Oh, If I had a son I would make him laugh, I would teach him something I’d say, “Son, you gotta hold your own And it’s good to have a taste for traveling alone” — Tift Merritt, “Traveling Alone” Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Thomas Jefferson on Preemptive Pardons
My fellow Americans – In his final hours as president, Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the lawmakers and staff who served on the January 6 committee. He also issued pardons to a number of his own family members, in addition to the previous pardon of his son Hunter. These are all preemptive pardons, for unspecified crimes that those receiving the pardons have not actually been convicted of or even charged with. This is a cowardly act. After years of lawfare against President Trump, and after expressing his displeasure over his attorney general’s failure to put Trump in prison before the 2024 election, Biden explained the pardons by saying this: “Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.” Even making allowances for the man’s senility, that is one of the most brainless statements I’ve… Read more →
Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it. — Schopenhauer
All the High School Sweethearts
All the high school sweethearts from this year and last year and every other year are gathered in the gym. You remember her. You remember him. The band plays every couple’s honor song but nobody takes the floor except the King and Queen of Memory. Maybe a few sweethearts are still in love with each other but everybody else is just sipping nostalgia from a plastic cup. Funny how beautiful our scars become. After the band plays one last ballad, a few stragglers linger at the door, wanting more, please, a little more, but everybody else will say goodbye to their favorite ghost and travel home, fast or slow, to whom they treasure most. — Sherman Alexie, “All the High School Sweethearts” Read more →
2024: The Year in Books
These are the books I read in 2024, roughly in the order listed. The ratings are mine. They don’t represent a consensus of opinion. It wasn’t a great year. I didn’t read enough and what I did read wasn’t as good as I would have liked. That said, Bluets, by Maggie Nelson, is one of the most exceptional books I’ve read. My Library at LibraryThing Read more →
Half a Life
Do not live half a life and do not die a half death If you choose silence, then be silent When you speak, do so until you are finished If you accept, then express it bluntly Do not mask it If you refuse then be clear about it for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance Do not accept half a solution Do not believe half truths Do not dream half a dream Do not fantasize about half hopes Half the way will get you no where You are a whole that exists to live a life not half a life. — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet Read more →
Budget Cuts Are a Diversion from the Real LA Fire Incompetence
The budget cuts are a total diversion from policies that emphasize everything except competence and results. The cuts were $17.6 million. I've seen countless news stories on this, some of which describe the cuts as "slashing" the budget, but none of them mention what the annual… — Paul Epps (@paulepps) January 11, 2025 Read more →
Political Fallout from LA Fires?
Adam Carolla predicts the political fallout from the LA fires: You guys all voted for Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles. You all voted for Gavin Newsom, and now you fucking get what you get, now that your house is on fire. So here’s what’s going to happen. All these people who are deep blue Democrats are now going to have to pull a permit to rebuild, and they’re going to get the 28-year-old bitch from the Coastal Commission telling them to go fuck off, and then they’re going to vote for Trump or whoever’s Trumpian next. Read more →
Parent vs. School Board
Catholic Abortionists
This Catholic thing irks me. If you don't believe in the teachings of the Church, find a new religion. If you don't believe in God at all — and if you feel like you can flout Church doctrine with no consequences, you probably don't — be an atheist. You can't be a successful… — Paul Epps (@paulepps) January 4, 2025 Read more →
The Most Delicious of Moral Treats
The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior “righteous indignation” — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats. — Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow Read more →
The New York Post is the Paper of Record
https://t.co/M3RJ0ffo16 — Paul Epps (@paulepps) January 3, 2025 The article contains photos of Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates, as well as Biden’s multiple denials that those meetings ever took place. The New York Post remains the paper of record in my opinion. Why the National Archives couldn’t have released these photos before they became totally irrelevant, I do not know. Read more →
I’m Anti-Incompetence
"A $42 billion expansion of broadband internet service has yet to connect a single household. "Bureaucratic haggling, equipment shortages and logistical challenges mean a $7.5 billion effort to install electric vehicle chargers from coast to coast has so far yielded just 47… — Paul Epps (@paulepps) January 3, 2025 Read more →
Lie of the Year 2024
PolitiFact’s ‘Lie of the Year’ and its impact on the Ohio town caught in the middle | PBS News https://t.co/ICRRswZ3DE — Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 31, 2024 According to PolitiFact, the Lie of the Year is that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH, were eating dogs and cats. First of all, I’d like to see someone convince me that statement is a lie. I can’t prove that it’s true, but I have seen videos of Springfield citizens at city council meetings saying that it’s true. How can PolitiFact say definitively that it’s a lie? There aren’t any missing cats or dogs in Springfield? What happened to them? And secondly, even if it’s false, it’s trivial. Here are some candidates for Lie of the Year, selected by me. “I will not pardon my son.” This was said by Joe Biden, then propagated by other Democrats and the media to exemplify that Biden… Read more →
I Could Do It Then But I Can’t Do It Now
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Michael (@false_prophet44) Read more →
Is There Even a Word for Fraud on that Scale?
