Pointless Man

The same men who say global warming is a hoax, Obamacare has been failing for eight years, and abstinence-only sex-ed works are also convinced even basic gun control is an impossible and useless approach which would only make us less safe. These are also the dudes most likely to tell you black and brown folk have it too good, Obama is a secret Muslim born in Kenya, and Sharia law is being forced on American legal systems. I wonder if there's some sort of overarching thread or theme to all this.

It took me quite a while to understand the Kantian concept of treating people as 'ends in themselves' rather than means to an end. --Frankly, my philosophy professors and TAs at the University of Washington did not help with their circular definitions. I'm not sure they got it, either, but perhaps I was just dense.-- Not to offer an explanation of Kant*, but from my own perspective, treating people with dignity or as an end rather than a means entails acknowledging we all have our own situations, motivations, and needs. It means accepting that one approach will not work for everyone, and requires us to modulate our interactions accordingly. It necessitates an attempt to understand people, their thoughts and feelings, without jumping to hard and simple judgments. I try to follow through on this, as best I might, when I have the wherewithal. It is not easy, but interacting with people who seem to disregard these notions entirely only confirms the moral imperative. *Sti...

It's the end of summer, once again. I could not be any more ready for cool weather, rain, and a chance for the forests to recover from the flames. After travelling near fires in Colorado and Oregon's Columbia river gorge, I am back wondering about north Seattle, under a red sun and painterly clouds, not far enough from the source of the drifting smoke. It seems like the world is burning, but that can only last so long.

Shortly after breakfast this morning, Nathan turned to me and declared, "Dadda, I'm hungry, and I don't want fruit." We have apples, cherries, raspberries, and blueberries at hand. "If you say you're hungry, but you won't eat fruit you like, you aren't hungry," I informed him. "We've had this conversation before." "But not today," he replied.

Today, the clouds left the sky feeling open, but blocked enough sun for me to take off my hat and glasses. It was such a wonderful, temperate afternoon, I turned my lunchtime stroll into a jog. Running toward the breeze, it rushed past my ears, making it sound like this lumbering man was moving at speed. I always liked that auditory illusion; it clears the mind.

One reason arguing from definitions tends to fail is there are almost always multiple senses, uses, meanings, and connotations to words (even just sticking to proper, formal, and accepted interpretations). If you are in disagreement, chances are part of that stems from seeing the same things differently.

The low slung, full moon is pale gold tonight, and quite large. Smaller than they make it look in Hollywood, but no less beautiful for that. A pleasure to walk under.

Humans are not quarks or Hawking radiation. In society, nothing comes from nothing. Everything has a lineage. Thus grappling with the present requires understanding the past. Just sayin'.

Between the regular elections in 2008 and 2010, Democrats won 7 of 10 special elections for positions in the US Congress. You may recall the 2010 midterms, in which Republicans won 63 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate, showed that those earlier special elections did not set any sort of trend. There is a special election in Georgia today for a single seat in the US House of Representatives. It is being hailed (by, for example, the BBC) as "important" and potentially "a major blow to Donald Trump's presidency". I don't want to downplay the impact congresspersons can have on their constituents. Every election to a position of power and visibility is important. But this doesn't have major national implications outside of messaging and mood--and those are outsized and largely irrational. If Jon Ossoff wins, it won't tip the balance of power in Congress. If he loses, Republicans won't be more powerful than they already are. And in less than t...

I've been confused over the last year or two at the liberal use of 'neoliberal' and 'neoliberalism' amongst liberals. Admittedly, definitions can shift, and meanings can be added to established words, so I get that usage here is changing. Still. As I understand the terms, they denote belief in pure, free-market, market-driven, and laissez faire economics and economic political policies; and support for privitization, deregulation, and free trade. But then there are people who seem to think 'neoliberal' means "establishment", "internationalist", "centrist", "Keynesian", or simply "not as far to the left as me". Some use it as a handy cudgel, a term of clout without semantic content, removing the possibility of meaningful conversation. I understand these are words with a convoluted history involving multiple schools of shifting thought, so some confusion (and conflation) is understandable. I admit some con...

So I picked up a new, unfinished pine bookcase today for free. Looking forward to filling it later tonight. It wasn't deep, but it was about 6' long, so it barely fit in my car. I had to have my son ride in the passenger seat. I hit my neck on the thing getting in. Driving home, I sort of turned to Nathan, whose arm I could just see, and asked, "So, what's it like riding up front?" "Not normal," he replied, a bit perturbed. "Not normal?" "Yeah." "Well," I mused, "Just think of it like getting to be an adult or a really big kid. Anyway, we'll be home soon." "Ok. Can you set up my seat after that?"

