knows “With great power comes great responsibility,” but maybe that’s good to start out, good for kids.
Continue reading “A Variation on a Theme”Read Responsibly
Once while reading a book on the way to work, I almost walked into a telephone pole. I don’t know if it was actually a telephone pole, but that’s what we tend to call them.
Continue reading “Read Responsibly”Religious Discrimination
Telling someone “Just because you can’t do things to other people in the name of your religion doesn’t mean that you are experiencing religious discrimination” rarely is the “QED” of the argument because it presupposes that practitioners of said religion will stop what they’re doing and conclude “Oh gosh, I didn’t want to do that!”
Continue reading “Religious Discrimination”The Secret Enemy
In a society where claiming one is an atheist results in one not being considered “trustworthy,” one cannot depend on claims of religious affiliation to indicate “trustworthiness.”
The most successful viruses out there succeed by pretending to be valuable to the cells they invade.
Make or Break
Sometimes I try to solve my problems as if they are a supply chain issue — with many elements contributing to the success condition, and many elements contributing to the failure condition. It’s not a magic bullet, but it reminds me that any selling one-stop solutions is probably selling snake oil.
Pants on Fire
I suspect the most outrageous liars are the ones who ostentatiously declare how willing they are to be “under oath.” It’s like watching a child declare “Check it — I’m not crossing my fingers!”
Continue reading “Pants on Fire”Career Living
It’s probably about time we stopped thinking of our careers as our identities. The time when employers had to respect their employees for fear of losing them is gone, and the time when employees could count on their employers “taking care of them” is also gone.
Our parents and our grandparents had a life like that, but that is not what the future holds.
Impostor Syndrome
I’ve always secretly felt like I never truly qualified to be in the Impostor Syndrome Support Group.
Meta-Language
One day I was out walking along a common path near my house. A dog came running up to me. A big dog. A German Shepherd, as I recall. And he was looking like he meant business. Not giving me “let’s play” signals, but “Let’s go, motherfucker,” signals. As in growling.
Continue reading “Meta-Language”Loving the Sin
It is not shocking that those who allege to “hate the sin yet love the sinner” seem deeply incapable of manifesting this alleged love in any way that can be identified, measured, or noted. For all intents and purposes, “hate the sin, yet love the sinner” manifests as “hate the sinner and act accordingly.”
Continue reading “Loving the Sin”“An Honorable Man”
Be cautious before offering “honor” a place at the table without a deeper look. A man who says he is going to kill and eat one hundred babies live on stage who actually does so is inarguably “true to his word” and could be considered “honorable.”
But you might not wanna break bread with him anyway.
Be the Hero.
Help those who ask for help. They are not asking because they are weak. They are asking because you are strong.
Building a Website for Your Movie Project
Hey, Creative Person Operating on a Low Budget, this is for you. If you are not in this group, move along to something else fun.
Continue reading “Building a Website for Your Movie Project”Sapiosexuality
I’m currently of the thinking that the notion of attraction to an objective “intelligence” ( often referred to as “sapiosexuality” ) is a candy-coated path to justification for being an asshole to others.
Continue reading “Sapiosexuality”It Wasn’t a Real “Gold Membership” Card Anyway
There was a time when I was very young that someone explained to me that people often discriminated against others based on their religions.
Continue reading “It Wasn’t a Real “Gold Membership” Card Anyway”Halloween “Life Hacks”
Halloween “Life-Hack” #1
For a truly convincing pirate costume, be sure to include lots of rum. Little known fact — the more of it you drink, the more authentic your costume.
Continue reading “Halloween “Life Hacks””Man’s Inhumanity to Man
I don’t think AI “threatens humanity.”
Humanity’s willingness to kill each other over stupid shit is already enough of a threat to humanity. We have no shortage of self-destructiveness with which to feel threatened.
Continue reading “Man’s Inhumanity to Man”Are Those Ethics Technologically Feasible?
There are far too many discussions about technology, all asking the same basic question:
“What are the ethical implications of this technology?”
Continue reading “Are Those Ethics Technologically Feasible?”“Playing God”
I am exploring the notion that “It is not right for Man to play God” is actually code for “Don’t use big words. Big words are scary. Stop it or I shall encourage other people to kill you by burning you alive or perhaps beheading you, unless that is not currently socially acceptable, in which case I shall shun you publicly.”
Humanity plays “God” practically every day of the week (and twice on Sundays).
Why draw the line at big words?
An Open Letter to Tortilla Chips and Coffee
Look guys,
I love you both, okay? Sometimes I need a liquid ass-kick and Coffee, you’re the man. Sometimes I need to eat something crunchy and salty and Tortilla Chips, you rule da house. It’s that simple.
Continue reading “An Open Letter to Tortilla Chips and Coffee”The Great Creamy Eye
I admit I can be fascinated by simple things.
Continue reading “The Great Creamy Eye”
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