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An American Christmas Carol.

Christmas has always been a very odd time for me and–by extension–my family. Since we hold no particular religious attachment to the holiday, I’ve always marveled at the way Christians choose to celebrate the birth of their savior. (I can’t fathom, for instance, Objectivists erecting trees and buying gifts, even for themselves, on Ayn Rand’s…
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The Game of Life as a metaphor for living.

Since Colleen was off work tonight, we decided to give the kids their presents tonight. Tomorrow evening, after she gets off work, they’ll do presents again with the extended family on her side, and then the next day with their dad and his family. I always marvelled at Christmas when I was a kid. A…
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Jesus and the art of magazine editing.

If you had told me what I was facing in helming a magazine, I would have laughed, not believed you. After all, my impression of magazine editing is–sorry–was based solely on the portrayals of Ben Fong-Torres in “Almost Famous” and the guy from TNR played by Hank Azaria in “Shattered Glass”. But let me tell…
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Just when you think they’re ringing your curtain down.

This has been an interesting couple of weeks. Bush won an astounding reelection and I got promoted. Almost as if the Fates were saying “Hey, we know how you feel. So here’s a consolation prize.” This happens in life, it seems. We get down about things not going our way and then they do. Thus…
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It’s almost here! It’s almost over! For the love of all things holy let it end!

Not very many hours left. Praise whatever deity you worship, but tomorrow, America votes to elect the leader of the free world. Now my political beliefs are pretty common knowledge to all of my friends. And if the big banner at the top of the page doesn’t spell it out clearly enough, I’m voting for…
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Electoral Nightmares

There’s a nightmare scenario that isn’t being discussed in the media today. And it’s one that is, given the demographic makeup (or breakdown, if you prefer) particular to the 2004 Presidential race, more than possible. So I’m going to explain it here, and reserve an “I told you so,” for later use, but stop short…
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PC And the Art of Non-Disagreement.

I had lunch with my friends at Azalea Estates today. My friends are a table of World War II vets who, for better or for worse, are retired academics. I find that interesting on many levels–that they fought and won what was perhaps the greatest ideological conflict in the history of mankind and returned home…
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It’s still too easy.

I thought maybe sleeping would afford me the opportunity to wake up from this nightmare that is the world around me. But it hasn’t. C’est la vie. So now we’ll talk about Grammar for a minute. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect every person to speak flawless English. I certainly don’t. Nor do I…
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I try so hard and they make it so easy.

I really try not to be elitist, but they make it so easy. Whom are they, you ask? They are everyone who, in the third grade, decided that they had learned everything they needed to know about life, the universe and everything, and having now opted to continue their educations, show the world everything they…
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The last days of the Roman Empire.

It is impossible for me to overstate how disappointed I am with my country, my government, and my fellow citizens. We stand at the precipice of a great and terrific future (terrific in the ACTUAL DEFINITION, not as in great), a future shrouded in mystery and wonder. Where are we going? What does it hold?…
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