Category Archives: Uncategorized

Obviously, Unfair Elections Undermine Democracy

Was the 2020 US election unfair?

Unfair

It is fair to state that the Twenty Twenty US Presidential election was the most unusual in modern times.

Going a step further and saying it was unfair requires convincing, but upon consideration of the Covid pandemic alone, unusual should be accepted by all. Throw in the mass mail-in voting and it rises to most unusual. Continue reading Obviously, Unfair Elections Undermine Democracy

Heroes, Villains, and Victims of Kenosha, Wisconsin

Kenosha, black, white, and red all over

A small city at the southeast corner of Wisconsin, Kenosha borders the shore of Lake Michigan and became a focal point of the Second American Civil War on the fourth Sunday of August, 2020.

Jacob Blake, shot in the back by police

This conflict was sparked by the shooting of Jacob Blake earlier that Sunday evening. A police officer shot him seven times in the back. Blake survived.

Was it justified?

People of Kenosha are citizens of the United States and afforded all the rights and responsibilities that comes with this.

Jacob Blake is innocent until proven guilty, and he has the right to bear arms. This includes the knife he had in his hand or was reaching for.

Continue reading Heroes, Villains, and Victims of Kenosha, Wisconsin

Covid-19: The Chinese virus of fear

Covid Is Real, But…

Covid-19 is a direct problem for an extreme minority of people. The vast majority of this infected group are very old and/or very sick. The rest almost certainly have something else going on that has strained their immune system.

For this small percentage of infected people, Covid is real and potentially life threatening.

To mitigate this danger treatments are available and vaccines are being tested.

In short, while it is a pandemic, it is one that modern life and technology has to the capacity to handle with relative ease.

Ironically, these same things are magnifying social discord into bigger problems than the actual virus. Continue reading Covid-19: The Chinese virus of fear

Statues Of Limitation: Occupy 2.0 The Anarchist Edition

The Slippery Slope Of Society Woke

A statue among statues.When tyranny and social justice go hand and hand, it is time to make a stand for conversation. Today, I pick statues.

Democracy requires participation. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America prioritized free speech. The First Amendment to the Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Or as George Washington said, “(If) freedom of speech (is) taken away, (then) dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.” Continue reading Statues Of Limitation: Occupy 2.0 The Anarchist Edition

What Am I?

Eighteen of my riddles in chronological order

1
What must you do to hold interest?
What tricks with ways that end?
What does a newborn do?
What distance is slowest the first time and boring each time after?

2
Needs money and an infection to rise
Is soft in the morning but hard at night
Can keep hands clean while being fulfilling

3
They taste like summer’s sea
They come from deep beliefs
They divide and weaken
Muscles they will strengthen

Continue reading What Am I?

Respect Is Earned

Harmless Hamlet grows. It is an eclectic settlement founded by adventurers and populated with men, monsters, and even some women.

In a tall tent, Colgrevance stands with his arms spread as his orc squire attires him in green-tinted full plate. He is the defacto ruler of Harmless and the sheriff for the whole region.

Jutting out his chin, Colgrevance rolls his shoulders and squats. “Feels like it fits, but how does it look?”

“Magnificent.” The orc dips his head and shuffles his feet.

“Be honest, Quad.”

“You are magnificent, Sir.”

Colgrevance snorts. Quadagh was born in the way of orcs a month earlier, eating free from the womb after his mother was slain. Colgrevance took him under his wing, raising him to be a squire during the curcial imprinting and growth that transforms an orc infant into an orc man.

“Fine craftsmanship from a past age.” Colgrevance clips his sword and helm onto his hip and his shield onto his back. “Martle has done well refitting this armor for me. I must also thank Pipit for recharging its mystic power. It takes discipline to praise useful people you despise. This is especially important for irreplacable casters.”

“Yes, Sir.” Quadagh furrows his hairless brow. “Praise people you despise.”

Continue reading Respect Is Earned

Jabberwaki: Part 5, The Monster

Heart thudding and out of breath, Solaris leans against an old pine tree. Through the needle leaf canopy, the sky brightens in shades from black to gray. The morning’s sunrise is still many heartbeats away.

She growls, shaking her head and clutching her fur-edged cloak. Water drips from skeletal branches and the tip of her nose. She wipes and breathes in the damp air, face relaxing and lungs refreshed.

Crackling underbrush jerks her head. Smithmage Martle scrambles clear of a thicket wearing a voluminous robe covered in twigs and sticky seeds. Legs wobbling, he falls and struggles on with knees and palms.

“Calm down!” Heart steadying, Solaris holds up her hand. “It’s a mystic fear. Pause, and let it clear.”

“No!” Martle recoils with wide wild eyes. “Run! He Comes!” The older man staggers to his feet and stampedes into more underbrush.

Continue reading Jabberwaki: Part 5, The Monster

Jabberwaki: Part 4, The Vision

Storm clouds smother starlight, and a breeze chills Beorn’s cheeks as he walks the length of an ancient rampart. He coughs into his fist and adjusts his warhammer and shortsword, making sure both are in easy reach at his waist and don’t clank against his dull gray armor.

Below, Jacob waves a torch. “Belazar’s having another vision!”

Beorn grunts and charges past the knotted rope he used to climb up. The rampart ends broken, as if an age ago something colossal took a bite out of the castle wall. Beorn hops over the edge and skids down the steep side. A mini avalanche of crumbling stone rolls after him. He stumbles into the grass but keeps his footing as bits of wall pelt his heels.

Jacob jogs over, quiet as a cat with only his loose tunic and trousers. “Not bad, considering that turtle shell around you.”

Beorn tightens a loose strap hanging from his half-plate. “Let’s go, circus freak.”
Continue reading Jabberwaki: Part 4, The Vision

Jabberwaki: Part 3, The Boy

Messoack wipes his face with a dripping rag and drops it on the floor, missing the wash-bin he took it from. “I am the candle in the dark for fluttering thoughts.” He kisses his smooth, blue-gray knuckles. “I am the eye within the maelstrom for argonauts.”

The barkeep is draped over the bar-top, a cauterized hole through his neck and red foam covering his lips. A pair of wenches lean against each other at the door, holes through their buxom chests. A minstrel is slumped over his mandolin on the stage, and a half dozen patrons are scattered about the floor. Everyone in the inn is dead, and Messoack doesn’t remember what compelled him to kill them all.

“I am Voice for the Unnameable, but my mind is my own.” He straightens his collar and strides outside.

Continue reading Jabberwaki: Part 3, The Boy

Jabberwaki: Part 2, Ghost of Rage

Voices of Belazar’s companions echo around him, blunted by the smooth walls of the rose quartz room. As their sounds are lessened yet drawn out, so his torchlight is dimmed but reflected. Everything that influences his senses is dispersed throughout the spherical space and stretched between the gaps of his breath.

“This place assaults my perception.” Belazar crosses his thick mountain-climbing legs and sits like a boy mesmerized by an all-night campfire. “I’m drifting.” Time spirals and thoughts from yesterday, last season, and his childhood compete for attention with parallel intensity.

Solaris waves her pale arm in front of his face. “Whatcha doing?” She holds the edge of her short skirt down as she settles onto her knees and reaches for his cheek. “Are you okay?”

Continue reading Jabberwaki: Part 2, Ghost of Rage