Prose

Narrative writings: essays, reviews, polemics, short stories, etc

“I cannot be the only one who…
"I cannot be the only one who basks in the illusion by breaking it. When did we grow ears to the story of value that is told through us, the root of our essence as social beings? Such brilliant fiction, and so undeniably true. We live in language, says the bedridden poet. Our chain of ...
Beguiling Ambiguity
I wrote a theoretical reflection about binary communication with babies a few weeks ago, and I'm going to add something to that. Don't worry: I won't advocate ternary or n-ary communication here. Rather, I want to say something about ambiguity and undecidedness. About half an hour ago, Miru was hungry (she eats a lot) and ...
The Ought that haunts others
"Can I even express the quiet horror that debilitates my mind when I experience the utter vacuity of this work, of these pointless tasks I perform every day? Can I communicate this torment? Why would I? Perhaps because there is a statistical probability that I'm not the only one experiencing this, that there are many ...
Cries and Music
This is part of a series of blog posts that is inspired by our baby daughter, Miru. It is well known that babies have a sonic prehistory that starts in the womb, and advice to comfort a baby often includes exposing her to white noise similar to the audible sensations she had while in utero. There ...
Awaiting Binary Communication
This is part of a series of blog posts that is inspired by our baby daughter, Miru. Every infant starts out in this world with a one-word vocabulary, the content of which we (from the perspective of our infinitely nuanced expressive apparatus) then interpret as crying. I don't know how the baby herself experiences the crying, ...
Infinite gross, revisited
We hold this truth to be self-evident, that we cannot grow the material economy indefinitely on a finite planet.* Such growth however, is exactly what is needed to keep the economic system from falling apart, as many studies have shown.**

What about the "service economy"? Could it be the solution to grow an economy indefinitely? Of ...
Alex Jones. The Right To Arm Bears
Alex Jones. Now here's a man who says that the "second amendment is sacrosanct". As with all individuals alluding to the sacred to support their cause, I feel some suspicion. Watching him agitate void of manners vis-à-vis CNNs Pierce Morgan didn't put that feeling to sleep. But let's give the bawdy badger some credit, after ...
Sarcastic rhyme about gun control – do not read
For the next school shooting - may God prevent it - for all those cynical left wingnuts out there who still don't think that when guns evolve as a solution, one should also invent the problems it can solve, here's a distasteful song that you may reprint for free. If you are personally affected by ...
The assassination speech


The president prepared a speech, but never gave it. His advisers told him that giving this speech would be "unwise with respect his security situation". In plain English: they were afraid it might get him killed.
Instead, he entrusted me the manuscript to "do the right thing". I don't know exactly what he meant by that, ...