The best defense against known lies, empty rhetoric, and pure nonsense is to refuse to report it unless and until it is actually newsworthy. This president and his people  are maliciously taking advantage of media bias towards reporting tweets, statements from those in orbit of a POTUS, and 'both sides'. I would suggest not acting as a megaphone for known BS is more important than these traditions. We all should pass BS artists by without remark, or dismiss them openly as blathering dastards whose words are not worth repeating. Vox has just published a piece covering DJ Trump's tendency to use BS to "crowd out" the truth with multiple 'alternative' stories. I think they are right. But at this point, something more than reporting and analysing the BS needs to be done to address it. Most journalists have an admirable penchant for refusing to report unconfirmed stories or things they know to be false. They should apply it to the Donald John Trump admin...

I'm not always right. I don't think I'm always right. I am a fallibilist. Anyone could be wrong about anything. These things happen, after all. Specifically, though, I may be wrong about Jeremy Corbyn and the (polling) direction he's taking Labour in . Though they still favor the Conservatives, the polls are tightening. No one knows which way it might go. Nate Silver has written a fascinating piece about trying to guess what the numbers mean . I could live with a Labour victory, slim as the chance may be. 

I am not against Corbyn's ideas or his bent, but he is hopelessly ineffectual as a national politician and party leader. His ideas aren't all that bad, but his brand is, because he sucks at messaging, and is no better at corralling or convincing his partymates. He and his leadership have a dull a sense of political strategy and tactics. Arguably being right or more compassionate doesn't win you anything outside of school debates. Supporters say Jeremy Corbin cares. Well, he can care all he likes, deeply and to his very core, but he won't be able to realize any of his ideals without a capable coalition which must be taken seriously, and not laughed out of the room. Corbyn has faced strong opposition from some of his own party members, the Tories (previously--they are largely unconcerned with him now), and various entrenched interests. I do not suggest he has an easy road. Politics is a rough, dirty business, after all. People are going to be unfair to politicians....

No.

One hand distracts, while the other does the work, right? Perhaps. Lines of thought that run roughly, 'X is just a distraction from Y', are interesting. The person making the claim presumably has followed both X and Y without losing focus, without which it would be harder to convincingly dismiss X. Y is often a complex series of roughly related items, which itself presumes one can keep track of multiple threads without being distracted. And, while this is perhaps a fair criticism of cable news (which does tend to obsess over one story per 'cycle'), actual newspapers, news-sites, and TV and radio programs typically cover more than one story in any given iteration. Yet this odd meme persists. Every day, I see different people saying this, that, or the other thing is merely a distraction from some set of other stuff. Pretty regularly, one person's distraction is another person's story-They-are-trying-to-distract-You-from. If we're not all magicians, fo...

The idea of getting rid of Trump might make you salivate. It might terrify you, if you're worried about the unpopular, and all-but-unelected theocrat who's next in line. If you are a mainline conservative, maybe the hope helps you sleep at night. How you feel about the prospect probably won't matter too much. Republicans will almost certainly never vote for it. Even if Democrats (and assorted caucus-member independents) ride a wave election in 2018, they'll still need some Republicans to reach 67 votes in the Senate. You have to get 2/3s of the upper house of Congress to convict the president, even after the House impeaches him with a simple-majority. This is why Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton weren't removed from office, despite both being impeached by the House. And, if it were to go through, if Trump were impeached, convicted, and removed from office, Pence wouldn't ease up on the environment, the poor, or religious minorities. He'd be better in some ...

Late this morning, I went to brunch with my son and my parents at Biscuit and Bean. There is always a line heading into this joint on the weekends, so I'd never been. Turns out they make large, rich, fluffy biscuits and overly salty gravy. We sat inside to eat. The decor was minimal, its space being mostly filled with people. The tables and chairs belonged outside. Everything felt like it was meant to rush bodies back outside, including the music. Decades old 'adult contemporary' and late '90s boy bands played through a monaural speaker, which sounded like it was made of tin, but was probably just somebody's poorly amplified iPhone. I could not wait to get back outside. --If I go back, it will be for takeout, sans gravy.-- We left, after far too long for my liking, and walked upon garden lined streets strewn with petals, into downtown Ballard. The sun was just obscured enough for me to be happy to wear a hat. We wandered into Digs, a pleasant and overpriced home de...

Focusing on Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer, or Kellyanne Conway is a mistake. Who hired these people? At least eighty percent of the time, that guy is going to replace his awful advisors and surrogates with another Jeff Sessions, Paul Manafort, or Betsy Devos.

