October 2019

Identifying is pretending

This image has been making the rounds this Halloween. It’s obviously intended to be humorous, and is taken as such by most who see it. But I’m wondering why it’s funny. We’ve evolved to a point in society where all sorts of people are “identifying” as something other than what they are. Most popular is identifying as the other gender than what you are biologically. But why stop there? Why not identify as another race? Or another age? Or another physical shape? Or another species? The funny thing is that if you keep asking those questions, at some point…

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Things you don’t want to hear from your grocery checker

I just went through the line at the local grocery store. After my check handled each and every one of my items, he told me he had just used hand sanitizer. Prompted to ask “why,” I gave in and asked. He told me he had a wicked cold, but that I shouldn’t worry, because he has the strongest immune system of anyone in his family. It’s amazing the things we do in the name of being polite and not being rude or making someone feel bad. In this case, not just walking away and saying I’ll get these items…

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Chipotle is to burritos what mp3s are to music

A burrito is one of the most important and powerful foods available to humankind. A good burrito should be like a billy club. When wrapped well, you should be able to strike another and knock them cold, while the burrito holds its form. Great burrito wraps, known as mission-style burritos, can be found in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the Southwest corner of the country. Sadly, as burritos have become more mainstream, they’ve been sanitized. Places like Chipotle and Qdoba weakly “wrap” their burritos into soggy, limp, shapeless burrito balls, which fall apart after the first bite. Now, thanks…

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Maybe this is the way to do foreign policy

Today, President Trump announced they had found and killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the now former leader of ISIS. You have to think that his announcement that we were leaving Syria was connected to this operation. What many thought was a horrible, ill-conceived, and poorly thought out decision suddenly isn’t looking all that bad. When I heard about Baghdadi was killed, I could only think about President Bush’s lead up to the Iraq invasion. Unlike Trump’s surprise announcement, President Bush followed all the normal rules of diplomacy. He told everyone there were weapons of mass destruction. He shared the evidence…

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I’m in a recession state of mind

About a month ago, the media was doing its best to convince us all we were in a recession. Suddenly, everyone started hearing the phrase “inverted yield curve,” which was supposed to be some magical chart that showed us, definitively, that we’re headed for a recession. It was almost like the media was rooting for a recession. In fact, it seemed like Democrats were rooting for a recession. This is not the first time we’ve seen this movie. When George W. Bush was President, the media and Democrats spent years trying to convince us all we were in a…

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Education versus instinct

Higher education is held in high esteem. And why not? In college and graduate school, students spend their time studying the great thinkers in human history. They learn popular theories and explore the philosophy behind their discipline. They get exposed to peers with diverse backgrounds and become more learned in the process. Meanwhile, those who don’t spend time in graduate school, or even skip college all together, usually enter right into the workforce. Many will get a job somewhere, while others may start their own business. There is a belief among many of the educated that because of their…

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I think I found my calling

My daughter’s been listening to a lot of rap lately, and, as a consequence, so have I. We had about an hour together recently, and after hearing that much, I realized what job I’d really like to do. I’m not sure how much they make, but I’d like to be a session musician for rap artists. I want to be the guy who says, “yo,” “uh,” “yea,” and “listen up,” as the songs getting underway. I’d then make a few random appearances during the segments between the chorus and verses. If I expand my skills, I might also serve…

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