Jun 28I Love Children. I NEVER Want to Have a Child.Someone messaged me recently to tell me she assumed I was not sad about the tragic death of a woman’s WANTED unborn baby because I am pro-choice. This is a common, dangerous display of ignorance of what being pro-choice fundamentally is. I encounter similar assumptions all the time from pro-birthers…Abortion5 min read
Published in The Startup·Jan 19, 2021Member-onlyDislike Buttons Could Balance Online Discourse and Save DemocracyThe Benefits Far Outweigh the Risks — The “like” button was first implemented on Facebook in February of 2009 — less than a month since Obama took office and a hell of a time for its debut. At first, its reveal seemed like an innocent, long overdue time saver — an elegant design solution for the UX…Politics8 min read
Dec 27, 2020Member-onlyThe Surprising Lackluster of Wonder Woman 1984And its Equally Surprising Strengths — **Contains Spoilers** It would be a bit harsh to ask where Wonder Woman 1984 “went wrong” because at worst, it was mediocre, not bad. The harshest it deserves is a solid C — still ranking it slightly higher than the average superhero film. It’s a problem half-derived from having a…Wonder Woman8 min read
Published in The Startup·Dec 7, 2020Member-onlyFarmer Given 3-Day Facebook Ban Over Literal SheepFacebook’s Astronomically Stupid Community Standards — It started with a fairly typical exchange for Facebook in 2020. Nicole Goetz, who runs a small farm in southern Michigan with her husband called Frontière Farm House posted some charming pictures of herself on the farm — one with a goat and several with a few sheep. A friend…Facebook6 min read
Nov 15, 2020Member-onlyHow Chronic Pain Forced Me to Take Those Last Ten Pounds SeriouslyFoundational Habits for Unfucking Your Diet. — I’ve never been particularly interested in writing about my own struggles and successes with weight management, in part because it’s an incredibly sensitive and highly personal subject for a lot of people. However, lately a few people in the dreaded throes of lockdown gain have privately asked me how I…Weight Loss18 min read
Apr 13, 2018The Irony That Conservatives Think a Horror Film is “Pro-Life” Reminds Us How Little They Value Life“A Quiet Place” is about Choice, Parental Love, and Sound — Contains spoilers for A Quiet Place. For the duration of this essay I will use the propagandic term “pro-life” in quotes. Decades of research has consistently shown that pro-choice policies both significantly decrease rates of abortion, and save the lives of the women seeking safe abortion care. So choice is, quite…Abortion10 min read
Dec 24, 2017Sad Men in SpaceThe Patriarchal Fragility of the Jedi Order — Contains spoilers. For the record, I love Star Wars — specifically episodes 4–8, while I can’t stand the prequels (the level of narrative cringe on multiple levels makes them unwatchable, while the music and visuals are so stunning, I fantasize they will eventually be released as silent films with some…Star Wars8 min read
Oct 10, 2017Science Fiction Often Wins the Bechdel Test By Breaking it — Which is Part of its JobDystopias By Definition are not Utopias — Contains Blade Runner spoilers, obviously. If some culture writer posted an entire essay with a title like “The Politics of The Handmaid’s Tale Aren’t That Futuristic” the response would be well, no shit. Yet, being presented an equally dark future in Blade Runner for some reason has apparently given critics…Feminism7 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·Jun 4, 2017The Life and Times of Thurber James MichenerObituary of a Beloved Dog — When he came to me sometime in 2007 it was during the short stint when I lived in the Mt Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. My usual home of choice back then was a magical, wooded, small old mill town just outside the city that functioned very much like it was…Dogs17 min read
Apr 3, 2017Why I Won’t Support Medium’s New Paid PlatformFirst Hire Some Journalists and Stop Being Part of the Problem — I used to love Medium. When friends asked me for advice about the best blogging platform, I didn’t hesitate to strongly recommend Medium first. They have the best algorithms for sharing and exposure to new writers, giving mere bloggers like me the ability to get tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds…Medium5 min read
