Mother’s Milk California’s Big Daddy Jesse Unruh often intoned, “money is the mother’s milk of politics,” yet today we can say “money is the mother’s milk of medicine.” Any industry which takes up 17-18% of the economy leaves a lot of cash slashing around. And the latest entrant to the giant cash prize of $3.3 trillion a year […]
Unsafe: Surviving the New Age of Anxiety
A different, new age of anxiety is brewing. To understand why, look around. One of the world’s favored centers of “chill” just burned to the ground. In the peacefully pleasant California wine country residents woke to winds whipping fire. Within minutes their homes reduced to ashes, their vehicles melted. They had no warning. In the morning light […]
Why Do Americans Love Sociopaths?
Americans don’t just like sociopaths. We admire them. What is it about a “free people” that makes us appreciate those who lie to us, cheat and steal from us? Is it the psychological attraction of power unbounded by accountability? Yet there are added underlying ideological reasons we find sociopaths so alluring. Many are based on […]
Political Insomnia Disorder
“I can’t sleep!” people keep telling me – even if they’ve slept well their entire lives. “What I saw today was unbelievable, I can’t get it out of my mind!” Television images of fear, rage, intimidation and destruction seep into their dreams: of friends and neighbors screaming at them to leave their homes, workplaces blasted in fire, wars […]
“Post Office Taken Over by Aliens” – (The Audacity of Hype)
Hyped Out With apologies to punk composer Jello Biafra, hype today is more than alive and well – its popularity is surging. From politcs to economics to health care, what “just might possibly be true” is crowding out the dusty, dull details of reality. So let’s examine why audacious hype appears so preferable to cautious hope –and the nasty […]