an undone calm

I want to see this movie.

I could go on forever about the disaster that is the American health care system. About how our litigious society has made it impossible for doctors to admit mistakes which then fuels discontent and disatisfaction. How litigation drives up malpractice costs which then drives up costs to everyone. How insurance companies are [...]

SiCKO is absolutely not the right movie to watch just before bed. Not only was I incensed at times, by the end I was in tears. Frustration, fatalism and disgust are the emotions that characterize my response.
What IS our problem? It seems to me like the American Dream is the primary problem. [...]

Gerald R. Ford seems like an unlikely source for life advice, but with his passing, a wealth of quotation treasures have been unearthed.
On Aug. 8 Mr. Nixon announced on national television that he would resign the presidency at noon on Aug. 9. Mr. Ford and his wife watched the Nixon statement on the television set [...]

I’ve had two elections to vote in over the past two weeks. There was today’s elections, naturally, and last week, an election about the Dartmouth Alumni Constitution. I voted in the former and not the latter.
As I voted today in the federal elections, I wondered why I’d been unable to motivate to actually [...]

I wrote the last post because writing this blog helps me think through things, but even as I was writing it I felt guilty. Thinking about my life seems ridiculous in light of the week’s events along the Gulf Coast. The situation challenges me. It frustrates me. It reminds me of everything that is wrong [...]

808Funk – Sunset Glow
I just watched a charming little piece of propaganda billed as a movie on HBO (The Girl in the Cafe). While the movie trailers might have you think the movie is a romantic comedy, it’s really just another plea for progressive action on poverty, debt, and trade at the G8. In [...]

I’m a democrat. Well, I’m really not a democrat so much as I am a liberal thinker forced into the democratic party for want of realistic options. I think taxes are important and in my pretend world, the money I pay in taxes is used for worthwhile causes.
I’m not entirely sure [...]

ABCNews reports that 61% of Americans believe the biblical story of creation. I’m not going to address this issue, but I was thinking about it and I’m not sure I know a single person who believes in the biblical story of creation. So just how out of touch with “America” am I? Why is it [...]

It’s weird to live in a country, a “democracy” nonetheless, where I feel such a fatalistic attitude about my personal ability to effect any change. It’s also weird that somewhere along the line I was poisoned with intolerance and frustration.
I was on a plane to Denver a month ago and after I had settled myself [...]