For no particular reason, I braced myself and watched a few minutes of the Star Wars Holiday Special, which will pretty much wreck any illusions you have that we live in a just and sane universe. A related video caught my eye, though, and it was the 19 minutes of commercials that were aired during the aforementioned special:
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
Slope PREDICTS…….B.I. Merely REPORTS
The Charlie X Solution
Like other members of the sane world, I have been disturbed and distressed about the latest doings of the religion of peace, as Islamic nut-jobs terrorize the gentle citizens of Paris with murder and mayhem. As a writer myself, I feel strongly about the need for uncensored speech, and to see these members of what surely must be the universe’s most psychologically-insecure religion slay satirists is deeply saddening.
And yet on Friday morning, the solution came to me in a shot. And, as with most good solutions, it comes from no less a place than Star Trek: The Original Series. Hear all now my idea:
Tough to Say
You probably have heard that the cover story on Barron’s this week proclaims “This Time It’s Different.” Barron’s is, of course, all too aware of its “cover curse”, but the record there is really spotty. Sometimes their cover does indeed proclaim exactly the opposite of what’s about to happen, such as with Facebook. Other times, such as last year’s proclamation that “The Bull’s In Charge“, they are absolutely right. So I frankly think the “cover curse” is a total crapshoot, particularly when the cover itself, in a very “meta” fashion, openly voices its doubt.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
