Robot Jazz

  It's been too many years for me to recall - and I am too lazy to check my dusty texts - but I believe it was Plato who wrote that to live under the capricious whims of a madman was the closest one could come to being in hell. (Or maybe it was a Reddit thread quoting Plato. Who knows anymore?) Why? Because a madman, being mad, does not govern by rationality but by passing fancy and impulse. One day, he declares the sky to be blue; the next, it is green. One day vanilla is the best flavor of ice cream, the next it is chocolate. Of course, the issues will be more serious than that (or will they?), and so will be the consequences. To live under a mad regime is so dangerous because having the wrong opinion can land one in a gulag. But what is the wrong opinion when right and wrong exist in a state of quantum flux, one determined not by truth and falsehood but by lunacy? This observation has been bouncing around my head ever since Premier Trump and New York City mayor-elect Zohran...

  It can be an enlightening experience to live as a citizen who has stood on multiple sides of the political spectrum. I was once a staunch conservative, a reliable Republican voter. But then Trump commandeered the party, transforming it into a cesspool of right-wing extremism. Like a political refugee, I was forced to flee. Now I find myself among the largest bloc of American voters: the unaffiliated independents. One of the more curious side effects of a political hegira is the chance to view public figures from multiple vantage points. Take Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. As a conservative, I regarded him as a slick operator—more adept at self-serving backroom deals than public service, and fond of press conferences that delivered a flood of words with barely a drop of reason. Now, as an independent, I’ve reassessed my opinion and have concluded that...Chuck Schumer is a slick operator—more adept at self-serving backroom deals than public service, and still fond of press c...

  There’s been a popular mantra about Trump and his toxic MAGA agenda for some time now: The cruelty is the point. It refers to how many—perhaps all—of Trump’s policies aren’t engineered for results, but for pain. Pain directed at those he and his ilk deem undesirable: non-MAGA voters, the vulnerable, the inconvenient. The recent political and legal wrangling over SNAP benefits is a perfect example. When the SNAP fund began running dry due to the government shutdown, Vice President JD Vance—whom Trump once called “JP Mandell”—claimed the administration would like to release emergency funds, but couldn’t: “We can’t just tap emergency funds for SNAP without congressional authorization. That’s not how budgeting works—even in a shutdown.” — JD Vance, interview with Fox Business, October 30, 2025 Needless to say, this was an absurd idea because the SNAP emergency fund was created precisely to mitigate situations such as the current government shutdown. Without SNAP benefits, millions o...

  As the holidays creep closer, I am gradually slipping into one of my sci-fi moods. I don't know why, but there is something about the cold days, dark nights, and light-up decor that makes me feel like I am living in a space station on the "blackest sea", as one sci-fi author put it, whose name is long forgotten to me. As such, I begin to binge on science fiction like a drunk during happy hour. Recently, I have found myself exploring the world of audiobooks. I have found them to be wonderful diversions as I engage in my seasonal ritual of scouring the house from top to bottom in my unquenchable desire to rid my interior life of all traces of the most obnoxious season of all, summer. Audible  recently introduced me to an excellent science fiction compendium entitled  The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Vol. 1, 1929 - 1964.  As the name suggests, this has proven to be an excellent collection of some of the greatest tales to come out of the rightly titled "golden age of ...