12.27.2010

wordless world

The TV on, no sound, yet I could understand everything.

12.13.2010

what wealth is for

The sacred duty of the rich is preservation of cultural capital (art, architecture, libraries, etc.).

12.12.2010

relatively succesful

I was top among the underachievers.

12.02.2010

tongue oil

Talk is the lubricant of the mind. Thought, reading, and writing have their benefits, but there is nothing like articulation on the fly to clarify.

11.27.2010

find a pulse

Pleasure is the pulse of life.

11.24.2010

invasive species

Number one inimical invasive species: humankind.

11.16.2010

flimsy

It proved to be a brittle kind of celebrity.

11.15.2010

there's no there there

The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that we’ll have a lot to talk about when we get there.

11.13.2010

neither here nor there

locus-pocus

11.08.2010

word problem

The news account stated: ‘X was found sleeping in a restroom’. That kind of makes sense.

11.02.2010

whose money

When I hear someone say ‘I want keep more of my money’ or ‘The government wants to take all my money’, I want to ask that person to take a bill from his wallet or her purse and to read it: That bill has ‘The United States of America’ printed on it, and the only reason it’s worth more than the paper it’s printed on is because a strong government supports the rule of law, infrastructure, security, education and the social programs that give value to that currency. That money is a gift of your good government.

10.19.2010

just say no

Why does society confuse the lack of prohibition of an act or a thing with the promotion of that act/thing? Society could decriminalize narcotics and at the same time promote drug avoidance and addiction rehabilitation programs, and do so at a cost far less (in dollars and lives lost) than is spent on interdiction, prosecution and incarceration.

10.07.2010

oversimplified

To simplify is to lie.

10.02.2010

jealous city

A city afflicted by skyscraper envy.

9.26.2010

liberal media bias

If a person pursues a field that requires openminded attention and thoroughgoing inquiry, like journalism, it’s natural that they’d be liberal-minded. The narrow and closed-off conservative mindset need not apply.

8.26.2010

no hero here

Is it possible to be a hero on the side waging an unjust war?

8.24.2010

gold bug, gold slug

Gold is an inert metal, and an inert investment, in the sense that gold merely holds value: It doesn’t have the creative and generative economic value of an equity or bond investment.

8.18.2010

last parking place

Two things that create dead space in cities: parking garages and cemeteries.

8.12.2010

divisible eye

To update a 60’s protest chant: “The whole world is watching different channels!”

8.11.2010

discomfiting thought

Comfort mongers among us.

8.10.2010

only ankle deep

The rich claim they’re being soaked when the bottoms of their pants’ legs get wet.

8.09.2010

slack learning curve

Some workers think that experience is knowing where the restrooms are and how much time you have for lunch.

8.04.2010

one myth too many

Show me a self-made man, and in seconds I’ll scratch through to the social clay from which he was molded.

8.03.2010

scar shaped like a smile

To see gloating global capitalism get its comeuppance was almost worth the financial pain of 2008-2009.

8.02.2010

nothing obscured

Birds will alight on the branch that gives them the best vantage point.

7.28.2010

nostalgists

Either they are aghast at the present or afraid of what lies ahead.

7.26.2010

not mass enough to ignite

Remember, Earth, that planets are but failed stars.

7.24.2010

untested

If you trust, you don’t need to test.

7.22.2010

utter clutter

To live through a catastrophe in which everything has been taken away from you except your life. After that, all life must seem a dream cluttered with things, people and events.

7.21.2010

house lust

I am desirous of a very large house so that I can have houseguests, and never see them.

7.18.2010

paradise wasted

It’s sad to think of a place called Paradise after the fall. A place of great beauty and bounty that just goes on and on, all wasted, with no one there to experience it.

7.15.2010

weak tea

What the American middle class most lacks is a sense of appreciation.

7.14.2010

skip a step

Young (Gen Z) job candidate to the interviewer: ‘Take me to your loser.’

7.12.2010

not front row seats

All kinds of horrors can happen until people’s clothes start to get spattered.

7.09.2010

no better

This I can do; I can do no better.

7.08.2010

perceived perfect

Don’t demand, rather prefer perfection, ever aware part of it is perception.

7.06.2010

skin deep

How can I say this without being insensitive to the hours he spent under the needle, but he was someone who thought of a tattoo as a life-long accomplishment.

7.05.2010

scared myself

Sometimes I think I’m scary sane.

7.01.2010

o save us uncle sam

Those who are first to complain about ‘big government’, who claim that the private sector is more effective and efficient in all ways, are the same people now complaining that the government isn’t acting fast enough, isn’t using its vast resources, to solve the disastrous Gulf oil spill.

6.29.2010

not me

In any error or act, the last thing we see is our complicity.

6.28.2010

rat-a-tat-tat

Sprayed with automatic weapon-fire, I was having difficulty connecting the dots.

6.25.2010

cast as extras

In any sufficiently complex notion of God, people simply become superfluous.

6.22.2010

people trump ideas

The problems begin when one puts ideologies before people. People will complicate that which ideologies want to simplify.

6.20.2010

past imperfect

Memory is imagination with a history.

6.19.2010

seen enough

There have been countless UFO sightings and yet no confirmed contact with aliens has occurred. Quite possibly they’ve seen enough and are avoiding us.

6.15.2010

serfdom

Serf to the fictional fiefdom of the self.

6.13.2010

to go that far

To die in a place so wild or unnavigable your body will never be recovered.

6.10.2010

proud flesh

Healed before the scars remembered where to leave their marks.

6.09.2010

almost malapropism

Almost a malapropism except it makes sense: Devise and conquer.

