127 Extracted Words – The Tease

April 2024

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

The list scrolls down my Surface 4 like a nondescript cascade of 5th District primary candidates. Well, in actuality, this is a list of 5th District primary candidates.

Ann Marie Danimus

Carmela Conroy

Jonathan Bingle

Terri Cooper

Brian Dansel

John Guenther

Rene’ Holaday

Jacquelin Maycumber

Jody Spurgeon

Michael Baumgartner

Matthew Gilde

Quite frankly, there’s only one name on that list I know (unfortunately).

Baumgartner. Career politician.

It took all of two seconds for his candidacy to arise after CMR announced her retirement.

I can’t help but sense danger on this list. Democracy is on the ballot and I suspect a number of these individuals would rather it wasn’t. They want democracy to vanish. Autocracy is their jam.

71 Extracted Words – The Tease

March 2024

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a short story in progress.

He approaches the cliffs with vigilant reticence, knowing they are both the harbinger and barrier to his task. Understanding the reward, he is enticed. Sensing the difficulty, he is reluctant.

One moment, he is sure what lays on the other side exceeds his tamped expectations, the next moment, he is awash in anxiety, a sleeper wave of reality slapping him to his knees.

Only by habit does he move forward.

75 Extracted Words – The Tease

February 2024

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

Chicken before egg. Egg before chicken. Most of us are familiar with the pollotarian koan, but now we must consider embryo or personhood coming first.

The Alabama Supreme Court seems to think they arrive simultaneously.

This raises a great deal more questions than it quells. One thing is certain though … in the time it takes to unwind this  twisted knot of legal yarn, many couples struggling to conceive a child will have lost their opportunity.

105 Extracted Words – The Tease

January 2024

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

Change and the modern human – quite often, it’s a complicated relationship. We fear change, yet, it’s the only thing we can really depend on. Well, that and death, and when you think about it, death is just another form of change, perhaps the most traumatic, for an ego-driven self-aware being.

So then, the question becomes, do we really fear change, or are we simply challenged by the inevitable, unavoidable events that face us all?

Whether we employ denial, deflection, drink or some other form of escape, at some point, we will all face this ultimate challenge.

And that is one thing that will never change.

77 Extracted Words – The Tease

December 2023

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a short fiction piece in progress.

Something critical is changing, he thinks. The world’s spiritual axis is tilted ever more radically with each passing news cycle.

The star on the hill, the one that has appeared every Christmas since he was a boy, is no longer displayed. The small bluff is dark, except for the security lights topping the razor wire that surrounds the nunnery. The seasonal illumination has been replaced by “KEEP OUT” signs and depleted uranium crucifixes.

Eventually, all knees bend.

47 Extracted Words – The Tease

November 2023

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a Christmas card in progress.

We send out some cards, less every year, it seems. Messaging, texts and tweets are the new modes of holiday remembrance for those we stay in touch with from afar.

In those cases, the picture is just as significant as the words.

And so, a picture …

195 Extracted Words – The Tease

October 2023

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress. In addition, this is (for the first time) an extension of the two previous Teases.

In August I spoke about the idea of simply paying other countries not to attack us. In September I used the Tease to address the Republicans’ complete idiocy in not passing a budget.

Now, these two issues have collided in a way that effects the entire world. Until late Wednesday, we had no Speaker of the House, which meant Congress couldn’t approve any funding, which in turn meant any promises of aid made by our President to the numerous peoples in crisis around the globe (Israel, Ukraine, Gaza, Taiwan) rang hollow.

The complete lack of leadership shown by Republicans in the House is affecting our nation’s ability to lead the world in defense of democracy. Ironically, every minute they squandered fighting amongst themselves over control of their only slice of the federal government actually increased the chance that they will lose that slice in next year’s elections. Incompetence is a poor argument for reelection.

House Republicans only have two weeks before the next government shutdown crisis (entirely of their own making) emerges. They must come together with blinding speed to avoid a fiscal catastrophe. This time, along with the U.S. electorate, the entire world will be watching.

127 Extracted Words – The Tease

September 2023

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

Well, here we go again. Another Republican majority in the House, another government shutdown. Congress, as stated in the Constitution, has one main function above all others, fund the government. Pay the people that serve and protect our country. Pay for the services already promised. Service the debt already incurred.

To expect this group of MAGA-pressured majority party leaders to deliver a mature, reasoned, creative solution to this crisis is like expecting cows to clean up their own manure. But can’t we at least demand that they produce something, even if it resembles a cowpie? They couldn’t get enough yes votes to pass their own military spending bill. How does that even happen, short of a complete lack of leadership? Oh, well there it is then.

217 Extracted Words – The Tease

August 2023

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

Can’t we just pay other nations not to attack us? I mean, sure, it sounds like a waste of funds, but if it keeps us safe and at peace, doesn’t it accomplish the same thing as all our military spending is alleged to achieve.

This year we marked 880 billion dollars toward our military. There are 197 Nations in the world. Of those, 37 have no military. If we were to evenly split our defense spending among the remaining 160 nations, they could each receive 5.5 billion dollars annually and we wouldn’t spend a penny more than we already are.

That 5.5 billion dollar sum would be larger than the entire military budget of almost half the countries on Earth. It represents wealth greater than the total GDP of nearly 40 nations! Could you imagine the transformation that would take place after just one decade of this policy?

The implications for climate change alone (the U.S. military is the single largest producer of greenhouse gasses of an entity in the world) make the proposal worth considering.

I realize this concept appears crazy at first. But isn’t it even more crazy to keep building weapons when we can already destroy our planet (the only one we have) a hundred times over with our current arsenal?

Bloggers note: The deadline of the 26th was missed for only the second time in this feature’s history, due in no small part to climate change issues (wildfires) impacting the author’s community.

203 Extracted Words – The Tease

July 2023

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

The European Union has announced a new rule requiring visitors to attain a visa, even for visits lasting only a few days. With his usual bombastic ignorance, Donald Trump instantly fired back that he would not allow this to take place. He was outraged that other countries would charge us to visit, given all we’ve done for them.

First of all, I’m not sure where the one-term president thinks he gets such power. Unless I’ve been asleep, I don’t believe the clown has recently been elected king of the EU. Secondly, as with most of his absurd proclamations, after the cacophony of right-wing indignation dies down, his hypocrisy will ooze to the surface.

Consider this, if Trump views a visa as simply a fee to enter another country then it follows that he considers a passport a fee to return home. In regard to the EU visa, the cost of this “fee” is $8. In 2018, under Trump’s watch, the cost of a passport went up $10!

He increased the “fee” Americans pay to come home more than the EU is asking for us to visit! Once again, the indicted former president is making promises he can’t keep about issues he doesn’t understand.