Surprises generally only work ONCE, especially if they are UNPLEASANT surprises or worse, hostile, aggressive surprises which give rise to conflicts and wars.  Such surprises have happened throughout history, generally because one side thought they could gain an overwhelming advantage over some other side with an unexpected action, usually military in nature (though not always).  The United States has been subject to at least three such events in our recent history, and that is what this…

“Blessed day!”



“Under His eye.”



“Blessed be the fruit.”



“May the Lord open.”



These and other hackneyed catchphrases are part of the everyday conversational usages to be found in the Republic of Gilead.  This is, of course, the world of Margaret Atwood’s novel and subsequent television series, The Handmaid’s Tale, the story of what happened when, in the wake of a pandemic which impacts human fertility and reproduction on a global level [sound…

The matter of installing the new Ring Doorbell that afternoon had not gone as expected by a long stretch.  Repeated attempts to download the very last element of its software had seen that step arrested at 90% of completion, and the technical support person from Ring was, to that point, unable to get the darn thing to go any further.  Finally, she acknowledged the impasse, ordered a new unit, and dispatched it to my location, a process which would likely take the proverbial two-to-three…

The title of this piece has to be among the most common of retorts, offered by believers when someone like us – atheists, agnostics, freethinkers – looks at God’s Plan™ and wonders at the rationality of such a “plan.”  One can generally expect a chorus of “God’s Ways are not our ways,” as well (just so you know), even as we get the same stuff from the bible:



“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

-- Isaiah…