roadkill and other observations

Pleasing no one, proving nothing

Mark Shaw’s Collateral Damage

“JFK’s trusting Marylin with top-secret unidentified flying object (UFO) data” forced RFK to plot her murder, unless, of course, one of the other half-dozen revelations in this book was the actual reason. Or maybe it was the full weight of all the revelations combined? “No one knows for sure,” says Shaw… repeatedly, and then some more. So much for new proof.

May vegans use steak knives?

“Do you take onion and garlic?”

Early on in my vegan life I was startled while ordering a meal in a vegetarian restaurant as the waitress asked me if I ate garlic and onions. Like, they’re both in the plant food groups, right? That was perhaps the first of several weird vegan-related questions that I’ve encountered since 2016.

Death envy

In September 2001, I wondered what my father would have thought upon seeing New York’s World Trade Centre towers crumbling to the ground in huge clouds of dust.

I fell on my face

Falling on my face was not the intention I left home with at quarter to six in the morning. The plan was only to run a modest ten kilometres.

The Closer: a study in empathy

empathy – noun – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Oxford Dictionary of English

“Netflix transgender controversy”

“transphobic Netflix special”

Newsletter 2: Republican Theocracy

Opening WordPress this afternoon was meant to be about a new post describing how the “American” Republican party has become a magnet for stupidity. There is also the distinction that like today’s Taliban, which does not resemble the Taliban of 2001, the Republican party of 2021 hardly resembles the Republican party of 2001. Both entities have evolved, but in opposite directions. The Taliban has put itself in a situation in which a more moderate stance will be required to ensure the flow of desperately needed foreign aid. In contrast, the GOP has evolved into an extremist fanatical threat to American democracy that has more in common with Belarussia’s Lukashenko than Abraham Lincoln.

Reluctant gratitude; My bicycle Saviours

An intention recently arose to express gratitude in a blog post to two people who helped me overcome a frustrating challenge.

As I was writing that post, it began to seem trivial. Who would be interested in reading it? Would writing it simply add to the banality that is already saturating the world wide web, social media, and human existence?

Mr. Glynn, Kingdom Filipina Hacienda sovereign, goes to Singapore

“I will never plead guilty or not guilty,” said Benjamin Glynn before Singapore District Judge Eddy Tham on August 5th, 2021. “The charges don’t apply to me,” adding that he is a “sovereign.”

Pro tip: wash your shoelaces

It took just over a year for the laces in my trail running shoes to become kinda gross. More specifically, tying my shoes got gross. Before a run, tying my shoelaces is a mini-ritual. This began after buying a pair of Topo Ultraventures and taking a serious look at the extra eyelets. Previously I’d never really considered their purpose. Now that YouTube explains everything, after about six related videos describing the benefits of the heel lock lacing method, I decided to give that a go.

Fact-based Buddhism

As I awoke this morning I was reincarnated, just like yesterday, the day before that and the preceding 21,391 days. That’s the perspective of “me”, the Reform Buddhist, or Liberal Buddhist – maybe better: the Progressive Buddhist. Sort of like the members of Reform Judaism and the Protestants, just with less magic.