No Such Thing as Evil
Slaveholders, rapists and serial killers are evil. No, they're not. In his book The Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker argues that defining people as evil is not only unproductive, it's dangerous. It's dangerous because we conceptualize evil as being so pervasive that you...
No Such Thing as Heroism
Last night I noticed that Amazon Prime now offers the movie Hotel Rwanda. It's based on the true story of a hotel manager who shielded 1,268 people from certain slaughter during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. I couldn't resist watching it (for the fourth time). What I'm...
50th Birthday
As of July 24, 2016 I am 50 years old and I feel like I've finally reached my prime. (Cake was yellow layers with buttercream frosting on the outside and mango mousse on the inside. It was from Swedish Bakery in Chicago.)
Trump, Immigrants and the RNC
Now that I'm building a new blog for my business, Welcome Dialogue, I choose between my two blogs, depending on the content. Today's post is here: http://wp.me/p76ImY-6h. UPDATE on 22 Jan 2019: Sadly, I took down the Welcome Dialogue website and accepted that...
I Love Turning 50!
As I get closer to my 50th birthday on July 24th, I'm getting tired of people trying to tell me I'm not old. They obstinately don't understand that for me old is good. I have always been happy to get a year older because I experienced no great benefit to being young,...
Order Your Black Lives Matter Buttons
Decided it was finally time to get some of these. I ordered them here: Peace Buttons.
NPRs This American Life: “Tell Me I’m Fat”
Previous post on weight & health: Slow as weight loss National Public Radio's This American Life program recently broadcast a show called "Tell Me I'm Fat." On their website, it's described like this: The way people talk about being fat is shifting. With...
American Currency Is Changing
I missed the announcement a few months ago that not only will the American twenty dollar bill be updated, but the $10 and $5 bills will be, too. Harriet Tubman will be on the $20 (even if it's not for 14 more years), and although Hamilton will stay on the face of the...
Against No-Kill Animal Shelters
Sabine Heinlein's essay, The Cruelty of Kindness, poses the question of whether no-kill animal shelters have gone too far in saving every life. It comes down to the question of whether any kind of life, no matter how painful, is better than death. Maybe I'm all alone...
Hammacher Schlemmer Lifetime Guarantee
I bought Hammacher Schlemmer's Plantar Fasciitis Orthotic Sandals three years ago, but one of the soles started to detach. I went on their website to replace them and noticed that they have a lifetime guarantee on their products. I decided to try it. I called...
The Purge Movies
So I finally watched The Purge (2013) and The Purge: Anarchy (2014), which have to be called "social science fiction action horror" because there's so much going on in them. The first movie seems to be another home invasion story that pits a family against assailants...
Can We Get Rid of All the Mexicans?
I call this my "House Bill 56 Bedtime Story." It's the story of how Alabama tried to get rid of their immigrants back in 2011 and how it all went horribly wrong. Ha! It's a textbook example of the law of unintended consequences. Please read it HERE. It reminds me of...