The birds are silent in the woods. Just wait: Soon enough You will be quiet too. "After Goethe" by Robert Hass, American poet and professor of poetry What does it mean to be happy? The simple definition, according to Merriam…

Had I not already offended everybody I know, and many people I don't, I'd hesitate to post this essay. I'm an equal-opportunity offender, as I've written often in this space. My latest example, though likely not my last, is offered…

Loss of habitat for human animals could result from at least six different factors rooted in civilization. Some are nearer than others. Half fall under the broad category of abrupt climate change. Two of the remaining three fall under the…

by Fahrusha for her own blog. Links to McPherson's recent interview with Fahrusha and Kate Valentine can be found beneath this short essay. This post was inspired by two articles that I recently posted on Shattered Reality Podcast‘s fan page on…

Nearly everybody complaining about the system -- however defined -- is doing so from within the system. They refuse to abandon the dominant paradigm even as it abuses them. They call for reform of a system incapable of reform. They…

by Alton C. Thompson When I want to relax, I often watch (when it's on) Blue Bloods on the ION television station.  This is a police program, and I like it for three reasons: Although a police program, most of…

The paragraph below come from the final pages of Max Weber's 1905 book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so. For when asceticism was carried…