Category: rant
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I Work for a Living
I had a short conversation with an ROTC cadet. He seemed competent so far as he’s been trained. Reminded me a little of myself 40 years ago. He called me sir at the end of the call and without thinking I said, “Don’t call me Sir. I work for a living.” The sergeants would tell…
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Building a better you
The worst advice Americans get on a regular basis is: Just be yourself. If a person believes they are the way they are and can’t do anything about it, that is a recipe for mental illness. Lack of self control is a great predictor of negative outcomes. We all tend to be selfish, ignorant, and…
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Disability Slurs
Stephanie and I have been arguing with a friend about the word retard. As someone who doesn’t believe in bad words just bad uses of all available words I find myself in a tough spot. I am convinced that the R word is almost universally a disability slur. Unless it’s being used in a musical…
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Losing Friends
I am argumentative and sometimes crude. I can also be very passionate about ideas that I can do nothing about. I worry about losing friends. It doesn’t happen often that someone just cuts me out of their life, but it does happen. And then I second guess myself for months as to whether I was…
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Radical Islam
Trigger Warning: This post may not be legal where you live. I believe that at its heart Islam is a religion of peace. But there are 7th century ideas that do not have a place in the modern world. Killing apostates is murder. Even if it is allowed where you are God will punish you…
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Unfocused
It snowed overnight last night. I started shoveling this afternoon and got about half of it done. Then I completely forgot because I’ve been unfocused. It’s dark now and I shouldn’t shovel at night. So instead I need to go to bed early and restart the shoveling at dawn. It needs to be done before…
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Chemicals
I’m feeling off today. I’ve been taking my psych meds at erratic times and in the past couple of weeks I’ve been self medicating. I’m too old to be treating my body like a chemistry experiment. And it’s not like anyone actually wants to party with me. I’m not feeling very nice. I mean that…
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The Long Walk
There’s a little comic book tract called “The Long Walk” (you can read it online). It talks about a man who thinks for himself and puts off converting to Christianity until a later date. He meets a guy on the spacious highway who tells him he’s right, and that he doesn’t need Christianity yet, because…
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Trolling Trolls
A lot of people believe that we just have to be our authentic selves and the world will be a better place. I disagree because a lot of people are gross. I am the pot calling the kettle black. The proper response to trolls on the internet is not to troll them back. But I…
