In our group-based-grievance society, one minority has been almost entirely ignored and is constantly discriminated against. It makes up about 11 percent of the population. It is not something its members choose, but its effects reach into every aspect of their lives.
There was a time when respite was available, when for a couple of hours each week one could wipe his brow and smile. The restorative power of two hours of happiness is not to be underestimated.
The shampoo was cheap — as in $1.49 for a half gallon — but, hey, it was a name brand, so why not? When I used it I was rendered nearly unconscious by the amount of perfume in it. I’m not talking a nice scent, either, but rather the sort of thing you’d expect to find on the last-resort utility shelf at a mortuary, for use when the departed is past his bury-by date.
Much has been written in the last 75 years about how the U.S. gained an edge in the Pacific in World War II when the Japanese code was broken. In recent weeks it turns out I may have been trying to recreate that feat, and have begun to understand the challenges those skilled codebreakers faced.
This will be short because everything it says is so obvious. Do you follow the news? The allegedly shoo-in candidates for their respective parties’ presidential nomination have less principle and morals than a mosquito.
We are now an entirely gossip-based society. My old friend Mark pointed me to the latest outrage.
It is my fervent hope that Our Lord’s admonition to love our enemies does not apply to corporations. If it does, I’m sunk. There are things I hate as much as I hate the entity that calls itself Frontier Communications, but there is nothing that I despise more. I suspect that the company is corrupt; I know it is incompetent.
Climbing up the hill in 80-degree heat and impressive humidity today, I couldn’t help but think how today felt like this time 49 years ago. Most of you won’t remember it, but that was a time when the air was electric with news about Richard Nixon, and doubt whether he would be president of the United States much longer.
We do so much online now. Unless we very much limit our internet activities, we make ourselves vulnerable to crooks so clever that they would have gotten rich if they were honest. But for whatever reason they aren’t honest, so we need to take precautions. If we don’t, given the portion of our lives that takes place online, we face catastrophes not far in effect from the house burning down.