A Sound of Sheer Silence

This is a post about Bernie Sanders, and also about his once and (maybe) future supporters.  I write this post with full awareness that what I am about to say is likely to piss off people, including people who are friends of mine.  My goal is not to troll them or antagonize them, but I expect I will do so, and for that I am sorry. The bottom line, though, is that I think Bernie Sanders was and is a bad candidate who ran a bad campaign.  Moreover, much of the discourse coming out of the Sanders campaign, and especially from Sanders supporters, lacks a recognition, or care about, the basic nature of politics.  Which is OK as a philosophical proposition (I mean, you do you), but does not advance the ball of becoming the nominee for a political party and eventually get elected President, which was the ostensible goal of this exercise in the first place.  Sanders and his supporters ran an anti-political political campaign, and the fundamental incoherence of that en...

I am not exactly breaking new ground here, but the Beatles have some pretty great songs.  I mean, Bob Dylan just won a Nobel Prize for Literature, and Dylan has some good songs, but (controversial opinion alert) Dylan can't hold Lennon and McCartney's bags as a songwriter.  As music critic Chuck Klosterman said "everyone thinks the Beatles are the greatest band of all time because they have all the best songs, and both of those things are true." Anyway, consider this tune: There are places I'll remember All my life, though some have changed Some forever, not for better Some have gone and some remain All these places have their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living In my life, I've loved them all But of all these friends and lovers There is no one compares with you And these memories lose their meaning When I think of love as something new Though I know I'll never lose affection For people and...