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June 2017

June 07, 2017

Reason, Social Justice, and Dionysian Frenzy

No disrespect to Dionysus, but social justice is not a job to which you send...

May 2017

May 21, 2017

Punctuated Equilibrium and Political Evolution

My interlocutor demands that we pick the best dinosaur. But the asteroid has already hit,...

May 20, 2017

Blessing Computers? Why Not?

Some corners of the net are getting a lot of incredulous chuckles about a photo...

April 2017

April 29, 2017

A Call To Inaction

It is easy to say, "Something must be done!" It is easy to do something,...

April 26, 2017

Kenny Klein And Jerks In Your Lineage

If we see our spiritual selves primarily as products of a lineage, as inheritors of...

April 22, 2017

What Science Is And Isn’t

So let us join with Uncle Walt in saying "Hurrah for positive science!" But let...

March 2017

March 30, 2017

Icelandic Heathens Rising, Cultural Appropriation Violence, And Free Software And Sexual Freedom

The idea of "cultural appropriation" has once again provoked violence from someone who decided they...

March 27, 2017

Zen And The Art Of…Obeying The Rules?

To some extent, “stability” means “resistance to change". To change an unjust system you may...

March 23, 2017

Bad Maps, Say His Name, And Stopping A Street Fight

Our usual mid-week selection of quick takes. Bad Maps: Gall-Peters is no cartographic hero Breathless...

February 2017

February 09, 2017

Confused Fathers, Messed Up Lives, And Taking Credit

But we all have messed-up stuff going on in our lives, even the great spiritual...

February 04, 2017

Emperor Norton, Our Guide For Troubled Times

All that stood in their way was the solitary figure of Norton. A sane man...

January 2017

January 29, 2017

Hospitality Is Sacred

The Trump administration's recent acts, leaving refugees and immigrants stranded, are a national disgrace --...

January 27, 2017

Welcome To Tiny Train World

That's part of Tiny Train World: every story is subject to change, with past versions...

January 26, 2017

Random Wednesday: Captain America’s Love of Free Speech, Inauguration Ratings, and Police Homicide

Captain America explicitly takes a stand for free speech over Nazi punching, saying "Don't you...

January 23, 2017

Fighting Evil Doesn’t Make You Good

This notion that it's fine and good to assault people we decide are Nazis is...

January 18, 2017

Random Wednesday: Leave The Lights On, Hating Yourself, and Cops For Criminal Justice Reform

Today I made the random decision to leave my holiday lights on until Imbolc. (It's...

January 16, 2017

MLK Failed, Make Way For MLK

I want to talk about the socialist who understood the intersectionality of race and class,...

January 05, 2017

Random Wednesday: Maternal Homecoming, Productivity in the New Year, and Unraveling “Russian Hackers”

Everybody loves Russian hackers these days. Democrats get to blame them for Clinton's embarrassing loss...

December 2016

December 29, 2016

The End of Experts or the End of Courtiers?

But in many instances what is being rejected is not actually expert opinion but the...

December 08, 2016

Dive Bars and the Ghost Ship Fire

To deal with social problems of all sorts, we need collaborative harm reduction policies, not...

November 2016

November 29, 2016

Ethnic Pride Does Not Justify White Nationalism

The ethnic identities that our families pass along to us are part of our lived...

November 25, 2016

Why Fascism Is Bad

The allure of fascism is that you, friend, can be part of that glorious struggle!...

November 23, 2016

Was This The Best We Could Hope For?

As horrible as a Trump administration is likely to be, perhaps it is the best...

November 10, 2016

Election 2016 and the Xenophobic State of the Nation

And you cannot connect with another human being if you start with the belief that...

November 03, 2016

Won’t Get Fooled Again: Magic, Imagination, and Political-Artistic Liberation

Every bit of progress begins with an act of Imagination. Before slaves can fight for...

November 02, 2016

Random Wednesday: My Mom, Luke Cage, Pit Bulls, and Cheap Bourbon

This is, by some reckoning, the "Pagan New Year", and new years are a good...

October 2016

October 31, 2016

Your Politics Are Awful. Now What?

Now, as it happens, I have had some practice in dealing with people with deplorable...

October 20, 2016

On Declining to Pee In A Cup

My younger friends may be surprised to learn this, but it was not that long...

September 2016

September 03, 2016

Does “The Star-Spangled Banner” Celebrate Killing Slaves? Part III

While Key was a slave-owner, he seems to have believed that slaves were due some...

September 03, 2016

Does “The Star-Spangled Banner” Celebrate Killing Slaves? Part II

On the seas, however, matters were different. It had been, after all, British treatment of...