refugee

Beating My Drum

Every time something horrific happens, every op-ed writer in America puts out their thoughts on it:   why it happened, how it could have been prevented, the senselessness of it all.  And what’s sad is, a lot of people are getting sick of it, ignoring it, moving on.  We see so very much that’s horrible and we just can’t face one more thing in a litany of more things.  And the last thing we need is some self-important armchair political hack telling us who did what wrong and who’s at fault.

So why am I, yet another self-important windbag, writing anything?  Why do you need another helping of empty wind from someone else who doesn’t matter?  Why do we need any of them yapping at us when what we really want to do is grieve in peace or fix the damn problem already and get on with the business of living but this time in safety?

Good questions.  Here’s the answer: (more…)

Which Way Is The Klan Voting?

“I’m surprised more people don’t ask, “Which way is the Klan voting?” and then say, “Thanks, I’ll obviously vote the opposite way.” “
Quote from “The Bollard”, ‘Racisms’, April 5th 2016, by Samuel James.

Personally, I refuse to let the KKK tell me how to vote.

Look, on the face of it, the quote seems like plain common sense.  Do I agree with the KKK?  No?  Well, let’s see who they like most and vote against them.

Every complex problem out there has at least one simple, easy-to-understand, common-sense, wrong answer.  This is a perfect example.  Read on and I’ll explain. (more…)

You’re All Wrong!

NOTE:  This article was written as a response to another, originally published in “The Bollard” on April 5th.  It can be read here.

A guy wrote once that, although debate and compromise are valuable things in the right place, there are some positions that are completely, flatly wrong. These, because they’re just so obviously invalid, are no longer worth discussing, and compromise with them is plain dumb. (more…)

There Is No Such Thing As Racism.

OK; I’ll admit it:  That was a cheap trick to get you to read this — but there’s a good reason.  It’s because there really is no such thing as “racism”, and saying there is makes things worse.

No; I’m not some idiot Polyanna revisionist nutjob.

I may be nuts; that’s up to you to decide — but at least I’m not an idiot.  The following will sound like it’s just a simple trick of words, but stick with me to the end:  I promise it’s worth it. (more…)

On Accepting Refugees: Pros And Cons

(NOTE:  This article has been revised again; the pros and cons listed have been kept up to date, even though the intro is vintage campaign.)

Major media outlets are full of reactions to recent announcements that the President will be asking to increase the ceiling on Syrian refugee acceptance for next year.  Unsurprisingly, the stories are largely focused on the reaction to the announcement; contention drives the media profit mill, and so it would be unusual to see any other form of response from them.

Since it’s the height of the upcoming Presidential election cycle, it’s also not surprising that every hopeful candidate has (more…)