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…

I receive hundreds of messages every day. And a few telephone calls. All demanding my immediate response. Every message is an emergency, for the sender. It is assumed that I will be the alert firefighter from my former lifetime, ever-ready…

The presentation embedded below was delivered in Miami Beach, Florida on 6 December 2015. Unlike my previous presentations, it focuses on the loss of global dimming when industrial civilization reaches its overdue end. Thanks to Pauline Panagiotou Schneider for shooting…

NTHE Xmas Fable, for Corry by Patrick Frost, whose bio can be found at the bottom of his earlier essay in this space Bacchanal Fine Wine & Spirits 600 Poland Ave New Orleans, Louisiana 70117   “You’re easy to talk…

I've pasted below, verbatim, an essay I posted in this space on 11 November 2011. The current essay bears the same title as the one from way back when. First, though, consistent with my recent strategy, I've added a few…