Unlike social conservatives, I do not expect everyone to manage their affairs according to my little peccadillos, but once you start infringing on my pursuit of happiness, that’s a different business altogether. Most of my annoyances are purely personal and do not affect the happiness of others. You may wander the boardwalks, dine on lobster rolls, and make a nuisance of yourself in general, as long as you leave me out of it, and that is mostly the way it is. People are free to pursue endless nonsense and I am free to abstain.
Browsing CategoryCulture
We’re Teaching Our Kids The Wrong Lessons
There is a near perfect karma to modern children’s stories, at least in America. Heroes are beautiful, honest, and kind. Villains are ugly, greedy, and cruel. The message we tell our children is that good always triumphs because life is ultimately fair. If you work hard and do the right thing, you will succeed, and villains always get what’s coming to them.
The Death Of The Insult
We seem to be getting rather soft even as the world feels a little spikier every year. It’s hard to know how we will survive as a species if this keeps up. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s almost as if it’s no longer culturally permissible to ridicule, mock, shame, disparage, deride or denigrate your fellow man any more.
Jesus And John Wick
What happens to our shared reality when we finally discover that our entire existence has been nothing but a lie? When faith and ideology abandon themselves, how far are we from descending into a massive Lord of the Flies scenario, complete with automatic weapons, religious fervor, and ungodly wealth?
Where Have All The Hitmen Gone?
Are contract killers nothing more than a Hollywood myth, or has government-sanctioned murder been revived? We all know the routine. A highly-trained, solitary figure, using bespoke technology, martial arts proficiency, and expert marksmanship and weaponry, breaks into a secure government facility undetected and silently kills a high-profile target before slipping away unnoticed.…
The Slow News Movement
How we became terrorized by the 24-hour news cycle and what we might do to combat the charade of exigency Prior to the advent of 24-hour cable news networks, social media, or the internet of any kind, we relied on newspapers and the nightly news, televised on one of three networks,…
The Flyers Are The Team Philly Fans Need Right Now
When you’re a city with a reputation for being a tough, scrappy underdog with a chip on your shoulder, finding yourself as the team to beat can be disorienting. Philadelphia has never been one of the big dogs. No legacy of championship eras here. We’ve never been the San Francisco 49ers of the 80s and 90s, or the Yankees with 27 World Series titles to their name. No one has ever mistaken us for “America’s Team.” We’re Philly. We’re lucky if all our players are out on bail in time for the game.
How They Ruined Toto’s Africa For Me
The social media mob that tries to promote progress by negating that we evolve, keeps trying to rewrite history.