![I Believe... [Asteroid Dreams]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1655562290128-RTLOYZ31L5QV498G0GHF/15DF9F4D-F46D-4526-BD33-3540649ADE7F.png)
I Believe... [Asteroid Dreams]
...that if we can redirect the course of an asteroid by hitting it with a spaceship the size of a Volkswagen—7 million miles away—it doesn’t seem a stretch to put Donald in the clink or surgically sew up Marjorie Taylor Greene’s gaping hole. I don’t dream big but I dream.

"Here, Take a Pill," said the Pushers of Pills
I believed Fauci, knew that vaccines were coming from Big Pharma, but was also watching Michael Keaton deal with the pernicious greed of that corporate monster in Hulu’s Dopesick and I had a hard time squaring the fact that the villains in the opioid crisis would come to our collective rescue with a vaccine.

I Like to Watch | The Streaming Stories That Prop Me Up Through Chaos
I couldn't find a single documentary or program or book that deals explicitly with a husband finding out his wife of a few years embarking on a nearly three-year campaign of infidelity with a lover plus a new vocation selling herself for sex to strangers so I do my best.
![I Believe... [COVID Hangover]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/f9435633-30f9-41ef-a49f-fb61752dca0d/1668E645-05CD-4E76-8727-998D7639F38A_1_101_o.jpeg)
I Believe... [COVID Hangover]
...that, while I finally got COVID, it was far less awful than the amazing “Hey! Kansas has pollen and rain” head cold I endured after. I attribute these to the vaccine and the midwest.

Dear Literate Ape—My Kid Wants a Tattoo
I have a sinking feeling that he's going to get some huge tribal symbol on his back and by the time he's ten regret it awfully. Isn't that more damaging to his mental health than taking the word of a seven-year-old and running with it?

You Don’t Have to Watch Anything You Don’t Want to Watch
There is a lot of censorious shit going down in America these days.
![I Believe... [Historical Self Righteousness]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1655562290128-RTLOYZ31L5QV498G0GHF/15DF9F4D-F46D-4526-BD33-3540649ADE7F.png)
I Believe... [Historical Self Righteousness]
...that the probability is overwhelming that if we had belonged to the generations we despise on moral grounds, we too would have behaved like moral troglodytes. The next generation will see this one through the same historically self righteous lens as well and it will not fare well.

You Wouldn't Have Owned Slaves But You Probably Wouldn't Have Done Anything About It, Either
The probability is overwhelming that if we had belonged to the generations we deplore, we too would have behaved deplorably. The probability is overwhelming that we belong to a generation that will be found by its successors to have behaved deplorably. — Wendell Berry

The End of the Wild Wild West
A day after fully landing in Kansas I received notice that Station Casinos, the WWW's parent company, had announced the entire property was to be closed, demolished, and the land developed for something a bit more upscale (presumably to cater to visitors of the still pretty new football stadium a quarter mile away).
![I Believe... [In Colonizers]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1652442972239-5HCI14SDUYXER3RMB46X/A4C2FB33-E0FC-4554-B9DC-80179D86F6A5.jpeg)
I Believe... [In Colonizers]
...that, speaking of colonizers, I’d have to say I’m basically in favor of the endeavor. Without the successful colonizers (because every single ethnicity has attempted colonizing their neighbors) no one in America would have the opportunity to get a meaningless degree in Post-Modern Politic Theory or Gender Studies while making Tik Toks on their pocket-sized super computers in their air-conditioned homes with running water.

Why Older Men Date Younger Women: A Defense of DiCaprio
Seriously, have you met women in their forties and fifties?

The Life of a Peripheral Character
The burning question I've been circling around like toilet water swirling around a turd that simply won't flush is what, exactly, is the point of my continued presence on the planet?
![I Believe... [The Hypocrisy of Online Activism]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/f9435633-30f9-41ef-a49f-fb61752dca0d/1668E645-05CD-4E76-8727-998D7639F38A_1_101_o.jpeg)
I Believe... [The Hypocrisy of Online Activism]
...that if you are really pissed about capitalism as a system yet are reading this online on a computer or smartphone requiring WiFi, you’re a full of shit. That goes for anyone “protesting” capitalism on Twitter or Tik Tok.

In Search of... A Circus Gig?
So many people get stuck—in dead end careers, in cities that suck the life out of them, in stagnant, painful marriages—and I’m the exact opposite of stuck. I’ve become unmoored, set adrift, with no defined direction to sail. I’ve been discarded before I need any replacement parts. Hell, I could join the circus if I wanted to.
![I Believe... [The MCU is NOT a Rorschach]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1652110291609-WG5LVSEG4PZCVHTRFATB/IMG_1879.jpeg)
I Believe... [The MCU is NOT a Rorschach]
...that assigning cultural importance to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is ridiculous. It’s a television show about a fictional character based on a comic book. Reading heavy feminist agenda into it is like trying to find white supremacy in the requirement to be on time at work.

I Had My Vision Quest in a One Bedroom Apartment
I can't confess to having any in-depth answers to any of it but I can confide that the walkabout within the confines of this one bedroom has certainly provided some insight. One might call it spiritual power. Others might label it self reflective therapy. What the hell do I know?
![[From the Archives] Changing Up the Routine: Acknowledging the Inevitable Tsunami](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1544377731904-OMJ2PRXPE01IUCHAPGNJ/56383493-illustration-colored-line-art-don-quijote-don-quixote-sketch-of-don-quixote-knight-in-front-of-windm.jpg)
[From the Archives] Changing Up the Routine: Acknowledging the Inevitable Tsunami
It takes 33 pounds of pressure and five minutes to strangle the life out of a grown human. It takes far less to strangle their aspirations of meaning and even less to simply boot-grind the breath out of their dreams for more than trading life for money for security.

The Coming Downfall of Pocket Technology and the Saving of Humanity
We are addicted. We are exactly where they want us.
![I Believe... [Tantrum Protocol]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1652442972239-5HCI14SDUYXER3RMB46X/A4C2FB33-E0FC-4554-B9DC-80179D86F6A5.jpeg)
I Believe... [Tantrum Protocol]
...that yelling over someone because you either want to make your point or because you want to shout down someone else trying to make a point is the behavior of the kind of kid I want to beat in public.

The Rise and Fall of Boutique Causes
"You can get a pair of slippers or you can carpet the world."
My 3-year-old son walked around the house this morning referring to his penis as a volcano. That’s a new kind of B.D.E.