I saw a post on LinkedIn in which the poster shared that his son got a college acceptance letter, but the son felt guilty about how it might affect the family finances. The poster shared the following question: Parents and Students – how have you managed this experience, dealt with any guilt, and yet maintained your excitement for the incredible experience ahead of you? My answer: How did we manage the experience? We always emphasized education in the Epps household. My son worked very hard in high school, got admitted to his dream college. What would we say at that point? “Congratulations, son! As a reward for your efforts, we’re going to allow you to take on student loan debt that will haunt you for the rest of your life”? Maybe “immoral” is too strong a word for that but I have a deep negative feeling about parents letting kids… Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Do You Believe in Karma?
From an interview of Harvard economist Roland Fryer by the journalist Bari Weiss: BW: You were suspended [from Harvard for two years in 2019] by a woman who I had never heard of until recently. Her name is Claudine Gay. And she said this in a letter to the economics department at the time: “Professor Fryer exhibited a pattern of behavior that failed to meet the expectations of conduct within our community and was harmful to the well-being of its members. The totality of these behaviors is a clear violation of institutional norms and a betrayal of trust of the Harvard community.” So I guess I want to ask, do you believe in karma? RF: I hear it’s a motherfucker. Read more →
Job vs. No Job
Mojo Nixon, 1957-2024
An underappreciated genius. I loved this guy. RIP Mojo Nixon Read more →
Kobe: The Statue vs. The Moment
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Los Angeles Lakers (@lakers) Read more →
The Secret is Out
When it comes to the countries of the collective West, the large network media, TV channels, (and) large newspapers can in no way boast of even trying to at least look impartial in terms of coverage. These are all media outlets that take an exceptionally one-sided position. Of course, there is no desire to communicate with such media, and it hardly makes sense, and it is unlikely that it will be useful. — Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Read more →
Severe Weather Alert
I saw a sign on the freeway today: SEVERE WEATHER ALERT AVOID TRAVEL THRU TUESDAY “Severe weather” in most of Southern California, including where I live, means you’re going to have to turn on the windshield wipers. And I mean turn them on and leave them on, not in intermittent mode. Read more →
Media Companies With Millions of X Followers?
pic.twitter.com/5W3ORwZTOh — Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) January 25, 2024 I’m posting the above tweet not for the content but because if you look at the @NBCNews profile on X, you’ll see that the account has (allegedly) 9.4 million followers, and the tweet, when I looked at it, had 65 likes. How can an account with 9.4 million followers be getting 65 likes on a tweet?! First of all, I’m not singling out NBC. There are many media accounts on X with (allegedly) millions of followers and almost no interaction. Second, I didn’t cherry-pick a tweet with just a few likes. The NBC account has some tweets with more likes, some tweets with fewer, but 65 is not abnormally low. I picked it because of the comment underneath the original tweet. It’s a drawing of the Frog of Shame, and reads “If the Frog of Shame gets more likes than… Read more →
2023: The Year in Books
These are the books I read in 2023, roughly in the order listed. The ratings are mine. They don’t represent a consensus of opinion. Books of the Year: The Life Before Us by Romain Gary (fiction), and Where Are the Customers’ Yachts by Fred Schwed (non-fiction). My Library at LibraryThing Read more →
The Three Keys to Success by Claudine Gay
View this post on Instagram A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) Read more →
Seven Years
We’ve had seven years and counting of Hitler and Nazi references directed at Trump and his supporters, but in recent months we’ve had an opportunity to see who the real Jew-haters are in our country. And they’re not MAGA Republicans. Amazingly, the Hitler references continue. They haven’t stopped. This seems self-destructive. We’ve had seven years and counting of “Democracy is in danger” from a party that rigged the 2016 Presidential primary so Bernie Sanders wouldn’t win, rigged the 2020 Presidential primary so Bernie Sanders wouldn’t win, colludes with intel agencies, corporate media and Big Tech to lie, spy and censor. Amazingly, “Democracy is in danger” continues, even as they prosecute political opponents and take names off ballots. You can’t vote for the wrong candidate if his name isn’t on the ballot, right? Forget democracy. Democracy is dead. We had to take away your right to vote for the candidates of… Read more →
Asking for Help
Home Alone, Too
Feel-Good Marketing
Over the past few years, marketing has become much more inclusive in terms of using models of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, not retouching the photos, etc., rather than saturating our lives with images of flawless, unattainable beauty. Why is this not a terrible idea? Of course, we’re all beautiful in our own way, but from a marketing perspective, the ideal consumer is someone who is anxious, depressed and constantly dissatisfied. Academic studies from the most respected institutions show that sad people are bigger spenders. Helping people feel better about themselves the way they are may be laudable, but it doesn’t make the cash box jingle. P.S. I’ve never worked in marketing but I think I’d be good at it. Although I would also hate it. Read more →
I Know When You’re Awake
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rick Sanchez (@rsfit) Read more →
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of
Sometimes when two people are leaving each other’s company, one of them will say as a parting shot, “Stay out of trouble.” It doesn’t make sense, except as something to say to someone who’s in serious trouble all the time. Otherwise, it sounds like the speaker is trying to position both people involved as affable rakes who might stir up a bit of naughty fun from time to time, no harm done, that sort of thing. When someone says “Stay out of trouble” to me, I respond by saying “You too” and then Swatting them. Read more →
Why Popular Music is Rubbish
Almost all the female singers have the same voice, like a half-mumbling toddler. The male singers have a broader range but not a lot broader: the screamer, the effeminate and the high school dropout. But the main problem is that whoever is writing the songs, it is just not their destiny to be songwriters. There’s a complete lack of imagination, resulting in only a few themes, endlessly recycled: I love you I love you and you love me I love you and you don’t love me I love you but you left Let’s fuck Read more →
A Few More Reasons Teachers Don’t Want Parents to Know What Their Kids Are Doing at School
Newlywed Iowa Teacher, 24, Accused of ‘Engaging in Sexually Oriented Acts’ With 3 Students as Young as 13 Special Education Teacher Charged With Sexually Touching 7 Boys at New Jersey Elementary School Teacher Charged With Raping Child Under 13 Says She’s Pregnant Teacher, 33, Charged With Raping Student She Met at 14 and Who Fathered Her Baby at 17 Read more →
A Lone Individual
But tonight I would like to think of one man, a lone individual, a man without name or country, a man whom I respect because he has absolutely nothing in common with you–MYSELF. Tonight I shall meditate on that which I am. — Henry Miller, Black Spring Read more →
The Day the Delusions Died
The contradictions and moral bankruptcy of a worldview that spends years worrying about microaggressions and tone policing, but can’t decide what side it is on after the beheading of babies, aren’t exactly difficult to spot. To put it another way: when Black Lives Matter organizations are lionizing Islamist terrorists by posting a paraglider logo, you’d be a fool not to reassess things. — Bari Weiss and Oliver Wiseman Read more →