Deep thoughts on creativity and life from Trey Ratcliff
I admire Trey Ratcliff’s outlook on photography, creativity, and life in general.
Like most introverts, I also share his need to be alone to nurture and recharge emotional energy.
Realistic fiction, for its part, may expand readers’ circle of empathy by seducing them into thinking and feeling like people very different from themselves.
— Pinker, Steven (2011-10-04). The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Kindle Locations 3986-3988). Penguin Group. Kindle Edition.
Strong men use nonviolence
Nonviolence, which isn’t the same as passivity, usually demonstrates greater courage and wisdom than does violence.
Firefly quenches sci-fi thirst
“Take my love, take my land, Take me where I cannot stand. I don’t care, I’m still free. You can’t take the sky from me. Take me out to the black, Tell them I ain’t comin’ back. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can’t take the sky from me. There’s no place I can be Since I found Serenity, But you can’t take the sky from me…” Those words, from the theme song of Firefly, perfectly capture the …
Self-important politicians meddle with game industry
Something has enraged Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democratic Senator from New York, and for once, it’s not the latest stratagem of the Republican Party. What has inspired her ire is… a video game. Specifically, this: I haven’t played the game, but I’ve read it allows players to control a main character who fights both street gangs and corrupt police, during the course of which he can hijack cars, participate in shoot-outs, etc. A lot of people say it’s fun, but …
The case against Michael Jackson is flimsier than a roof of straw
Before the trial against Michael Jackson started, his prosecutors, with the aid of an eager media, promised the world damning evidence against the superstar. Finally, we were led to believe, the allegations that “Wacko Jacko” shopped for partners in the junior section would morph into facts. After the prosecution was done with him, the whole world would see him for the child molester he supposedly was, and he’d be going to jail for a very long time. Reality has developed …
House Votes to Establish Church; Politicians Defend Constitutionality
WASHINGTON, DC (JV) – In a landmark vote, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill today that would create a Christian church regulated by the federal government, with a clergy composed of presidential appointees. “This is a great day in the histroy of America,” President George Bush said after the bill’s passage. “For the first time in millennia, Americans will be able to worship the creator of their choices, without having to tolerate the Islamic and the atheistic heathen.” …
A Paper on Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
Americans think of themselves as the freest people on Earth. After all, they say, they have rule by majority, equality amongst themselves, freedom to do whatever they want, and most importantly, freedom to think whatever they want. The First Amendment to their United States Constitution proclaims the government may not infringe upon freedom of speech. Americans can generally say whatever they want without fear of legal sanction or physical violence. Yet in his seminal work Democracy in America, Alexis de …
