On Obama’s Tax Cut Capitulation

Yesterday, President Obama and the Congressional Republican leadership agreed on a two year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. It’s not entirely a done deal — Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont, has threatened a filibuster, and the deal still has to be sold to wary Democratic legislators, some of whom were willing to take PaulContinue reading “On Obama’s Tax Cut Capitulation”

On Moments of Cosmic Awareness

I don't know that I want to live forever. Forever is a really long time. Maybe the Big Rip happens 22 billion years from now or the universe avoids the Big Rip and suffers the Big Crunch many billions of years later or the universe suffers heat death sometime around the year 1 Googol. InContinue reading “On Moments of Cosmic Awareness”

On a Coldplay Demos Album

Earlier this week, Coldplay released their newest single, “Christmas Lights.” It’s a Christmas song, though not a particularly festive one. It’s a piano-based ballad, a bit like A Rush of Blood to the Head‘s “The Scientist” by way of Viva La Vida. Much like Carbon Leaf’s Christmas album, Christmas Child, it’s a song set atContinue reading “On a Coldplay Demos Album”

On My Favorite Childhood Movie

No one remembers the movies they saw when they were young. I can't tell you what the first movie I saw was; the earliest movies that I can remember going to see were The Black Hole and Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown. The former I've had no desire to see again in my adulthood;Continue reading “On My Favorite Childhood Movie”

On Musical Covers Better than the Original

Over the weekend, I acquired an inexpensive 8-gig USB flash drive. Its intended purpose? To become a portable music repository; I could put some of my music collection on the flash drive, and then listen to my library at home or at the office from the portable drive, instead of clogging up hard drives orContinue reading “On Musical Covers Better than the Original”

On Thoughts Towards Christmas Gifts

Ah, Christmas. The time of year when people give other people — friends, loved ones, family, even complete strangers — gifts large and gifts small. When I worked retail, I heard it said that if Christmas, as a shopping/buying tradition, didn’t exist, marketers would have invented it. Like Valentine’s Day. 😉 I stopped asking forContinue reading “On Thoughts Towards Christmas Gifts”