STRAUBINICAL NEWS DIGEST Six.

  I just put on a second pot of coffee, while fully realizing that it will do no good. This is because I was up late recording theme music for the Hot Plate radio show. According to session logs, my colleague Jarrett Nicolay and I spent about 80% of the session talking about politics, but the small amount of music we cut was just what the doctor ordered. (This is to presuppose the existence of a doctor who orders you to pick up a Stratocaster, crank up the fuzz and reverb, and do your best to channel the great and unsung Eddie Hazel on "Maggot Brain.")

  In other news, it is high time for me to talk about something other than talking. The main dissenting argument I get from my friends is, at its core, this-- 

"We are at war with dangerous people who will never change. Look at all the awful things they're doing! And Trump is doing nothing to stop any of it. That's because he wants it/asked for it//caused it/encouraged it and continues to do so. Thus, civility is impossible. In fact, asking for civility from us is more or less a fifth columnist situation-- you are giving aid and comfort to the enemy." 

I've been at some pains to clarify my position, as it is misunderstood by people every day. I agree with the alarm bells about the pestilential brown shirt type activity. And while I don't agree with the rationalization that when swastikas show up in Maryland, it's ok for you to stop talking to your father forever,

THE STRAUBINICAL CASE FOR CIVILITY

  THE STRAUBINICAL CASE FOR CIVILITY

I'm reading a partisan book filled with advice on how to effectively discuss ideology and politics. It lays out the challenge of communicating with the other side, due to their many faults.

1. The other side wraps itself in an ideological cocoon that no inconvenient fact can penetrate

2. You can't reason with them

3. They are stupid while we are wise

4. They are deluded

5. They are nut jobs

6. They are willfully ignorant

7. The worst of them are sociopaths who bicker instead of argue, rant instead of talk, and parrot instead of think

8. They fill their Facebook pages with Unabomber-level diatribes

  The book goes on to offer copious ammo for the person who has to go up against this wall of dangerous and intractable idiocy.

STRAUBINICAL NEWS DIGEST Five.

  Today's Digest is a remote broadcast from the belly of the beast. I'm here at Dave and Buster's, participating in a traditional American sport. For the maniac with some time on his hands, Spain has The Running Of The Bulls, and American dads with car keys and a limber wallet can take part in The Chaperoning Of The Credulous. This is a place where Americans circulate in a somnambulist ballet, bewitched by row upon row of coin-operated video games, magic claw machines, colorful blinking lights, sirens, and mammoth TV screens that will be sporadically applauded by clumps of morbidly obese spectators. Since today's digest is all about science, I'm framing this as an experiment, where I'm investigating which will arrive  first-- my tater tots, or my total nervous breakdown.

STRAUBINICAL NEWS DIGEST Four.

STRAUBINICAL NEWS DIGEST Four


  Normally you don't want your most difficult challenge of the day hitting you right square between the eyes as you're shambling around like a sightless baby marsupial, in search of functioning coffee. As my vision began to return, adjusting to the light, it became apparent that I would have to explain to my son, without laughing, that the "Karl Marx" he was writing about for a homework assignment was not one of the Marx Brothers.
  Many people see their children as raw dough to be molded, or as an opportunity to keep their own ideas and beliefs alive unto the next generation. To me, that is short sighted, and doesn't really reflect an awareness of a child's real potential.
  I use my son as a kind of middle school mole, reporting back to me about sociological trends in that bizarre cauldron of aggressive conformity, credulous worship of pop culture, and hormones. He tells me that in his little gang of junior bros, they often kid around with other in a playful manner. When I started to pontificate about this over the morning's scrapple, he was quick to reassure me that the only things they would ever "roast" each other about were as follows:

1. A guy's lack of ability in a specific sport, or sports generally
2. A guy's lack of success in convincing girls to talk to him without running away
3. The size of a guy's genitalia

  So, they're careful to confine their witty remarks to the question of a guy's manhood, rather than something that might be hurtful.