Cas d'intérêt reviews a French novel of a disintegrating family in a disintegrating colonial empire.
Solar power is booming all over the world because in most countries it's now the cheapest form of electricity generation. The vast majority of new energy capacity being built nowadays is clean energy.
The government is finally imposing safety rules for the ridiculously-oversized pick-up trucks and SUVs which are killing more and more pedestrians. But it sounds like these will apply only to new ones being designed and do nothing about the monstrosities already on the roads.
I recently observed that "whatever nonsense Trump happens to babble forth becomes sacred dogma which few Republicans dare question." The Haïtians-eating-pets thing is already being believed and taken seriously in the wingnutosphere. You can see how many images in this collection use that theme.
In Minnesota, five male criminals, including (at least) two sexual predators and one brutal murderer, have just been transferred to a women-only prison.
All over the world, 3D printing is serving as a work-around for citizens of countries that ban guns. Of course, the büngwad who wrote the headline describes this as a "problem".
I sometimes feel like this blog is as much therapy as communication. It's the only thing I do now that involves any creativity. Without it I think I'd finally go completely crazy.
To those people saying you're going to leave the US if your preferred presidential candidate loses -- who the hell do you think is going to take you? Most decent countries aren't exactly easy to immigrate into these days. Do you think Canada or Australia or anywhere else wants, or has room for, ten or twenty million disgruntled Americans?
There's a reason why the "weird" framing of Trump and his followers hit home in a way that previous attacks did not. Mockery has a power all its own. It never bothered the Trumpanzees and assorted wingnuts much to be called "fascist" and suchlike. Fascists are dangerous and scary, and Trumpists like to be seen as dangerous and scary. "Weird" suggests something goofy and ridiculous, which is far more damaging to the self-image of the pompous and self-important (like Trump) or of the types who view themselves as dominant and intimidating "alpha" males (many of the nuttier right-wingers these days). It stung in a way that "fascist" never could. From what I hear, Harris exploited the same weakness during the debate, reacting to Trump not as a menacing force but as something faintly absurd and pitiful, a doddering old codger rambling on about random nonsense.
As some readers may have guessed, there are times when I suffer from suicidal impulses. These episodes have generally grown stronger and more obsessive over time, especially since the death of my mother almost five years ago. A range of health issues, isolation, exhaustion at the demands which life and practical necessity continue to make on stamina and energy I no longer have, and the near certainty that the future holds nothing for me but more of the same, all help to fuel this. There are also issues I prefer not to mention here.
Over the last couple of weeks those feelings have grown stronger than, I would say, any other time in the last twelve years. Even through the eyes of starkly rational assessment, sometimes making an end to things has appeared as the sanest and best option.
(I do, at least, have the benefit of not being at all religious. If I were religious, it's likely I would have done it some time ago.)
I would ask that readers not attempt to prescribe "solutions". There are major aspects of my situation you do not know because I have not mentioned them here. If an option seems obvious to you, be assured that it is just as obvious to me, while you cannot know all the obstacles and limitations that I face. More broadly, I am 100% done with being judged and told what I "should" do by people who are not me. I have regular access to a professional counselor who has years of experience dealing with my specific situation and understands it in great detail, and also has extensive knowledge of issues like clinical depression, the effects of past emotional trauma, and various forms of therapy and medication. What humanly can be done, is being done.
Nor am I asking for special sympathy. There are many people in the blogosphere who face difficult personal challenges, some worse than mine. I raise this to clarify some background which is necessary to understanding the frame of mind in which I have been operating, and which may make my attitudes and responses in certain situations more comprehensible. And, yes, to make readers aware that this is a decision I may actually make at some point. If so, please know that it was made rationally and after consideration of all relevant factors. While I have never claimed to be entirely sane, I am fully able to assess problems in a rational and organized way while identifying and filtering out the effects of transient urges, wishful thinking, and self-catalyzing mood swings. I do not make major decisions impulsively.
For now, I am making the best of things. But this is part of who I am and what I am dealing with.
If something's hard to see or read, click to enlarge.
My hope for these posts is that they will provoke thinking, not mere agreement or disagreement. If they can get you to consider even one idea which you would not previously have entertained, or which would not previously have occurred to you, then I've succeeded in what I'm trying to do.
Curious what women readers think of this. Is it a big positive if a guy is into reading or foreign languages or the rest of the top list? And since when is Marjorie Taylor Greene a hobby?
"Hate-speech" laws, in practice, punish those who tell truths that the authorities find uncomfortable.
And double-check ahead of time to make sure you're still registered!
Individualist, pro-technology, pro-democracy, anti-religion. I speak only for myself and not for any ideology, movement, or party. It has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of "spirituality" of any kind. I believe that evidence and reason are the keys to understanding reality; that technology rather than ideology or politics has been the great liberator of humanity; and that in the long run, human intelligence is the most powerful force in the universe.
So they do wipe their asses after all.....
Must've been a lot of birds.....
.....or wish for a fifty-foot cat.....
HR Giger working on the set of Alien
Triton, the main moon of Neptune
Robben Island, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned
Sept 11 survivors amid the ashes of the twin towers collapse
Dust storm
Tapeworm head
Go toward the light.....
