america
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A New Birth of Freedom
It has been a long while since I gently laid aside my hope that, once certain malignancies growing upon the body politic had expired, the United States would be able to resume its long march toward freedom as if nothing had happened. Too many things have been broken that must be repaired; too many people… Continue reading
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A Little Lesson in the Legislative Process
On certain occasions, the impulse to talk at the world like a social studies teacher becomes overwhelming. Some point of history or civics momentarily becomes interesting to the fraction of people who pay attention to current events, and then somebody has to write a blog post or record a video about the relevant lesson from… Continue reading
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Every Conspiracy Theory Is Still Bad And You Should Think With Your Goddamned Brain
It perpetually amazes me, that we have built a nearly universal social apparatus specifically to explain to children how the world works, and yet so many people don’t really understand anything that their paychecks do not absolutely depend upon their grasping. I could possibly live with this state of affairs if these people did not… Continue reading
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A little hope in small places
I had the fine experience last week of joining some of the 11th grade students I tutor on a little field trip around the school’s campus. I could have done with weather a little warmer, but it was still a great day to stretch the legs and take in some spring air with our education.… Continue reading
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Too much to endure
The latest news that I have seen on Trump’s war in Iran is that a two-week ceasefire has been negotiated. What this could mean in the long term, I don’t know. In the short term, I am grateful that some of this insanity shall ebb, though having seen what a “ceasefire” looks like in Gaza,… Continue reading
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Against the War
Let’s just get this out of the way—this post is not what you might call “persuasive.” I am not attempting to persuade anybody that our new war with Iran is gravely immoral. It simply is, and if you don’t know that already, you can deal with that knowledge however you like. What else is there… Continue reading
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ICE Out Now
About two thousand students arrived outside the state capitol building in Salem, Oregon on Friday, to protest against the Trump administration and ICE. They walked out of their schools to make their voices heard, rather than quietly accept the unacceptable regime of an unaccountable, arbitrary secret police force abducting and brutalizing their neighbors, friends, and… Continue reading
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American Music
If you caught the halftime show on this year’s Super Bowl broadcast, I’d be curious to hear what you thought about it. In these days of cultural division, when people are increasingly unable to agree about the meaning of all the things that play out in front of our faces, I don’t want to take… Continue reading
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I need to stop looking at social media so much
This could apply to pretty much every human being on Earth, regardless of their level of social media engagement, but I digress. I do spend a lot of time watching the feed go by, because I have a lot of bad media habits, and because I am curious to see commentary on the events of… Continue reading
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Have we learned our lesson?
There’s no lesson to be learned. It is said that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. The fact is that those of us who do remember history are doomed to “repeat it” right along with the rest of you, so as far as being a social prophylactic goes, memory is… Continue reading
Ink Tea Stone Leaf 