Irreni World Scale

Happy Saturday! Cynicism, for the day. Leave it to a Brit to be cynical about Americans to their face. The entire Youtube video linked below is not worth your time. Therefore a couple of minutes or so from the time mark of the link provided suffices: https://youtu.be/IAMkoA3Eyag?t=5053 Here is some background for this interview. Katie Halper is a Bernie supporter although I do not believe she is officially part of the campaign. Matt Taibbi is a Bernie skeptic and the Brit is non-partisan. What's telling in this sound byte is that the Brit flat out states that none of Bernie's programs will get passed, so let's just stop talking about how much they cost. Katie faced with this observation point blank admits this reality and states that Bernie's campaign is about popularizing the idea and not implementation. That is cynical. There is a fundamental cynicism built into a campaign that knowingly pretends to be about implementing something. As your resident cynic then

Happy Monday! Toaster news, for the day! Three pieces of toaster news makes for today's commentary. First on a personal note my toaster has recently taken to calling me by name when I wake up and ask toaster for the time, news, and weather ere these last two weeks. Second, recently I read in the news where the toaster is polling as the senior citizen's best friend in America. Third in the news is the toaster company is now selling a $300 "toy" for kids. This "toy" is a fake kitchen with various plastic food and utensil pieces. Kids talk with the toaster to learn recipes and such. Given how eagerly all parents including Christians adopted televisions, gaming consoles, and now tablets as baby-sitters then I have little doubt the outcome of the toaster becoming a go-to American baby-sitter. This is not the first time that toasters are polling as best friends for seniors. I first heard this story six months ago as well. This is comment worthy today for

 Free College Does Not Equal Debt Free I never paid for college but completed college with $90,000 in student loan debt. How did that happen? In short I had to borrow $10,000 a year in student loans for nine years for the cost of living. The long version comes next. In 1980 I graduated from high school in Indiana with a "full boat" to a State school, Purdue University. The year 1980 was also the year my parents divorced and my emotional world was upended. I only attended one semester at Purdue. In part due to the shock when I learned from my student financial advisor that I was going to be $40,000 in debt when I graduated in 1984 even with the full boat. You see even though tuition was free then one still had to pay for student housing, books, and other living expenses. In 1980 my Dad earned $18,000 and I was making minimum wage working retail full-time. The $40,000 seemed like an infinite amount of money to me so I dropped out. The $40,000 wasn't the deciding

Welcome To My World An Open Letter to the Trump Appalled 2020/02/07 At the age of fourteen, roughly, I read the Bible. I declared the Bible the most appalling, evil, putrid, wretched, disgusting piece of immorality imaginable. Now imagine you are fourteen and realizing that the rest of the world around you believes this evil trash is good? This feeling may be the same feeling you are experiencing with Trump supporters treating evil as good.  As an atheist let me just say, welcome to my world. We atheists face this kind of bizarre up-is-down, right-is-wrong, evil-is-good feeling every single day. Trump is nothing new or exceptional in this regard to me.  Further I have dealt with this since I was a child. You've only had to deal with this since 2016. So allow me to help you navigate this experience, this appalling unsettling feeling that seemingly never ends. Relax, breathe, and let me walk you through the healthy, productive responses. I enjoy life fully. In general i