Introduction: Important elections are those in which you are deciding whether to go north by northeast or south by southwest. Important elections are the ones in which you decide whether to go thissaway or thattaway. Important elections are held on Mount Carmel, with the candidates being Jehovah and Baal. Important elections are not elections in …
Magic Temptation
“The world of The Lord of the Rings is the very reverse of this—the good guys there represent a photo negative of magic. The ring of power is the ultimate symbol of magic in the traditional sense, and the whole point of the book is to destroy it, resisting all temptations to use it” (Writers …
Triggered Schmiggered
A possible sociological/psychological experiment occurred to me as a result of a passing comment made by my son-in-law, Ben Merkle. He, of course, is not responsible for any mayhem that might occur as a result of somebody actually trying this. We hear a lot about “triggers,” and how they are used to shut down political …
Asking the Right Questions
The Whole Boot
All right, since disclaimers here are most necessary, I will make them. I believe that I have repeatedly made it clear that I am not in Trump’s corner, and am not going to vote for him. If Hillary is elected, America will have successfully avoided stepping in the dog poo. If Trump is elected, America …
20 Hungry Mongrels
I do understand the “lesser of two evils” argument that I reject. I also feel the force of it. And I remember that I live in Idaho, which is as likely to go for Hillary as for the sun to turn green next St. Patrick’s Day. So I know that compared to my brethren in …
Which Would Be Unseemly
Information About “The River Thief”
So the movie The River Thief releases today, and I want first to give you information about the movie, and how you can arrange to watch it. I will begin with that general info and a behind-the-scenes discussion about how the movie came to be. Then after that I will make a few comments about …
Not Exactly the Return of Seabiscuit
The only reason why either of the presidential candidates is still in the game is that they each had the very good fortune to draw a terrible candidate as an opponent. And the way the system works, when one of them wins (as it seems one of them must), the world of politicos will not …
The Religious Right Is Dead. Long Live the Religious Right.
In the ongoing aftermath of the ever-generous fiasco that we call the Trump campaign, Russell Moore wrote that if Donald Trump has accomplished anything of value, it is that he has snuffed out the religious right. The first half of his piece says a lot of things that are pertinent, trenchant, on the mark, and …