I don't stay up or sleep in too late. I don't let things pile up. I get outside. I exercise. I smile. I talk face to face with people I actually like. I draw more than some random doodle. These are activities I could focus on. I could also make an adult-children's book out of this list. How about you? What makes you feel better?

We're going to build a wall, and you, the American people, will pay for it. Many of you twice, due to lost services. Some of you will also lose land, so that's three times. But let's pretend Mexico will pay us all back, ok? '" I'd like to hear the details. What is this wall?" asked Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz .'

For a while, with all the talk of 'post-truth', I had been wondering if we hadn't stumbled into a dumbed-down post-modernism. Pidgeon Post Modernity, if you will. But that didn't feel right. Something simpler, and thus harder to grasp, was driving all the denialism and dissembling of American conservatives and so-called populists. Here it is, crystalline in clarity: " This is as clear a distillation of Trump’s epistemology as you could hope for. Simply put: Might makes right ."

Nationally, there is no motivation for Dems to work with Republicans here. One might claim to be saving one's ammunition for another, hypothetical fight, but the threat of removing filibusters on SCOTUS nominees will remain. Republicans will use it again and again, with impunity, unless and until they actually invoke the rule change or lose their majority. Acquiescing to their bullying now will simply confirm their tactic. But, as I have said before, politics are local. Senator Joe Manchin of conservative West Virginia, for example, may not have a lot of room to stand with his fellow Democrats in filibustering a well qualified ( though creepily dispassionate, and thus not at all compassionate ) conservative judge. Local politics, with tough reelection battles looming, is what will keep Democrats from having a strongly united front here. But Democrats can lose 7 votes on cloture and still continue a filibuster unless and until Republicans in the Senate change the rules. All th...

Perhaps driven by character and feeling, I have always considered effect to be at least as important as intent--and almost always more so. When it matters, intent tends to augment, mitigate, or determine the degree of fault or laudability, rather than rendering an act moral or immoral. If no one is actually harmed (or is at some point likely to be) by an act, we don't generally worry too much about it. If you accidentally push somebody in a crowd, or push them to get past while being chased by murderous mobsters, that's not so bad as pushing the same person simply because you can, and it may be excused, but you probably still owe them an apology. If they stumble and fall after you shove them, you are responsible for whatever injury may occur. If you push them into traffic, and they are run over, your possible sentence and likely charge may be less than if your actions had been malicious, but there's a good chance you'll need legal representation. Broadly, if no one...

I often see people argue Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America (which is roughly true), so Democrats should just adopt his policies and they will become popular like him (which is not at all obvious, and probably wrong). Trevor Timm wrote a piece for the Guardian entitled, " Everyone loves Bernie Sanders. Except, it seems, the Democratic party ". This headline is unfair, misleading, and untrue. When you intentionally mislead people, you are lying to them. Lying to people is not journalism. It is unethical, and a poor basis for discussion. Looking at polling from late last October until earlier this week, Bernie is consistently popular . His worst poll placed him at 52% favorable and 39% unfavorable, while his best (and most recent) numbers were a sterling 61% positive to 32% negative. Despite the author's claims, this was actually an outlier, and significantly better than most other polls conducted in the last six months (and roughly 5 points hig...

I hear from people to my left, 'We just need to be stronger in our values, and push harder (perhaps violently) for economic justice and progressive values. You are ignoring us, and that is why we are not Democrats. You were too friendly with businesses and the establishment. You make too many compromises. You didn't fight for the working class. That is why you lost in 2016. You will continue to lose until you listen." But I vote for people who want to regulate Wall Street, curb polution, and raise standards of living. I want to do this without running into the problems they have today in France or Venezuela. We can strengthen our safety nets without sawing away at the tightropes we walk upon. I hear from people to my right, "We just need to be stronger in our values, and push harder (perhaps violently) for economic justice and traditionalist values. You are ignoring us, and that is why we are not Democrats. You were too friendly with people who aren't white, str...

Proud American bigots will not own their bigotry. Even most KKK groups deny they are racist (though they clearly are). 'Racism' is a fighting word in the US. Try telling some Trumpeteers their approach to Latinos is racist, and see what happens. The US is full of active and systemic discrimination,  including very strong racism, but we don't want to acknowledge it. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to change it, unless and until it is seen as directly harming rich, white people. Then, maybe we'll consider halting the war on drugs, or at least pot. Many of us don't want to admit historical tidbits like slavery, Japanese internment, the terrorist civil war that lasted 30 years after the Civil War (which the south won), race riots, Indian wars, or imperialism. Calling racist policies and acts what they so clearly are is perceived as an insult to those who craft them and carry them out. We definitely do not want to think about how redlining was st...

