Trump’s intimidation of the press via threats, investigations, lawsuits, harassment and ridicule to coerce them into obsequiousness are unlike anything I’ve seen during my lifetime. I am aware that these tactics have been used before by dictators and authoritarians across the globe, but not in US. It got me wondering if tactics like these ever…
Christian Pagans
Today is Easter and once again, I’m thinking about religion, traditions and holidays. Many years ago, I learned in an undergrad religious philosophy course that the dates of Christian Holy Days (ask Holidays) were selected to coincide with the dates of preexisting polytheistic Roman and Greek holidays, which in turn were based on paganistic holidays…
Self Primary Care
Whenever I ask the urgicare doctor, the pharmacist or any specialist a general medical question, they tell me,“That’s something you should discuss with your primary care physician.” As if. I haven’t had a primary care physician in 20 years. Instead, I had insurance plans that changed every single year, even when I hadn’t changed jobs….
Brave…But Dead
When I was a child I read about Catholic martyrs, Jews and other people who refused to “convert” and were murdered because of their religion. I remember thinking at the time, “Why didn’t they just pretend to believe what their murderers dictated? In their minds, they could still believe whatever they wanted and nobody would…
Private Eyes
After a long break of nearly a decade, I’ve starting reading fiction regularly once again. I switched up my routine a few weeks ago and now spend an hour or so each evening reading a novel. For the past 15 years, I focused my reading on nonfiction because I found myself bored and uninterested in…
Old MacDonald
According to the USDA, farm workers make up only 1.2% of the total US workforce. The median family income for owners of small farms is $98K and higher for larger farms. I looked this up because it seems like everyday “the plight of our struggling farmers” is mentioned in the news, by economists, pundits and…
Plausible But Wrong
I have been using PerplexityAI for the past month instead of Google for many of my searches. In general, I prefer it to Google. First, it doesn’t fill my screen with sponsored links and ads. Second, it doesn’t track my views and sell them to others for spam marketing. Also, since it seems inevitable that…
Good And Old
In a few weeks I’ll be 57 years old. In my head, I’ve been thinking of myself as nearly 60 for the past year. Hitting 57 is just another meaningless birthday as far as I’m concerned. I’m in the best place I’ve been since my wife died in 2018. I like being old. I’ve been…
Listening to the BBC
I was curious to hear what people from countries outside of the US are thinking about Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine while siding with Russia, withdrawal of NATO support, increased tariffs and starting trade wars with former allies so for the past week I’ve been listening to the daily BBC World news podcast. I also listed…
I Am Already Dead
A few years ago my friend used to quote a line from the Hagakure to me that went something like, “I wake every morning preparing to be dead today”. For him, it was a noble sounding principle that he repeated when he was in the throes of deep depression and severe anxiety. But when he…