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Public Citizen

Want to know your fortune?

Living with uncertainty is our natural human condition. Moment to moment we don't really know what's coming next. For many of us uncertainty causes worry. We compensate for this by establishing patterns and making "plans" that for the most part seem to make life more... Continue

Call Me Spanky

Like many, I find myself thinking about how best to resist the powerful emergence of reactionary, right-wing politics in America, and I've decided to go with the Our Gang School of Political Resistance. It's an approach that worked wonders for Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Wheezer, Darla... Continue

Right back where I started from

I'm enjoying my life. I didn't ask to be here but now I don't want to leave; seems to be my particular version of the human condition. Think about it; two microscopic gametes meet and decide to live together as one for a lifetime. If... Continue

Urine Trouble

Leaked documents detailing urine-play in a hotel in Russia are spattering the reputation of Donald Trump. It's been a while since "night water" has been in the news, but historically the topic of urine has bubbled up from time to time in literature and satire. Donald... Continue

In appreciation of quiet

I like quiet. I don't mean the complete silence of no sound whatsoever, but the quiet of the natural world. I find the sound of leaves rustling in the wind comforting. The same is true of water running in a creek, or birdsong. My wife... Continue

Dehumanizing Humanity

The Industrial Revolution is often mistakenly cited as the cause of the loss of human labor, but to the contrary, the engine of global capitalism fueled by the Industrial Revolution would never have developed without the hands of human labor. Efficient and highly productive machine... Continue

Ubu Trump

In 1895, Alfred Jarry's play entitled Ubu Roi (The King Ubu) was performed in Paris for its first, and until very much later, its last time. Public reaction to the farce was so extreme that a riot ensued. Jarry, who never wrote another play, had... Continue

In love with the glow

I grew up in the glow of TV. It was black and white until I was perhaps ten years old, and color television after that. Color television actually was a big deal, once. My childhood shows were foolish affairs mostly, quite amateurish by today's standards.... Continue

Body, Mind and Universe

A great deal of attention has been paid to the workings of mind, that curiously self-conscious and often self-absorbed entity we take to be who we are in the world. The widely-held presumption is that mind is an emergent function of brain, and therefore, mind... Continue

Game Over

By the measuring stick of capitalism, Donald Trump has won the game. He has attained the pinnacle of American business success, namely power; his finger on the nuclear button, Donald Trump is now the most fearsome businessman in the world. He has vanquished all enemies... Continue