Guilt is useful only if we act on it. Otherwise, it is either misguided or a poor excuse for the unethical to feign morality. Broadly, if something you do makes you feel guilty, you should either stop it, or get over your sense of shame. You generally shouldn't feel guilty pleasure, unless that itself is the basis for your enjoyment. Especially when it comes to entertainment, you probably shouldn't feel guilty about most things you like. You can enjoy Britney Spears' music, 'Grease', or 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' all you want. If you're not wasting your life away on these things, what does it matter? Even if you think they're aesthetically bad, that's alright. Campy, schmaltzy ridiculous, or just dumb material can still be fun. Don't feel guilty for liking harmless garbage. I t's harmless. --Please note this is not an excuse for subjecting others to your bad taste. That is unquestionably wrong.-- If your entertainment involves peo...

To replace the ACA, Republicans in Congress have proposed a bad plan with little of the preparation usually devoted to legislation. A going theory is, perhaps they did this on purpose, so they can lose the battle without having to actually fix anything or take on new problems, blame Democrats in the Senate, and move on briskly to 'tax reform' and other issues. Ezra Klein writes,  "So do I think the GOP plan is built to fail? I don’t. Washington is always more Veep than House of Cards. But I do think Republicans went into this process believing that failure was likely.... They decided that if they were going to fail at this, they were going to fail fast, over the course of a month or two, not waste a year on the project." Which is sensible, if you think government is essentially doomed to failure, anyway. The free market, small government crowd hasn't had a vision of a functioning, workable system since Newt Gingrich's Contract with America. If oversi...

There is only one story: 'The Hero's Journey' . Or there are seven stories . Or three. Or twenty. Or thirtysix. Or this is stupid, reductive nonsense produced for (and reproduced by) people who have trouble telling stories. I am tired of hearing about these theories and bored of seeing them implemented by people who fancy themselves 'creatives'. As Roger Ebert used to say, "It's not what you're about. It's how you're about it."

I have come to the conclusion that Republican pols today are not, by and large, descended from the public faces of the Bush family or Reagan, but from the backroom dealings in the school of Karl Rove, Lee Atwater, Richard Nixon, and Dick Cheney. They want to win. That's it. It doesn't really matter how. For all their Christian trappings, if asked, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" they might readily respond with the words of Vince Lombardi: Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing.

Racists want a war. They have always wanted one. As soon as the Civil War ended, Klansmen were engaged in domestic terrorism and uprisings, and calling for more battles. Now, in America, they have their guy in office, and a compliant Congress, with 28 states run almost entirely by reactionary Republicans. They would very much like an excuse to crack down on opposition. Notice the bills in various state legislatures to outlaw protest or make it ok to run down protesters in the streets. Chaos and violence will only hasten their calls for 'law and order'. Peaceful protest, letter writing campaigns, and direct action hand them no such excuses. They hate that stuff. But they revel in every punch and brick thrown. Most recent protests have been nonviolent. Even those featuring clashes have been 'mostly peaceful'. Nor is all violence surrounding these events the fault of anti-fascist, anti-Trump, or anti-hate protesters. There were apparently clashes not just between poli...

" Like so many other prominent atheists (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, etc.), Maher never tied his atheism to any meaningful cause beyond rejection ". When I was younger, as an atheist, I used to be annoyed at being often associated with humanism . Now, I miss having people with a sense of compassion as the standard bearers of religious skepticism. I don't hate religious people. I don't despise religion. Because humans are involved in religious culture, beautiful things have arisen from it, just as negative aspects have. That's going to happen no matter what, religion or no. One need only look to Bill Maher or Christopher Hitchens to see you can be an oppressive and complete asshole without religious belief. Religious organizations facilitate useful social functions not readily met by other groups. Spiritual belief and experience fulfill needs many folks are hardwired with. Insisting society abandon these aspects of itself is cruel and irrational. You...

Dear journalists, pundits, and especially cable TV news producers, if you want to teach the POTUS a lesson for taking you on or excluding some of you from a briefing, try something new and innovative. Take a day off from Donald. Don't show him, mention him, tweet at him, or report on his statements. Don't use his name, nicknames, title, or pronouns. No 'POTUS', '45', 'Cheeto Jesus', or 'Agent Orange'. Don't play clips of Spicer mentioning the prez. Just drop him out of the picture for a cycle. You can still talk about what the government is doing, current events, the acts of various cabinet members or generals, and what governors, Congress, and mayors are up to. You can even mention the White House and 'the administration', but leave the big guy with the smallish hands alone. You'll be able to gracefully do your jobs, serve the public, and generate buzz without doing anything unprofessional or unseemly. Imagine yourselves being...

