Monkeys Like Me
A few days ago, I saw a troop of monkeys meandering through the resort where I was staying in Langkawi. The resort was rather isolated and the food wasn’t super, but there were monkeys all over the grounds, and they weren’t afraid of us humans. Once in a while, I…
A Beautiful Woman
I entered the dermatologist’s office with mild trepidation, having never had a total-body skin check before. Like many professional women here in Malaysia, the doctor was wearing a beige head covering, a tudong (Malay word for “cover”) with a matching jilbab (a long and loose-fit coat or outer garment). Her…
My Exorbitant Privilege
I opened my eyes, lifted the shade, and squinted out the window. A big, radiant sun was rising over a pristine white-washed city, surrounded by an army of idled cargo ships awaiting their call of duty. After seventeen straight hours of feeling like a canned sardine in my economy airplane…
Things are not as they appear
I was looking into media psychology when my research led me to James F. Tracy, an ex-tenured Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Florida Atlantic University. He was fired in 2016 after accusing the government of hiring crisis actors for an incident that he didn’t think was real….
Repo and the Global Monetary Reset
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered….
The Land of Ounces (Oz)
When I was a young girl, my family and I watched The Wizard of Oz every year. This timeless 1939 film was based on a 1900 children’s novel by L. Frank Baum. Our culture now takes it for granted, but everything about this story is fascinating. What amazes me first…
Beliefs, Perceptions, and Reality
ew men have imagination enough for reality. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe When a majority rules, it feels like their beliefs and perceptions are grounded in facts and based on reality. But they are actually based on artificial constructs, on missing information, on things we don’t know and cannot see, on…
The Three Gifts
Merry Christmas! Today we celebrate a birthday in Bethlehem during the reign of King Herod. According to Matthew 2:1, some wise men from eastern lands arrived asking about the newborn king. They had seen his star and came to worship him. King Herod and everyone in Jerusalem was “deeply disturbed”…
Artificial v. Natural Intelligence
I love epiphanies, and I’ve been having more of them lately. While everyone is talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI), I’ve been learning how to grow different strands of beneficial bacteria, to rebuild my gut microbiome from the damage of antibiotics (see the book Super Gut by William Davis). I’m also…
Everyone has a slave and a master
I have great respect for quotemasters and aphorists. People who make keen pithy observations with general truths have serious intellect, and a superior style in the art of communication. Slavery is not an easy topic to intellectualize, let alone aphorize. We like to think of ourselves as enlightened post-enslavement creatures,…