In the lead up to the new Star Wars movie, there has been a lot of talk about canon. Disney made a big deal out of the fact that the six movies and The Clone Wars are the only pre-Disney cannon. Everything from the Expanded Universe (Novels, comic books, etc.), all of the TV specials and…
Americans don’t think in terms of coalitions. That’s one of the quirks of our separately elected executive. Parliamentary countries talk about coalitions all the time. I don’t want to say that parliamentary systems are better than the American system, they both have their positives and negatives, but I do think that the US would benefit…
I complain about the press a lot. Mostly I complain about them being really, really, really bad at their job. But, I have other reasons for hating them. Yesterday, there were headlines all over the internet about processed meats causing cancer. Bacon is as bad as tobacco, they said. I’m not exaggerating, I saw more…
I have a problem with the election coverage. No one is talking about it. The election is in less than two weeks and it seems like most people don’t even know who’s running, let alone who to vote for. How is a democracy supposed to work when elections get ignored. If the press would do…
The Bible is a very long and complex book. It is well worth the effort, though. Not only does it have plenty of fascinating and insightful material on its own, it is the primary source of religious knowledge for all Christians. Any serious scholar of religion knows that there are right and wrong ways of…
If you follow baseball, you know what happened, but just in case, here’s a quick recap. During Saturday night’s game between the Mets and Dodgers, Chase Utley was the runner at first when there was a ground ball up the middle. If the Mets turned a double play, the Dodgers were out of the inning,…
The 2015 MLB playoffs start today. It’s mostly a good group of teams and looks to be a fun few weeks. Here is each team along with the reasons why you should root for them. Houston Astros 86-76 Second AL Wildcard: Houston is a perpetually snake-bitten franchise and no one expected them to contend this year,…
As I stated in yesterday’s post, after a mass shooting, there are always people who say that guns aren’t the problem, mental illness is the problem. This bothers me because it is just a smokescreen used to prevent any real discussion of the real issues. But it also bothers me for deeper reasons. Very generally,…
There was another mass shooting yesterday at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. I was going to write about it yesterday, but I was too sad and angry. I read that this is the 45th school shooting this year. That is shocking to me. I had only heard about a few of those. Apparently school shootings…
My whole family had a pretty eventful summer from a medical point of view. The most serious ailment happened to our cat. He had a urinary blockage caused by crystal formation. This is apparently rather common with male cats. Basically, they form crystals in their urine. These crystals clump together and get stuck in the…
