Dave: Everybody cheats. I just didn’t know. Dad: Well, now you know. [From Breaking Away.] Have you become more skeptical as you’ve aged, or less? There’s an awful lot of utter nonsense being purveyed by the extended media, these days. By “extended,” I mean to subsume all providers of information, not just the …
Category: hope
Jul 07 2023
People Of Hope
I recall recommending The Hope Line as a worthy charity earlier this year. Unlike most other charities, it doesn’t offer material or financial help to those who come to it. Rather, it offers a sympathetic ear and voice. Its workers will talk to you about anything, but an emphasis on…drum roll, please…hope. Within that …
Mar 08 2023
When Life Improves On Art
There was once a British writer named John Brunner who was given to writing scathing novels about a fictional United States mired in one or another sort of crisis or calamity. His writing was excellent even if his vision was perverse. One of his novels, Stand On Zanzibar, won the Hugo Award at a …
Feb 24 2023
And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all – And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard – And sore must be the storm – That could abash the little Bird That kept so many …
Feb 07 2023
Smart Tactics
Clever tacticians know it: Strike the enemy at his weakest point. Believe it or not, that – not tanks, aerial warfare, or poison gas – was the biggest innovation that came out of World War I. Before that, nation armies would hurl themselves at one another’s strength, each hoping to destroy the another and …
Jun 15 2022
Pandora’s Last Gift Versus The Gospel Of Despair
I’m in an odd mood this morning (“So what’s new?” come the mutterings from the peanut gallery), in part owing to two pieces I recently stumbled over: The tireless pursuit of mediocrity “Thou shalt have no other gods before Us, the Establishment.” My reaction to these stories might have been different had I …