Shipwrecked & Comatose

This post contains spoilers I read The Handmaid's Tale sometime back in the early 1990s.  From what I have read regarding Margaret Atwood's reason for writing the book, she was inspired by Iran.  She wanted to imagine how a secular country could adopt theocratic policies and how that would play out.  The fact that she set the book in the United States rather than her native Canada speaks volumes about how outsiders view the US as a place where such a government could take power. When I read the book, the Religious Right had completed its stranglehold on the US government.  Ralph Reed had a visible hand in politics and  Congress was touting its racist and Christian-biased Contract with America .  Reading The Handmaid's Tale sent chills down my spine.  I could see such a tragedy happening here.  A religious group had fulfilled its goal of taking over a major US political party and who knew where its agenda would lead? Most conservative critique I now read about the bo

You know what the biggest advantage of digital music is?  Nobody is going to grab your device, unlock, it, and start scrolling through your music uninvited.  I remember in the old days when I would have a pile of tapes or CDs with me in my car or at home or at work.  Someone always felt the need to go through them all and offer unsolicited opinion about my music choices.  "Who the (expletive) is this?"  "This makes me puke."  "I can't believe anyone still listens to this band."   Whatever.  I'm not making you listen to it, and I didn't ask for your opinion.  So you don't like Elvis Costello? I promise I won't play him when you are in the car with me - unless you start to annoy me.  You know what annoys me?  A running commentary on my musical taste.  Thank goodness music now stays behind a locked screen beyond the reach of anyone's perusal. M&Ms will melt in your hand if you hold them long enough. The word oragutan has only