(9-30-25) Living in the Phoenix area for more than four years now, I’ve come to realize something about Elon Musk’s ambitions for Mars: we – humans – would not fare well. People around here, especially in the summer, are often confined to their homes and places of work. They drive across a rocky, monochromatic landscape, with little greenery and very few parks. All this makes for a population that is weary and irritable.
Now picture the Martian colonist, ordinary as they would likely be. They’d be trapped inside their air-controlled buildings and dormitories, staring out at the barren surface, day after day and week after week.
We already hear about mental decline amongst astronauts and those living in submarines for extended periods. On Mars, an epidemic of insanity, followed by mass suicide, perhaps by throwing themselves outside the airlock, is not hard to predict. I believe that, if ever a colony were set up on the Red Planet, it would soon implode.
***
(9-30-25) I’m always amused whenever I see Trump’s insults put into quotes.
When discussing some prosecutor, the leader of the free world will call him “disgusting, a really evil bastard.” Asked about some Democratic candidate, Mr. 47 will deem them a “lunatic leftist,” adding with certainty that they “want to destroy our country” and “rape your daughter.”
He’ll say these things with Charles Bronson-like stoicism, hardly any emotion at all, not even anger. In a room surrounded by grieving mothers whose kids had been murdered by an illegal migrant, Trump will assure them that “we’re gonna get those cocksuckers.”
Then he’ll add a “thank you,” as if he’s already solved the problem and now expecting to be rewarded with a vote for Mr. Vance. An alien visitor might wonder if Trump had yet to reach the required age of 35. Most just nod along, because, after all, we’re on the same team.
***
(11-10-25) Pen to paper, the best way I know of lifting the brain fog. Here are the tools needed to pry open the mental box: coffee, pen, and paper.
It’s a busy café, with a hundred undiscernible voices. What could they be talking about? What’s so important? Personal lives or public scandals?
Unlike theirs, these words are found easily, right here on this paper. Subvocalize the scribbles, forcing several more scratches, one last edit, an evolution into something much more eloquent. You hope never to be ashamed of it.
Those nails need to be trimmed. No, don’t get distracted. Start a thesis, some excellent assertion. Some point and wonder. What’s he writing? Maybe a dissertation, a manifesto, a grocery list, a suicide note.
All the same, a notebook is more interesting than a Screen. Is this the only pen hitting paper? No, because receipts are being signed. Those sandwiches looked good too.
***
(11-20-25) Once again, the iPhone is telling me that the memory is full. I wonder: Whose memory? Mine, or the devices? They’re nearly indistinguishable.
The camera stops working. And I need that camera to work; my “job” depends on it. Thus begins the depressing process of selecting pictures and videos that must be deleted. I scroll through hundreds and hundreds of images. Some are easy sacrifices: snapshots from the web that I no longer need, or some pictures already uploaded onto my laptop.
Then I stop: a video of my son from last year, what might be the last year I see him as a child. Or another gallery of stickers which I came across during one of my urban jaunts. I can’t lose these memories! Have they all been uploaded, and therefore presumably preserved?
Of course, we’ve always attempted to record our lives, that with diaries and Polaroids. Yet, now, so much more goes easily onto these little devices. Not only pictures and videos, but conversations. What before took an entire closet to hold is nothing but a small stack laying in a drawer. It’s quite sad to realize that the organ given to us by God has been atrophied by the constant reliance on the device given to us by Man.
***
(11-26-25) Some claim that September 10th 2025 was the day the world bore witness to the most consequential political assassination in many years. With the president and many prominent “influencers” attending Charlie Kirk’s memorial, that would be hard to deny.
Yet, right after the tragic event, several people close to my family said they had never heard of Charlie Kirk. That struck me like a semitruck, although it should not have, because in the age of Infobesity, nobody really “hears” anything. Walter Cronkite was once the household name in broadcast news, but today there’s 10 thousand YouTubers and podcasters, each of them covering every event, and most with booming voices and dazzling effects.
Although Kirk made several appearances on FOX News, he could mainly be seen on his own podcast, that when he wasn’t touring the colleges. It was even said that Kirk was likewise obsessed with creating a steady stream of “content.” How sad that his death has been treated the same, especially by those wishing to analyze every dark angle.
***
(10-27-25) As with cigarette smoking, people are starting to realize that social media is bad for your health; specifically, your mental health. Studies continue to come out while Big Tech leaders go inside Congress so that they may be “held accountable.”
Expectedly, video essayists – what we used to call “Youtubers” as shorthand – must give a comment. Go to YouTube, do a few searches, and get countless hits: “Why Everyone is Leaving Social Media”; “Social Media is Worse than you Think”; “Now is the Time to Leave Social Media.” Some are 10 minutes; others, 40 minutes.
Click on one, focus your attention, and you might start wondering: How much time did this person put into filming this video? Do I really need to see all the effects in order to get the message? And why are they sponsored by Incogni, a company that helps erase personal data from the internet? Wouldn’t that incentivize me to scroll for even longer periods?
We wish to call out the irony, but then we just click on some more content.
IF ANYONE APPRECIATES MY WRITING and ACTIVISM, PLEASE CONSIDER BUYING ME A COFFEE~!!
Staying ON During the Great Reset
Indictments from the Convicted