America has seen incredible political deceptions in its past, from the Gulf of Tonkin to WMDs, but this real-world Dave script involves someone not named Biden steering presidential authority to approve billions for shooting wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, while handing out pardons in record numbers, among God knows how many other things. Is there even a word for fraud on that scale? A lot of people need to go to jail behind this caper. — Matt Taibbi Read more →
Arraignment or Runway Event?
Here’s how Women’s Wear Daily covered the arraignment of Luigi Mangione, accused of killing United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson: At first, videos on TikTok identified Mangione’s crewneck top as Maison Margiela’s burgundy washed lambswool sweater, which was available for sale at $1,000 on ssense.com — the piece is now sold out… Users [later] determined he was wearing the “washable Merino crewneck sweater” from Nordstrom. The style is available for $62.65 in six other colors. However, the burgundy color that matched Mangione’s outfit is now sold out… Levi’s, Peak Design, Tommy Hilfiger and Monopoly were previously referenced in news stories… “What we see with Mangione is he has quickly become a folk hero and a fashion folk hero. It’s almost like the movie The Joker, where people dressed like him,” Diana Rickard, a criminal justice professor at the City University of New York, previously told WWD… Read more →
As Everyone Knows by Now, the Pediatric Cancer Story is Phony
Jasmine Crockett: Trump wanted $90M for inauguration while cutting $190M from cancer research Absolutely Mind Blowing Drop a ? for Jasmine pic.twitter.com/f1I1Gk80Fb — A (@bluhue123) December 28, 2024 The author and Crockett are a little late to the party. Thanks in large part to X, everyone knows that the pediatric cancer story is phony. That bill passed the (Republican) house with virtually zero “no” votes in March, then went to the Senate, where it was never brought up for a vote and was eventually jammed in to a 1,500-page CR, along with a big raise for Congress and god knows what else. It should have been voted on nine months ago as a standalone bill but wasn’t, so that if Republicans objected to a 1,500-page CR, Democrats could pull out that one thing and say “Republicans hate kids with cancer.” Read more →
What’s Going On in Delaware?
BREAKING: A former Delaware teachers union president cut off his friends and family because they voted for Trump. He wrote them a letter right before Christmas and published it in the state's largest news outlet He was forced to resign as union president in 2018 Buckle up ?? — Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) December 26, 2024 This may be the thread of the year. As noted, the teacher was forced to resign in 2018, the reason being the discovery of some of his past tweets, including one calling then-Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner a “Butch Bitch” and wondering whether a video of “chocolate, caramel and vanilla brothas” gang-raping Minner would boost her poll numbers, another suggesting that “blowing all the Muslims up” perhaps isn’t such a bad idea, and one suggesting a child molester is justified if his wife is a “stank-ugly ho.” There’s a lot more… Read more →
Monkeys and Pedestals
Imagine that you’re trying to train a monkey to juggle flaming torches while standing on a pedestal in a public park. If you can achieve such an impressive spectacle, you’ve got a moneymaking act on your hands. [Recognize] that there are two pieces to becoming successful at this endeavor: training the monkey and building the pedestal. One piece of the puzzle presents a possibly intractable obstacle in the way of success. And the other is building the pedestal. People have been building pedestals since ancient Greece and probably before. Over two-plus millennia, pedestals have been thoroughly figured out. You can buy one at a furniture store or a hardware store, or turn a milk crate upside down. The bottleneck, the hard thing, is training a monkey to juggle flaming torches. The point of this mental model is to remind you that there is no point building the pedestal if you… Read more →