Author Archive: Paul Epps

Whatever Happened to Tomboys?

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“Tomboy,” when I was a kid, was a word that you heard all the time to refer to girls who preferred wearing jeans and climbing trees to more traditional girlish attire and activities. Probably most of them grew up to be heterosexual women, some of them grew up to be lesbians . . . I wish them all the best. (Of course there were also boys who didn’t like sports and other boyish activities although I don’t remember a polite term that we used for them.) Whatever happened to tomboys? I can’t remember hearing the word for quite a long time now. Today these girls would be put on the “trans kid” fast track, which to me is regrettable and senseless. Read more →

LinkedIn Recommendation, First Draft

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One of the most distinguished and highly reputable dignitaries in our national economy. Not only an inspired and enthusiastic creator of material assets but he is also an outstanding figure, a national benefactor, author of good deeds, in fact a patron commanding nationwide gratitude: aere perennius, full of good deeds and charitable activity, unprecedented in the annals of our more recent past, an exemplary and significant figure, meritorious public worker and pioneer. Too much? Read more →

This Day in History: Apollo 11 Landing

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On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. Pictured above, as most of you know, are Neil Armstrong on the left, Buzz Aldrin on the right, and kind of the forgotten man, Michael Collins, who piloted the lunar orbiter while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the moon. Neil Armstrong has a degree from the University of Southern California, as do I. What else do Armstrong and I have in common? Well . . . we’ve both been to the moon! OK, I lied about the moon. Maybe it’s just the USC degree. FIGHT ON! Read more →

Happy Bastille Day — Now THAT Was an Insurrection!

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Happy Bastille Day! The anniversary of the storming of the Bastille—a military fortress and prison—in 1789 by a violent mob is one of the defining moments in the fall of the monarchy, or the ancien régime, as they say in France. Check my facts but this was followed by the formation of a July 14 Commission to investigate the insurrection. Bastille Day is celebrated by parades, fireworks, flags, etc. — like our own Independence Day, which also celebrates a violent insurrection. They don’t make insurrections like they used to, I tell you. Read more →

Real Wealth is Life Without Assholes

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Uh, don’t hate all rich people. They’re not all awful. Believe me, I know some evil poor people, too. We need some rich people: Who else is going to back our movies or buy our art? I’m rich! I don’t mean money-wise. I mean that I have figured out how to never be around assholes at any time in my personal and professional life. That’s rich. And not being around assholes should be the goal of every graduate here today. It’s OK to hate the poor, too, but only the poor of spirit, not wealth. A poor person to me can have a big bank balance but is stupid by choice – uncurious, judgmental, isolated and unavailable to change. I’m also sorry to report there’s no such thing as karma. So many of my talented great friends are dead and so many of the fools I’ve met and loathed are… Read more →

Trump’s Second Term

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Donald Trump is having a pretty good second term for someone who wasn’t elected. Several favorable Supreme Court rulings while Biden continues to mess things up at home and abroad as predicted . . . Read more →

A Moment of Love

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Everything was worn out about people: they complained about debts; they were involved in gossip; they had five-storied houses built; they traded in large objects; they bought ships, mines, vineyards; at bridge parties they lamented worriedly and falsely about being too busy; everybody talked about his work, whereas, in fact, nobody did anything; people played bridge and for whole nights groaned for a moment of love. — Miroslav Krleža, On the Edge of Reason Read more →

You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good. — Jerry West

Julian Assange and the Farce of US Press Freedoms

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The eleven-year persecution of Julian Assange was extended and escalated on Friday morning. The British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, approved the U.S.’s extradition request to send Julian Assange to Virginia to stand trial on eighteen felony charges under the 1917 Espionage Act and other statutes in connection with the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks of thousands of documents showing widespread corruption, deceit, and war crimes by American and British authorities along with their close dictatorial allies in the Middle East. This decision is unsurprising — it has been obvious for years that the U.S. and UK are determined to destroy Assange as punishment for his journalism exposing their crimes — yet it nonetheless further highlights the utter sham of American and British sermons about freedom, democracy and a free press. . . . But putting oneself in Assange’s position, it is easy to see why he is so eager to avoid… Read more →

Mayor Pete’s Definition of Insanity

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Pete Buttigieg Calls ‘Door’ Solution To Mass Shootings ‘Definition Of Insanity’ — huffpost.com Mayor Pete’s timing was not ideal as a few days later, a man aggressively trying to enter an Alabama elementary school was shot and killed by police. He couldn’t get in because the doors were locked. It seems like any serious solution to school shootings would have to include multiple steps, one being hardening the physical security at the school. Does Mayor Pete lock the doors of his home? Does he lock the doors of his car if he doesn’t want anyone getting into it? But locking the doors of a school is the “definition of insanity”? Read more →

“People Who Menstruate …”

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“Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” – George Orwell https://t.co/uPOyP7aHDQ — Paul Epps (@paulepps) June 14, 2022 Read more →

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.— William Faulkner

Ending Gun Violence With T-Shirts

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“I was gonna shoot up a school but then I saw Steve Kerr wearing a T-shirt and changed my mind.” Well, if that doesn't end gun violence I don't know what will. Jesus fuck, if you've got a serious proposal then make it, but T-shirts?! What a fucking clown show. https://t.co/QLE26J6nEB — Paul Epps (@paulepps) June 6, 2022 Read more →

What the Gun Debate Misses

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From Kevin D. Williamson: Almost every single substantive gun-control proposal put forward by our progressive friends is oriented toward adding new restrictions and regulatory burdens to federally licensed firearms dealers and the people who do business with them: what they can sell and what they cannot sell, to whom they can sell, under what conditions they may sell, etc. But, as I often remark, gun-store customers are just about the most law-abiding demographic in the United States. The best information we have comes from the Department of Justice, which found in 2019 that less than 2 percent of all prisoners had a firearm obtained from a retail source at the time they committed their crimes.   Criminals mostly don’t get their guns at gun stores — because they mostly can’t. The great majority of murders committed in the United States — upwards of 80 percent — are committed by people… Read more →

Schools Focused on the Wrong Things

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In a study of mass shootings from 2008 to 2017, the Secret Service found that “100 percent of perpetrators showed concerning behaviors, and in 77 percent of shootings, at least one person—most often a peer—knew about their plan.” — dailysignal.com 100 percent is pretty high. It doesn’t get much higher than 100 percent. It’s always seemed to me that mass shooters turn out to have been known to family, friends, co-workers, law enforcement, mental health professionals, etc., as violent and unstable, but no one took effective action to keep the person from going off the rails. For example, co-workers of the Uvalde school shooter had a nickname for him: “school shooter.” Meanwhile, here’s what the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is focusing on. Last September, the NSBA drafted a letter to President Biden calling for use of the “Army National Guard and its Military Police” to prevent parents from becoming… Read more →

Transitioning to Dogs

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Japanese man spends $15,700 on dog costume to fulfill lifelong dream of transforming into an animal— news.yahoo.com Just wanted to point out that I was ahead of the curve on this one: Why Can’t Children Transition to Dogs? Read more →

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