Blue on Black: Musing on the Songwriting Process
I have a confession that I suspect will offend a sizeable portion of my audience: I never really liked Five Finger Death Punch. I should be clear: I love the…
Cuckoldry: the Fetish That Shouldn’t Be…
Evolutionary psychology teaches that survival and reproduction have driven the formation of our brains and mental drives. What we find attractive and unattractive feels intrinsic, but in fact emerged out…
Prior Restraint and Compelled Speech
The First Amendment is not what a lot of people think it is. In fact, "the Freedom of Speech" doesn't mean what a most people imagine it means, though its…
Layered Meanings in Folk Songs
This past week, I was introduced to the work of Luke Combs. There's a lot that could be said about this new artist, but I'd like to focus on one…
Wisdom in the Face of Authority in the Iliad
Among those who begin to read the Iliad thinking that they already have the gist of the plot, many are surprised to discover that the foremost warrior in the epic…
Speaking the Warpath
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.George Orwell, Politics…
The Citizen and The Barbarian
Sane people don't want to police their neighbors over their own health choices, like whether or not to wear a mask. And sane politicians would never shut down their entire…
Album Review: Fear Inoculum
I'll try to keep this short. I have written before about music as magic before, and I think that this Tool album, as a whole, fits within that framework (and…
Deputizing the Citizenry
My home state of Washington recently implemented a mandatory mask law. As has become customary, the law is passed with an initial insinuation that it would not be enforced: The…
Holy Nihilism on the Godcast
My interview on the Godcast is now up. Overall, I think it went very well. In retrospect, I probably could have presented my argument a little bit more directly, but…