Hey, what’s the world? The whole world? What’s it made of? Anyone? I don’t mean geology and volcanology and sh--. I mean socially. Societies. The collective, intertwined societies that fall under the different classes of government—democracy, theocracy, autocracy, you name it. You’re going to find significant differences in each one, but you’re also going to … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – April 19, 2024
When I was around 12, my local parish told me I had to start “studying” to receive the right to what all tweenage Christians realize is the awesomest part of going to church: communion—which, among the Lutherans, meant you had to understand the wine before you could chug the wine. I remember one day in … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – March 29, 2024
Trump’s won the nomination for Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election. People just can’t let go of the addiction, apparently. I mean, with good reason. Just ask any addict. Any of them—or anyone who engages in arguably compulsive patterns of behavior, e.g., remaining in a physically abusive relationship, say—in their own mind, it’s perfectly … Continue reading Political Addiction and the Fabric of American Society
Alexei Navalny—whose body had to be almost wrested from the hands of the Russian state—was mourned by thousands during an orthodox ceremony on Friday (which several churches refused to officiate), before being borne to a nearby Moscow cemetery and finally laid to rest. Though he started his career as a nationalist in Russian politics, and … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – March 1, 2024
I read an analysis in The Washington Post recently which recounted quite well, over the last ten years or so, out-and-out Republican efforts to obstruct the operation of the very government to which they were elected—discussing/passing legislation, approving judges—if it was deemed, in the end, to somehow benefit the Democratic Party. This, of course, included … Continue reading The Toxic Solution of Trumpism
Can you tell by the headline that I’ve been devolving into my own atomic, hermetic, marginal bubble of outrage and self-importance? That I’m now looking at the news under a figurative lamplight for maybe ten minutes and then turning around and shouting at everyone who’ll listen (on the internet) the real meaning behind it all? … Continue reading Their Headlines, My Headlines (January 26, 2024)
Welcome to the New Year. Of the rest of your life. You know that time only moves forward, right? Like, forever? Until your dead? I see people talking about making every day count, calling out others who waste their time, doing one thing every day that scares them. All the while trying to un-memento that … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – January 12, 2024
Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his role as Speaker of the House of Representatives on October 2nd, 2023, through the filing of a motion to vacate by the one person everyone knew was going to file the motion because he was the strongest arm in implementing a new rule saying the Speaker could be … Continue reading You Can Choose Your Friends, But You Can’t Choose Your Lifeboat
At my first ever, week-long summer church camp (I was 11 and a practicing Lutheran at the time), I and the token skater/heavy metal kid of the lot—who used a ballpoint pen to tattoo the letters O-Z-Z-Y on his knuckles once a day—were tasked with being in charge of setting up viewing of the afternoon’s … Continue reading Nobody Knows History, Nobody Understands Context
Hey, Neighbor! How’s it going? Heading out for a weekend trip? Can you believe these gas prices still? Thanks a lot, Sleepy Joe, am I right? Like I always say, if a Republican were president, you know gas would be, like, five dollars a gallon cheaper. Well, because Republicans always lower gas prices. It’s, like, … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – October 20, 2023
Say you’re just starting out. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing. Anything. Constructing a human being, say. Better yet—a robot, one with a complete and totally spot-on human anatomy. And you know nothing about anatomy, yourself, say. You're like one of those tribal priests of the indigenous Kogis in modern-day Colombia, who grew up in a … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – October 13, 2023
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 incidents 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
These primaries, I swear to God. What the hell is the point of anyone who, say, lives in Oregon having to care about what goes on in a Texas primary? I mean, from a news standpoint, it’s news, so it gets reported, and the news hopes to continually profit from people tuning into it. But … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – August 5, 2022
“Oh, the tyranny of kings and of despots! Oh, fear ye, thou plodding huddled masses, thy masters’ mandate—the divine, minority opulence of the moneyed incorporation, the gentried landowner and the martial dictate of fascist rule—shall forestall thy happiness and render thy inalienable liberty and prosperity but the illusory whims of an unjust world!” Or something like that...
How about this weather we’re having, huh? I’m going to be that guy this week. Your unconscionably annoying neighbor. That guy who just perpetuates awkward anywhere, any time of day, and has absolutely no shame about it. Who’s actually a horrible influence on your kids, too, for the thirty seconds he talks to them, shirtless … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – July 22, 2022
President Joe Biden visited the Middle East for the first time on Saturday. It only took him 544 days since becoming president to get around to it. He’d been sending a message by abstaining—or trying to—in regard to Saudi and Israeli domestic policy, which, on occasion, can lead to the equivalent of a human rights … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – July 15, 2022