The Inner Monologue

Thinking Out Loud

Red rock at golden hour.

What’s your favorite candy? We’re redefining candy as “eye candy”. Landscape — canyons, desert light, wind-carved stone — then I’ll take geology over sugar every time. Give me the buttes of rising from the desert floor like ancient monuments. They don’t just sit there — they command the horizon. The color shifts minute by minute:…
There is a peculiar argument that surfaces whenever a public figure says something ugly enough to provoke national recoil: At least he’s honest.

In this case, the defense goes like this: if a president shares a depiction of a black former president as a monkey, it may be crude, it may be offensive, but it is somehow honorable because it is unfiltered. Better to speak one’s mind than to suppress it. Better authenticity than hypocrisy. Better bluntness than…
NIH to Officially Recognize “Demonic Possession” as a Covered Condition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENational Institutes of Health (NIH)September 30, 2025 NIH to Officially Recognize “Demonic Possession” as a Covered Condition Certified Exorcists to Receive Federal Licensing; Medicare & Medicaid Coverage Announced Bethesda, MD — After decades of debate and centuries of anecdotal reports, the National Institutes of Health announced today that “demonic possession” will be recognized…
The Long Shadow of State Abuses: From Jim Crow to 2025

When we look back at American history, the worst abuses of state power seem obvious. Slavery, Jim Crow segregation, Native American displacement, internment camps, forced sterilization, and the systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters stand as towering examples of injustice. These were not just local policy mistakes—they were state-level choices that shaped the lives of millions,…
I’m not dead yet

The most important invention in your lifetime is… “The most important invention in your lifetime is…” —I can’t tell you. I’m not dead yet. Anything I name now is just a midpoint dressed up as a conclusion. The printing press looked finished until electricity showed up. Electricity looked finished until computation arrived. Computation looked finished…
The Crack That Was Never Empty

Imagine smashing a rock with a hammer. It splits.Air rushes in.You can see the crack. Now imagine the same thing happening a mile underground. Your brain probably pictures the same crack—just deeper. That’s where it gets weird. Deep underground, there is no empty space Far below the ground, rocks aren’t sitting in air. They’re squeezed…
Of the Loyal, by the Loyal, for the Loyal?A Requiem for Lincoln’s Promise

A bit less than twice four score and seven years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield still damp with blood and offered a definition of America so spare and so radical that it has haunted the nation ever since. He did not speak of flags or faith, race or lineage, wealth or power. He…
The Smart People Are Leaving

There is a quiet exodus underway in the federal government, and it isn’t loud enough to make headlines because it looks polite. It files paperwork. It gives notice. It thanks everyone for the opportunity. And then it disappears with decades of accumulated knowledge packed into a banker’s box and a pension folder. The smart people…
The Practical Genius of Using Voter Registration Lists for Jury Selection

In a democracy, the jury box is the last place where ordinary citizens directly embody the law. It’s where the authority of the state meets the conscience of the community. Yet even here, our methods for deciding who gets to serve are far from perfect. Critics note that voter registration lists—the traditional foundation of jury…
In a Utopian World, Aleister Crowley Got It Right

Aleister Crowley’s maxim—“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law”—has always carried an air of danger. To some it is a satanic whisper, to others a rallying cry for reckless indulgence. Popular imagination turned Crowley into a bogeyman of libertinism, a prophet of chaos. But if we strip away caricature and hysteria,…