Always Reforming

My most recent Redbox acquisition was the new sci-fi flick Arrival .  I had heard nothing but rave reviews from critics and friends alike, including my two brothers, so I went in expecting a good film. I was not disappointed.  Here is a smattering of thoughts on Arrival. First of all, this film is slow.  There is little action (like, almost none), so if you're looking for something along the lines of Alien , you'll be disappointed.  If you're looking for something more thought-provoking and intriguing (not that Alien is not those things), something like the first Star Trek film, you'll be pleased.  Perhaps slow is an unfair term to use for such a masterfully directed film.  Like Denis Villeneuve 's (perhaps my favorite up-and-coming director) previous films, Prisoners and  Sicario , this film is not so much slow in the monotonous, uninteresting way, but in that it tells the story deliberately.  Every single angle in the film contributes ...

Remember when people used to stay together for the kids?  Yeah, no one does that anymore. Marriages continue to fall apart as often as they stay together.  Commitment seems to be an issue especially for Millennials.  While the divorce rate is actually down for that age group, that's probably because they are waiting longer to get married or are simply not getting married at all.  You don't need scientific studies to realize that there's an issue with marriages these days.  We've probably all seen it: a couple gets married and everything seems great, but, before the couple celebrates their fifth anniversary (or even their first), one spouse tells the other that marriage just isn't for them.  It's depressing to see how many of my friends/acquaintances have gotten married and then separated very soon afterwards.  Sometimes it's the husband.  Sometimes it's the wife.  Sometimes it's mutual. Let me begin by saying that I have personally known ...

I recently shared my thoughts on the Cult of Trump , which I warned was a religious affinity that has the potential to end poorly for freedom-loving folk (the same people who, ironically enough, put him into office). Though I stopped short of predicting that Trump will become a tyrant, I reminded the reader that many of the tyrants of our modern era began their regimes as savior types--revolutionaries who promised to restore and repair a broken land.  Now I'd like to take a look at the psychological issues that underlie that phenomenon. We live in an age where much of the world views freedom as an inalienable right.  Freedom of religion, speech, and self-expression are championed as untouchable, even if  those freedoms are poorly defined and the assurance of those freedoms for some restricts the freedoms of others. We're not as free as we think we are, but we certainly believe in the ideal.  We have this notion that freedom has triumphed over tyranny and that this ...

In 1988 Living Colour released a political commentary entitled " Cult of Personality ."  This catchy tune was a subtle critique of the tendency mankind has to glorify celebrities, especially political and religious personalities (names such as Kennedy, Mussolini, and Gandhi can be heard in the chorus). As I listened to this song in my car yesterday, I was reminded of something I had seen last week. Down the road from where I work there lives a Trump supporter.  In the days before the election he made sure that everyone knew where his alliances lay by putting up multiple Trump signs in his yard. Those signs have since come down, but erected in their place is one of the saddest things I've ever seen.  This gentleman has a tall flagpole in his yard.  That flagpole displays multiple flags that indicate his local and national allegiances.  What, pray tell, do you think sits atop this flagpole?  Yep, a Trump flag.  I was, simply put, flabbergasted. This is...

The Burger King Act 1: Ken     Meet Ken Hollingshead.  Ken is strange.  Ken is a strange man who has "bacne" and zero friends in this world (okay, I guess Roger, his pet calico, counts as one, but even Roger doesn't really like to spend time with Ken).  Ken hates his job and his crummy little apartment and most of the people he's ever encountered, which, admittedly, is relatively few compared to normal human beings.  Ken sits at the break room table at work and eats ungodly amounts of Little Debbie products.  Ken is poorly educated and qualifies for government assistance programs.  Ken is sad.     The particular episode of Ken's life that we will be examining begins in a local Burger King in Alliance, OH.  This Burger King has since been remodeled, but at that time was about as glamorous as Ken Hollingshead himself, making the pair a perfect fit.  It had the aura that communicated to its consumers that nothin...

So we have a new President... So what? We still have a capitol building full of self-advancing career politicians. We still have the military war machine. We still have a Godless man in the White House (metaphorically...he probably won't spend too much time there). We still have our national sin of abortion (and, no, I have no hopes that Trump will contribute to the outlaw of that crime). We still have an enormous national debt and an ever-climbing debt ceiling. We still have billionaires pulling the puppet strings (we just have one of them in the actual Oval Office now, too). We still have the Department of Education. We still have the IRS. We still have the Federal Reserve. We still have Supreme Court justices bent on imposing their ideals onto the Constitution. We still have an alarmingly ignorant and immoral populace. You remember when you turned 18 and you felt pretty much exactly like when you were 17?  Then you turned 20 and you felt the same as whe...

So, we had some rain here in our fair state of Ohio last week.  As the recent purchaser of an old home, rain worries me--especially heavy rain.  Well, it turns out that my basement doesn't allow much water in through the foundation, but it also turns out that none of that matters if your sump pump, which is at least as old as the current homeowner, decides that running continuously for 10+ hours is the straw that breaks the camels back and that dying during a rainstorm is a good idea.  I received a call from my wife that our basement was filled with standing water.  Thankfully my place of employment replaces sump pumps and was able to get it fixed within a couple of hours, but the damage was done.  Did I mention that we just moved in back in September?  Did I mention that we've had sickness and a baby since then and so there were still several boxes of miscellaneous items scattered around the basement floor?  Yeah, that's not a good combo.  Water ...