There’s a throwaway scene in the 2019 Romanian documentary Collective, where the country's new Minister of Health is watching a news show on television, and, at a podium, the mayor of Bucharest is denouncing the decision made by the administration to send patients to Vienna for transplant surgeries, and not maintain the patients in Romania … Continue reading Welcome to The Way of The World
In case you were looking for a microcosm of the history of half the entire world dating back, say, the last few hundred years, there’s one example playing out right now in the news over in Africa, in the Republic of Niger. And by the way, it’s pronounced Nee-ZHAYR, not the other way you were … Continue reading The Niger Coup: A Hollywood Film Treatment
I know it seems like I’m doomsday picking and preaching these days—that all I want is to talk about the most general and large-scale, worst-case scenario news headlines, and then cynically and half-assedly rattle them in your face like I’m some kind of know-it-all toddler who seems to get his jollies that way. This world … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – July 14, 2023
Reading the daily news disgusts me. There, I said it. It's reached the point of where I feel like I'm living out the abattoir metaphor whenever I do. Which I'm just making up, right now, but hear me out. Do you eat meat? And if you do, do you prepare it yourself—“harvest” it from scratch—or … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – July 7, 2023
You know, you do a thing long enough, one which involves not only seeing much of the same dry, dull unpleasantness day in and day out—but also injustice, inequity, unfairness and various ways of indirect and direct silencing—and you start to get cynical. I’m starting to get cynical. Or maybe I’m just bored. I don’t … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – June 9, 2023
My 18-year-old cat got mauled by a dog on Monday, so I don’t want to be d--king around too much this week. She’s going to be okay they tell me, eventually, but I’m going to try my best to cut through the crap of important/not-so-important news, because life is short. Especially for a cat. And … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – May 26, 2023
…And four more things this week. Maybe five. Or six. I don’t really know how to frame this stuff, to be honest. I think I had something, but then lost it somewhere along the way. To me, the issues represented here are glaring, but to many they're not, and I don’t know how to—nor would … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – April 28, 2023
Just a quick four things this week. Why? Because apparently I’m obligated to fulfill a quota, because I’m paid by people to do a thing, and those people have expectations that maybe are never said outright or defined explicitly or even set down on paper in some form of legally binding contract but nonetheless are … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – April 14, 2023
There were two equally disturbing things that made the news this week, between which, despite their having occurred thousands of miles from each another, I found a striking and disturbing parallel. The first was the release of video of a young Muslim being gruesomely massacred by security forces in Ouahigouya, the capital of Yatenga Province … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – April 7, 2023
There’s likely not a worse misstep in publicly shooting-your-mouth-off-when-no-one-asked these days than equating some collective or governing body with the likes of Nazi Germany; the backlash is almost always widespread and forthcoming, regardless of the issue you’re shooting at. I mean, unless the people you’re accusing are actually f---ing Nazis, or something in arguably the … Continue reading The Little-Government, Big Governing Bodies That Could (March 17, 2023)
I was called into the office of my editor the other day, and she told me—my editor—that she had been called into the office of her editor, after he had been called into the office of his, after this gentleman (whoever he is) had been called into a meeting with his superior, the CCO, after … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – March 10, 2023
Against my better judgment, I wanted to talk solely about two things this week, two things that sum up much of what kind of spurious gruel the world’s figurative fat-cat trenchermen and their private chefs are cooking up and serving to people. And like the little Dickensian, grime-faced, wall-licking orphans we are, starving for a … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – February 17, 2023
The color yellow causes insanity. It’s a scientific fact. And if you think I’m exaggerating about that, well I am. But only a little. Babies also cry more in yellow rooms. What does that mean? I’m not sure, but if you don’t want your baby to turn into Jeffrey Dahmer or Lindsay Lohan when they … Continue reading Yellow Snow & Other Similarly-Hued Important Life Avoidances
For those of you familiar with America’s history in befuddling or outright superplexing the rightfully-elected governments of Third World democracies during much of the 20th Century, particularly when those democracies leaned too far left, you may think America’s looking pretty good these days. And you may think it’s looking absolutely stellar when compared with what’s … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – February 3, 2023
You have to understand something about politics: Every single person involved in a political discussion or an effort to draft a bill, at any one given point in time, believes the points or issues they’re arguing are “right,” and everything else is wrong—infallibly, into perpetuity and written on the wall inside one of God’s own, private bathroom stalls ...
It was the end of the year this week, for those of us who choose to follow a Gregorian calendar. To our graves. I mean, as opposed to a Chinese calendar. Which will lead you to a grave, eventually, sure. It’ll just take it a couple more months. Or something like that. It’s been personally … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – December 30, 2022
What is the news, if it’s not broadcast with some form of ulterior motive? Has this ever been the case? Ever? Don't know. Don’t think so. For the organism in question is forever holistically tied to what fuels it and maintains its growth. Mass media is a publicly traded business. And all such businesses fundamentally … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – December 9, 2022
So, this week it’ll be back to news on Trump. Like he were the g--damn president again. Which you can better believe he won’t be. Not ever again. My money's on his not even getting the nomination in 2024. Plenty of Republican candidates are already pointing out how bad he was for the country, and … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – November 18, 2022
What’s wrong with the world today? That’s me, asking a rhetorical question in response to an actual question that no one actually posed to me, which goes something like, ‘Hey, a--hole, what do you think is wrong with the world today?’ I mean, in those specific words I’ve never been asked it. In so many … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – November 4, 2022
It’s election season now in America. Or has been for the last month, maybe. That’s about when the candidate flyers started to asphyxiate my mailbox—people who didn’t engage in any political activity the past two years looking to unseat someone in the state legislature or Congress, because hundreds of thousands in outside dollars wants them … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – October 21, 2022
Let’s talk about the fascist state. By which I mean, let me talk about the fascist state. Not of yesteryear, not of days long gone, but of today. Fascist state meaning fascist government, nation, ruling party—fascism out in the open, trying to hide itself as, what? Nationalism? Populism? Nativism? Freedom from oppression and tyranny? Self-rule? … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – September 30, 2022
I haven’t seriously looked at the news in over a week and a half. Is it true that burnout is directly correlated to intent? I don’t know. It’s probably correlated more to duration, which involves prolonged intent. At any rate, I know I didn’t view the general, erstwhile-worthwhile news as anathema before I began to … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – September 16, 2022
So, I’ve got a question. Has there ever been a president in modern history who continued to generate so many bumbling political headlines after he left office—and his administration generate such negative press, still—than Donald Trump? Just think back to the last fifty, seventy years or more. How much did you hear about the continued … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – August 26, 2022
So, you want to be a writer, do you, kid? Well, the first thing you have to realize is that no one cares about your meritless blog, the fictionalized, slice-of-life vignettes you’ve written based on your unremarkable existence, your ghetto zombie apocalypse, your girlie shojo manga, your period piece sci-fi romance set on the high … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – August 19, 2022
Such hypocrisy in the world today. *smh* No no—by me. Sure, I’ll be the first to admit it. Everyone does it, everyone engages in it, but I‘ll be the first to admit it: Yes, I do that thing that everyone else does that we all publicly say shouldn’t be done by anyone. I’m a hypocrite. … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – August 12, 2022