A few days ago a freedomista friend cried, “That’s it! I quit.” He’s going to live strictly for himself and his family from now on. So he says. Forget politics, forget organizing, forget publishing, forget “movements” and “isms” and activism, and hopeful enthusiasms. He. Has. HAD IT. Well, that’s common enough. I may have said things like that myself a time or two; perhaps you have, too. But this isn’t just a case of burnout. Burnout is part of it, yes. But there’s something more, and more ominous, to it, as we’ll see below. My friend is afraid. Then this…
17 CommentsMonth: November 2019
He left England because his life depended upon getting real health care. The Brexiteers are whomping the Remainers. ‘Bout time, too. The FBI is looking into whether Epstein’s death was the result of a criminal conspiracy. But of course (announces the Bureau of Prisons director), there’s not a whisper of a hint of a reason to suspect that. You know, except for the odd little thing here and there. Maggie McNeill has a superb links roundup of news that affects sex workers. Not interested in sex workers’ rights? Much of what’s being done to them potentially affects us all. Pedophile…
4 CommentsJust peachy Well, what did you think of the now-ended impeachment hearings? Were they … Relevatory and persuasive? Dull as ditchwater? Shamelessly partisan? A waste of space in the universe? As gripping as Watergate at its best? Totally righteous? Totally self-righteous? Completely missing any impeachable offenses? (Except perhaps on the part of Joe Biden, who can’t be impeached because he’s not in office.) The silliest bunch of cooked-up factoids you ever did hear? Brilliant? Pure democracy in action? Or did you think of them at all? It was lovely to pay very little attention, although I did wonder if NPR…
26 CommentsA couple months ago I said I hoped I’d have 20 or 25 copies of Basics of Resistance, autographed and ready to sell, Octoberish. Due to cascading snafus, I have (or will have in a day or three) just 10 copies. And clearly, this is Novemberish, and sneaking up on Decemberish. BUT … all copies will be signed by both co-author Kit Perez and me. You can’t say that about too many copies of BoR. What you can say is that these 10 are the last-ever copies autographed by both authors. It’s 10 and done. Now, I know a lot…
4 CommentsThis is a guest post by my friend Silver. All credit for it goes to him. — C —– In Making it Through the Next Normal Claire questioned possible roles for us old folks. One of the things we oldsters can do to help the young folks through their coming trials is to teach them that they don’t have to be high profile, high paid, high stress, famous people to have good, satisfying jobs and wonderful lives. Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame nailed this. He found that people who did those often invisible, generally dirty jobs tended to be…
9 CommentsThe other day, a friend talking about her wildly dysfunctional childhood remarked, “But that was just ‘normal’ for me, of course.” And haven’t we all been there in one way or another? Whatever we habitually experience (however chaotic or misery-inducing) is “normal.” And that’s not just true of children who haven’t the perspective to know better. Spend long enough in a terrible job, a loveless marriage, a prison, a city you hate, or an unfree political climate and even when we recognize how bad it is, we forget what it’s like to live any other way. Finding real normal again…
7 CommentsI’m working on that promised blogosaurus. I really am. It’s about halfway done, but it keeps wanting to pull in a different direction than I want it to go. With luck, I’ll wrestle it into submission by early next week. In the meantime, here are some links to keep you entertained, charmed, baffled, ticked off, informed, or whatever the case may be. —– In the Land of Opportunity, the wealth of the richest 1% is about to outstrip the worth of the country’s entire middle class. Cheers. Florida gets its first Second Amendment sanctuary county. Today is the anniversary of…
4 CommentsGreetings, readers and friends. I’m back from four glorious days at the shore, where Mother Nature favored the land with near-summerlike weather and I enjoyed walking, snacking, and feeding seagulls on the beach. More perfect weather and a more perfect time you could not imagine. It could only have been improved had I had a doting lover peeling grapes for me as we lounged on the sand. But one can’t have everything, I suppose. —– Anyhow, I didn’t think of computers or political matters for days. It was sublime, but now reality beckons. Home, my next job is setting up…
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