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The Problem with Atheists

30. January 2011

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The problem with atheists is not that they don’t believe in God, but that they don’t believe in belief.  This is not a challenge to the religious order, but to the economic order.  A strict rationalism immunizes atheists not only to the wild beliefs of religion but also to the wild beliefs preached by the [...]

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Cliché

23. December 2010

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A cliché is an original idea that has fallen before our insatiable thirst for novelty.  Note the cliché in that description.  Also, I certain somebody else has already said it.  But it does make me wonder if maybe cliché has been enlisted in the service of consumption.

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Ode To A Bowl Full Of Breath Mints

20. March 2010

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Instead of staring at the damn thing, why didn’t Keats look inside the urn?  Maybe he would have found candies or cigarette butts.  Instead he just went on and on about sylvan lovers chasing one another around the outside.

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Silence

19. March 2010

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An antidote to the banal expressions that accompany our deepest feelings:

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Disaster Scenario

12. March 2010

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In the Western world, the worst thing that could happen is to discover that one has run out of toilet paper.

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Freedom to Screw Up

4. March 2010

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I think one of the greatest freedoms we can accord one another is the freedom to be mistaken.

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Story Idea: Body in Suburbia

24. February 2010

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Police discover a body leaning against a swing set in a park in the middle of suburbia.  It’s in the advanced stages of decomposition, with one of those skeletal grins.  CSI types are called to the scene to investigate.  They try to reconstruct the events leading up to the victim’s death.  They determine that the [...]

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Comment Spam

23. February 2010

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Ever notice the generic congratulatory tone of comment spam (e.g. “What a wonderful and insightful post.  Please keep writing.  Loved it.”) and then, of course, there is the obligatory link to a website hawking remedies for erectile dysfunction.  Just once, I’d love to see comment spam that read:  “Your writing is the worst pile of [...]

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on-off – chicken-egg

31. January 2010

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The on/off switch.  The transistor.  The basis of binary code.  What if it’s all wrong?  What if the physical universe functions on a ternary system and we simply haven’t noticed the third element?  What if it’s “on/off/non-existent”?  “Off” isn’t really off but an unrealized “on” – a potentiality.  Or what if “on” and “off” sit [...]

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A story is …

19. January 2010

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A story is a proposition whose argument is its author’s world view. Yes? No? hmmm

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Ubiquitous

19. January 2010

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Cell phones are so ubiquitous it’s like they’re everywhere.

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Lit Twit

27. April 2009

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I’ve coined a new phrase to describe myself:  I’m a lit twit.  A lit twit is someone who follows literary tweets on twitter.com.

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