T-minus Seven Days and Counting
2021-01-14
If nothing else, I hope that in seven days’ time the world will start to transition to a state in which my usual emotional state is not some form of anger. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….
“Common Ground”
2021-01-09
Of all the images from the failed coup the other day, there’s one that I can’t stop thinking about. I especially think about this image as I consider all the people who keep telling me that we need to “come together” and we need to find “common ground” and that both sides need to figure each other out if we’re to prosper as a nation. That image is this one: It’s just one of the rioters, right? Scampering through the House chamber. We’ve seen lots of images like this, and a whole lot of folks have tried passing all of thisDown the rabbit hole….
“We are who we were.”
2021-01-08
Longtime readers know that one of my main ways of processing the world is through movies and teevee shows I’ve seen, and books I’ve read. I often find in the creative works of others a prism through which I can crystalize my own thinking on the issues of the day. Today’s attempted coup* in Washington is no exception. I found myself thinking about the great John Quincy Adams speech that comes at the end of the movie Amistad. If you haven’t seen the film, it involves a major court case that arose from a property dispute where the property wasDown the rabbit hole….
My Letter to Chris
2021-01-07
Tonight I did something I haven’t done in quite a while. I e-mailed my Representative in Congress. Unfortunately, I happen to live in a district that is currently as reliably crimson as any small town in Alabama, and my current Representative, Chris Jacobs, has thus far in his short career (he was only first elected in a special election last summer) proven to be a pandering empty suit, but today he managed to irritate even me by being not just a rubber stamp for the right wing, but a gutless one. He announced today his intention to join the chorusDown the rabbit hole….
2020: [sigh of not really relief, but not defeat either]
2021-01-01
It’s time for my annual wrap-up quiz. Warning: I’m writing about 2020 here. Trigger warnings galore! And some political bluntness, for which I’ll say, if you disagree with me, well…I do not care. For a taste of how I’ve been seeing the year just gone by, consider this tweet: A lot of folks acting as if 2020 has just been a string of bewildering bad luck, rather than what it truly is: a concentration of widely and reliably predicted and interconnected disasters that advanced nations of the world could have mitigated or prevented but chose not to. — Kane WishartDown the rabbit hole….
Liberatopia: Now with hungry bears!
2020-12-11
Years ago I was driving someplace and an odd segment came on the NPR show This American Life, which was about a libertarian guy who was spearheading what seemed to me a pretty Quixotic notion: rallying a whole bunch of like-minded libertarians to move to a single state, massing enough numerical strength to force through the engines of democracy a large-scale implementation of libertarian policies. Eventually they would be able to show the world entire how wonderful and glorious things are when there is minimal government, minimal idea of public life, and a strong focus on individual freedom. I rememberDown the rabbit hole….
Thankfulness in 2020
2020-11-26
This has been a truly ghastly year, and even the weather today as I write this is metaphorically on point: it’s drizzly and rainy and the screen on my library window is filled with raindrops so I can’t really even see outside very well. I won’t write my usual long list of things I’m thankful for, but suffice it to say that even in a year like this, it’s still quite a long list, when I really put some thought into it. Stay safe, folks. Please don’t take unnecessary trips and please oh please oh please, keep your masks on.Down the rabbit hole….
“Stuck at home”
2020-11-24
A quite lovely article appears in The Buffalo News by Jeff Miers, describing his struggle with the degree to which the COVID pandemic has disrupted his lifestyle. It’s not just his leisure that’s affected; it is literally his entire life. Miers writes about music and the arts for the News, and with a beat like that, he’s required to be out in the city almost all the time, interacting with music and art and musicians and artists. This has been his life for decades, and now, all of a sudden, he’s been forced to…stay at home. The Wife and I oftenDown the rabbit hole….
22 November
2020-11-22
Fifty-seven years since President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. I’m surprised to note that I’ve never written a long piece about Oliver Stone’s film JFK, and it’s been so long since I last saw it that I don’t want to try to write one now; maybe next year, after a rewatch. For now, here’s my review of Stephen King’s amazing novel 11/22/63, and here is John Williams conducting a suite of his music for Stone’s film. I wonder what kind of America would have emerged from the 1960s had Kennedy not been murdered. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….
Any time things wanna get BETTER would be great by me.
2020-11-15
So, about that lack of updates in this space for something like nine days…this month has been rough, folks. First, there was the final run-up to the election, which was nerve-wracking in itself. Then Election Night was its own category of annoying, as a hoped-for Democratic landslide resulting in the defeat of some of the more odious Republican voices in Congress failed to materialize. And then the results of the Presidential race just dragged on and on and on. Granted, we all knew that was going to be the case, given the giant emphasis on mailed-in ballots, but it would haveDown the rabbit hole….