6.08.2010

low down

A sewer worker in the necropolis.

6.05.2010

friend demand

Make too many friends and you forfeit your own life.

6.01.2010

after the fall

Felled, but feeling better.

5.28.2010

utilitarian time

Last time I looked the fifty dollar Timex told the same time as the fifty-thousand Rolex.

5.24.2010

from haunt to hunt

I was haunted enough by to begin hunting for.

5.22.2010

spot visible from space

In May 2010, scientists noticed that Jupiter had mysteriously lost one of its great cloud belts. At the same time, if on one of Jupiter’s moons an observer would've turned his telescope toward planet Earth, he would have noticed a ‘great dark spot’ developing on the surface of one of our seas.

5.19.2010

known by your army

It’s been said that a language is a dialect with an army. If so, then perhaps a religion is a cult with an army.

5.15.2010

can't countenance

Janus became jealous of his other face.

5.13.2010

right to gripe

Only voters have the right to complain about their government.

5.09.2010

round and round

We can only watch as the teleology chases its tail.

5.02.2010

gangland

Pure capitalism is organized crime. A corporation is nothing more than a governmentally licensed gang.

5.01.2010

stuck thought

A teacher stuck in the things he was taught.

4.30.2010

video: inverse reality

As the characters in video games get more fit, sculpted and athletic, the game players become more sedentary, amorphous and obese.

4.25.2010

more and less

I know more than I think I do—and so much less than I should.

4.23.2010

ad in

In the 21st C, who would have imagined that the computer industry’s biggest player (Google) would be a major advertising concern with a technology arm.

4.21.2010

gritty reality

The digital sand castle began to pixilate, to disintegrate and crumble.

4.18.2010

polar forces

Civilization arises from two inimical and polar forces: market and art.

4.16.2010

bidirectional bootstrap

Letting down a bootstrap to pull up one less fortunate.

4.15.2010

renewed ruins

At the tourist destination the renovations to the ruins were going well.

4.12.2010

tyrant defined

Tyrant: A leader whose head can’t be turned other than by a noose.

4.11.2010

win the days

To have won the days between then and now is enough.

4.08.2010

social wisdom

No matter the extent or depth of one’s knowledge, wisdom cannot be attained in a state of aloneness. Wisdom is a social phenomenon. It requires that one’s knowledge be deployed interpersonally or socially toward some good. That good may be artistic, scientific, altruistic, practical, etc., but wisdom is always instrumental and not isolate.

4.04.2010

first failed translation

The translation problem between languages pales before the struggle to translate the material world into any language.

4.02.2010

mapped or lived

Determinism is a mapping of history. While free will exists only in the present.

4.01.2010

immortal flaw

Immortality would be a bore. The best life ends in due course.

3.31.2010

law's call

The first order of the law is to create clarity in human relations. Perhaps it's not a paradox that the legal code has grown so complex.

3.28.2010

so over

Lots of things are ‘so over’ before I knew they’d started.

3.27.2010

desire piqued

When your desire is piqued, ask what you’re being sold.

3.24.2010

light-footed

To tread lightly upon the land.

3.22.2010

function compunction

Function is style.

3.20.2010

speed of sound

Stop and recall ‘343 meters per second’ (the speed of sound) before you speak.

3.19.2010

close call with extinction

When observing politics in action it's worthwhile to consider that only by coordination of efforts and mutual cooperation did early humans make it out of the Pliocene era.

3.18.2010

final things

Religion’s greatest lie is to deny the finite.

3.15.2010

telling light

Putting a light on darker aspects of history is enough. To expose is to judge.

3.13.2010

human measure

Time is human measure of change, be it creation or decay.

3.12.2010

people problem

Another utopia spoiled by people.

3.09.2010

sequentially challenged

I was discussing history with a prophet.

life exiled

Not dead, but exiled from life.

2.27.2010

above & below

Nuclear energy cannot be on the table while the waste product is being swept under it.

2.26.2010

slaves to custom

People will claim inculcated customs are matters of their choosing.

2.24.2010

all in all

Always all is almost all; there is never an absolute all.

2.23.2010

irreflective

In a room full of fools one can never find a mirror.

2.21.2010

swerve

The velocity of life so easily swerves to violence.

2.17.2010

day's end

The sunset makes philosophers of us all.

2.16.2010

city limits

Traffic constrains suburbia. More, wider roads only serve to stimulate sprawl.

2.15.2010

wing and

He argued forth on a wing and a priori.

2.14.2010

ship of state

A good ship of state must make repairs while underway.

2.13.2010

manners / morals

Manners are morals on a small scale. Morals are manners at large.

2.11.2010

work is

Work is worth.

2.10.2010

placeholder

Without a passion a person is a placeholder.

2.09.2010

sense of pace

In these times we substitute a sense of pace for a sense of place.

2.07.2010

purposeful

Pleasure is consequence of purpose.

2.06.2010

cemetery use

Cemeteries are for the living.

2.05.2010

timeless fashion

To be fit and clean should be fashion enough for anyone.

2.03.2010

hedgerows

There is much living in those hedgerows.

2.02.2010

quick study

The aphorism: Too brief to teach.

2.01.2010

and yet

The whole history of philosophy lies in the phrase, “And yet..."

1.31.2010

monuments

Monuments make the city.

1.30.2010

flowing, flowering

Life flowing, at times flowering, and that’s enough.

1.29.2010

come waltzing

A lovely couple: They went waltzing into the mosh pit of life.

1.28.2010

self light

The self is important only in so far as it sheds light on ‘being’.

1.27.2010

gated minds

The college campus was a gated community.

1.26.2010

new road

The walls of the old city are the roads of the new.