The world around us is in no way required to conform to our expectations, beliefs, or desires. Rather, it is all but guaranteed to disappoint us, at least once or twice a lifetime. The loftier (or more deeply felt) our ideals, the more this may be true. When we accept this incongruity and are keenly aware of it, but cannot change our thinking, absurdity steps in. T he world no longer quite makes sense. It is untethered from rational or moral concerns, adrift in a bizarre joke told by no one. Desire for normative order is often irrational and misplaced. Placing ethical constraints on amoral matters makes no sense. Yet these appear (sometimes, seemingly) inescapable conclusions. Hence the sensation of absurdity. We can apply these incongruous demands to anything and anyone. But this is not a universal philosophy. It is a philosophy of the self, a diagnosis.

America's foreign policy currently resembles the stumbling incoherence of a drunk well in his cups. A well oiled machine, indeed. Domestically, little has been accomplished since January 20th, beyond putting the courts to work. Republicans in Congress have partnered with the Trump Organization to make it far easier for coal companies to pollute and fill streams, and for schizophrenics to buy guns. Some things to crow about. The Donald keeps saying he inherited a mess, without explanation. I'm beginning to think what he means is, before he became POTUS, there was this inexperienced, dangerous guy set to take the position, and Obama didn't stop it from happening. It must be rough. At home and abroad, I think we can discern the beginnings of a Trump Doctrine in its fairly explicit, thorough-going rejection of the Obama Doctrine, "Don't do stupid shit." 'Do do stupid shit,' about sums it up, so far, don't you think?

Mindful concentration and earnest effort make health, safety, and creativity more likely, but there are no guarantees. Every plateau has a cliff. Each incline can become a decline. These paths require attention. When we traverse uncertain ground in the darkness, if the wind sweeps past, we may keep our feet or we may lose our footing and tumble down. When I requested February 14th off from work, I didn't expect to spend the day alone, you know. Now, it's just another day on which I should be doing chores. There is so much to do around my small apartment. It's almost amazing. But of course I realize, keeping our spaces clean requires persistent effort, as well. Still, t here are cliffs all around. Some of them seem treacherous, others quite comfortable.

I have five suggestions for liberals, progressives, and others on the left: 1) When talking about a Republican in Congress, specifically mention and tie that person to 'Republicans in Congress'. National approval ratings for the Republican party are nagative. The numbers for Congress are dire. Republicans in Congress are in charge of it, across the board. They own it, for now. They should be tied to it, and given the recognition they deserve. Most people do not know who Representative Jason Chaffetz is. A lot of people don't know who Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are. But they know 'Republicans in Congress'. Locally, folks are more likely to know (and support) their representatives or senators, but they don't really see those politicians as part of the general problem. Hence, 'Republicans in Congress'. 2) Similarly, when talking about something a member of the Trump administration has done, make sure to tie it to the Trump administration, right off t...

When even Cosmopolitan is forced to call you out as a duplicitous propagandist, maybe it's time for journalists to stop taking your calls. There is no reason to assume Ms. Conway, of the "alternative facts", is at all concerned with truth. Her job appears to be to spread propaganda. I think the Cosmo article makes it clear she didn't believe 'the Bowling Green Massacre' was real at all, but was cynically dissembling. She was intentionally attempting to mislead us to justify her boss' unjusifiable travel ban aimed at Muslims. This is a textbook case of lying. More importantly, the US has already reacted to and fully addressed the shortcomings that allowed two Iraqis with terrorist ties into the US and Bowling Green, Kentucky. They would have been screened out in the current process. These men committed no 'massacre' anywhere, but had planted bombs in Iraq years before and intended to send assisstance to Al Queda in Iraq. They were not mastermind...

I think I'm going to try to revive my online writing habits, outside of Facebook. And what have I been thinking or feeling in the interim, across the last couple years or so? Well, I'm glad you asked. In part, this .

Whenever I require a medical procedure of some sort, particularly when it involves needles or knives, I find myself ambivalent, at once coldly logical and unreasonably fearful. There is a disconnection between my perhaps overly rational thinking of necessity and how my body feels about potential pain or mutilation. As a child, if I had to have blood drawn or get an injection, I would calmly inform the nurses they should call no less than four orderlies to wrap me up like a mu mmy and hold me down. This evoked incredulity. They never believed me until they found out I could knock the needle from their hands and fight off two grown men, or actively struggle with three. And they were always surprised. I've since developed greater self control, more sophisticated means of subsuming my unthinking animal emotions. Typically, if someone asks me if I'm ready or calm before a treatment, I'll tell them I am, which might even be partially true. But my blood pressure levels and ...