urbantrappistblogastery

When the heavy-jowled judge slams his gavel after issuing a sentence of decades, we might hear something about how now the miscreant will “pay for his crimes.” True, he will “pay” in the sense that he must surrender something, but to whom is this payment being made? Apart from a modestly increased safety [...]

Well, we’ve seen how much I love American government. And that didn’t even get into politics. Well, 2008 barely started before I could get sucked into the vortex of rhetoric that is a pre-presidential debate. My first impression was how slick these guys are at talking. My second impression was how [...]

After another year in the pollbooth, my political dissatisfaction has not waned. At heart I’m probably a Commie, but my mind isn’t so far gone as to recognize the impossible idealism of my Marxist dreams. (Also, I’m not OK with that “opiate of the masses” epithet.) It’s not that I think democracy [...]

When I went to Allyn’s last week, two cats were loitering around the patio entrance. I’m not talking jive here, meow; I mean real, furry, nimbly-bimbly cats. They weren’t strays; both had collars. They were quite amiable and I named them Beefeater (who never flinched from his post) and Woman (who [...]