A Fantastic Read

Tom 46 words

You should read this: You Are Still Crying Wolf by Scott Alexander If I had unlimited amounts of time, it’s something I might have written. It does the thing that is almost always missing from every Internet article and news story: It puts numbers into context.

Runner-Up Word of The Year

Tom 50 words

“Post-truth” was named the Oxford international word of the year. The runner-up should definitely be “normalize.” *ducks* I kid, but I have seen the word “normalize” used so often in the past week that it’s normalized itself beyond any significant meaning. Warning people not to normalize is the new normal.

At Least They Aren’t Planning Secession

Tom 48 words

In case anyone forgot, after Obama was re-elected in 2012, there was a petition in every single state to secede from the Union. So yes, poor sportsmanship after an election loss is a bi-partisan phenomenon. It just manifests differently. Liberals march in the streets, conservatives try to secede.

Deportation Plans, What Do They Mean?

Tom 444 words

In Trump’s interview for 60 Minutes [I can’t find a legitimate source for the actual video], which I’m pretty sure was recorded several days before it was aired, we heard that Trump plans to immediately deport 2 to 3 million criminal illegal aliens. Or undocumented workers. Or whatever you’re supposed to call them. But what does that mean? What is he actually planning to do? The sinister view is that he will do what he says: Round up 2-3 million Latinos and drive them out of the country in trucks. One can imagine scenes of terror as jack-booted thugs kick down doors and drag fathers away from their crying wives and screaming children. It’s possible that a small percentage of Republican voters may also be imagining exactly that, but I’m going to give them the overall benefit of the doubt.

Protests End In Richmond?

Tom 53 words

Richmond’s election protests seem to have stopped on Saturday the 12th. At least they haven’t been big enough since then to warrant a news story. I didn’t think they would last long here. They didn’t seem to be fueled by any specific election outrage, just the general anarchy most people feel in college.

Priebus and Bannon

Tom 195 words

Trump named Reince Priebus as his Chief of Staff and Steve Bannon as his Chief Strategist. Priebus seems like an uncontroversial, safe pick and I have nothing to say about it. Bannon, on the other hand, has made the left lose their minds, since he’s the man behind Breitbart “News.” They call him a racist, anti-Semite, a “white nationalist” (whatever that is-I guess it’s a new political code phrase I need to learn). Twitter is urging people to call their representatives and tell them to oppose Bannon, providing scripts and everything.

Just Don’t Call It Trumpcare

Tom 93 words

If whatever Trump does to Obamacare turns out to be called Trumpcare, I’m gonna start throwing bricks through windows. Because then we’ll be right back here again in eight years, with the Democrats having spent eight years blocking progress on it and promising to “repeal and replace” it, when in fact all they’re going to do is tweak it and change the name. The point is, don’t put a president’s name in the law, even in jest.

Trolling Begets Spray-Painting

Tom 23 words

Given the culture of trolling the Internet has created, is it really surprising to see people spray-painting churches with swastikas and the like?

It’s A Lock, Oh Wait…

Tom 158 words

I thought it would be funny to point out what I wrote after the third debate: Anyway, at this point I would say the election’s a lock for Hillary, unless something really, really strange happens in the next few weeks. Or, you know, nobody shows up at the polls except Trump supporters. Or if there’s a secret conspiracy by Trump supporters to answer poll questions incorrectly. (I think that would be cool actually. I think it would be fun to teach kids in school to always answer poll questions with a blatant lie.)

The Swamp

Tom 101 words

This blog contains all of my “controversial” writings. I was inspired to start writing about politics and current events again, as you might guess, by the election of Donald Trump in 2016. There was such an incredible explosion of fear, outrage, and yes, gloating, that I just had to say something. I try very hard not to deliberately offend people but of necessity these are going to be the “hot button” topics that make people mad. Please note that I have disabled comments for most of these posts because I simply don’t have the time or energy to debate this stuff.