History once told stories about tomorrows that have long since been swallowed by belligerent yesterdays. Moments in time are woven into instances that evolved into epochs and eras. By closely following the filaments that connect tomorrow with the past, I am led inevitably through non-sequential pockets of time soaked in memories of a future that has yet to become the unauthorized autobiography of the very first yesterday. I refuse to rely on second-hand information to inform my opinions. My beliefs emerge from seeds planted in the fertile fields of an active imaginary volcano.
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She has a Ph.D. in hatred
and a certificate of shame.
She belongs on a hangman’s scaffold
where she can’t escape the blame.
How can this prison hold her?
She’ll set this place aflame.
She killed a local soldier,
a foreigner, just the same.
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The functions of news media sometime seem unclear. Or contradictory. Perhaps, though, it’s not the functions that are so unclear or contradictory. Maybe, instead, it’s the intentions driving them that are so confounding. Yet those intentions frequently are so glaringly straightforward that misunderstanding them must be deliberate. And those obvious intentions are…? Clearly, the aim of news media is to deliver indisputable evidence of the innate savagery of our species. Only by televising State banquets featuring human vivisection and subsequent cannibalistic feasts could our monstrosity be any more apparent. But our savagery is called into question by certain print and broadcast offerings, such as today’s edition of NPR’s My Unsung Hero, described as “stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression.” Which end of the spectrum more accurately describes humankind?
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A drinking glass full of water left undisturbed on a kitchen counter will become an empty glass over time. The speed with which that transition occurs will be dictated in part by heat and humidity. No matter how closely watched, though, the conversion of visible liquid water in the glass to invisible vapor in the surrounding environment cannot be witnessed in real time. Inexplicable magic.
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There are times when nonsensical rambling is far more meaningful than carefully-scripted and well-conceived intellectual precision. Maybe.
