Serrated Prose

Picture it: Germany, 1932. Hitler gives a rousing speech about nationalism, rebuilding the crushed economy, putting people back to work, and, oh, it's the Jews' fault that things are in such a state. While running for office, Hitler privately told nervous parliament members that his rants about Jews were just to get the crowd riled up. He reassured them that he wasn't the mass-murdering bigot that he turned out to be. He lost the election, but was appointed as chancellor in 1933. Now, I know what you're thinking... well, pretty sure, anyway. You're thinking this is going to be another half-assed comparison to Donald Trump, right? And if you voted for the guy, you'll think I'm brainwashed (and possibly stop reading here). And if you didn't vote for the guy, you'll start getting that uncomfortable feeling of dread by holding the images of these two men in your mind at the same time. Well, rest assured, Trumpite, I'm not saying your man is the equ

I started this blog a while ago to get more accustomed to jotting down my thoughts. It's mostly a secret blog, which I understand is incredibly bizarre -- something essentially anonymous on the most public forum ever known. I also walk a fine line: I don't reveal too many personal details and certainly don't get overly introspective to the point of self-pity. But truth be told, self-pity was likely the catalyst for starting these blogs. For many years, I've wondered what the term "failed writer" meant. How could someone fail at something done for such personal enjoyment? Typically, there isn't a ton of money to be made in writing of any kind; it's one of those skills absolutely anyone with a sixth-grade education could do. Most popular novels are written at a sixth-grade level for a reason. So, this blog was my exploration into the status of "failed writer." I wanted to know if I had joined that illustrious group of downtrodden, world-w

I used to wonder how Nazism took hold. Learning about it in school forty years after the end of World War II, I couldn't fathom how people could do such things to each other. I now know it comes down to fear. We can get smothered in fear and then wear it like bravado to make us into proud monsters, striking at imagined enemies and each other. Fear is the easy path, compared to the thorny way of reason. It’s easy to surrender to fear and make bold cowards of us all, cringing behind whomever has the loudest, angriest voice. We let the anger seep into us and fill our thoughts, because it becomes too difficult to puzzle out the answers on our own. It turns vigilance into paranoia. It makes good people commit murders, wars and genocides… and wonder for generations how we could do such horrible things to each other. This all comes to mind because of Facebook, of all places. Several people I know are rather hardcore conservatives who have been enamored with Donald Trump and

Is there a word for prideful, ostentatious ignorance? I can't think of one. If there is such a word, it could be applied to so many things in the human experience. Most of these things relate to personal beliefs, but something in particular has been troubling me for years: Ironically, the advent of the Internet has proliferated this Victorian-level distrust of science. Over a medium that is purely a monument to science, ignorance is proudly exclaimed and tries its best to refute anything discovered by the scientific method. I don't dismiss such stubborn ignorance because I understand where it comes from. To those who always believed that science was the "last word" in everything, suddenly being thrust into the knowledge and rumor overload of the Internet can cause the less well-read people to retreat into a shell of "trusting their gut feelings" for everything from aerospace to religion. Mostly, this is harmless belief in nonsense that devolves into dead-e

Thank goodness the majority of Americans are happy that DOMA was  defeated  by the Supreme Court (now called SCOTUS by the too-cool-for-school crowd), but here I'd like to address the detractors and their arguments against allowing homosexuals to marry. I'll cover the most common ones I've heard, the first is drawn from a woman I just heard call into a talk radio station: "What is marriage, now? This will open the door to all kinds of unions. Can you marry a child, now? Can you marry a sister? Can you marry a dog? Can you marry many wives or husbands? Where does it end?" This argument boils down to "I'm so confused! The world doesn't make sense anymore!" I'm sure this was the general sentiment among conservatives when the Supreme Court allowed interracial marriage in 1967 -- but for the sake of clarity, let me break it down for those who make this argument: Marriage is still monogamy between humans who are no closer in relation than first

Children are a marvelous thing to behold. Not only because of the obvious willingness to believe anything and thoughtlessly depend on adults for just about everything -- but because we were all like that at one time. A time so long ago, for some, that the memories seem like a fairy tale told to us about some stranger in an imaginary land. We believed everything we were told. We could believe in dragons, ghosts, superheroes, and even altruism. But then we get older and reality is the mother of all wet blankets. People really aren't so nice and strangers are rarely looking out for anyone but themselves and are, at worst, nefarious people who want to somehow take advantage of us. The world really isn't a magical place; there are no dragons or superheroes and altruism always seems to have an ulterior motive. I didn't forget about ghosts. Some people jealously cling to the belief that spirits linger and watch us -- mostly because, by nature, ghosts are invisible, unlike dragon