“I can’t help it,” Shapiro said. “When I see a strawman, I attack. I have to display my superiority to a false, thinly assembled construct. It’s a compulsion.” — The New York Times dubbed conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, “The Cool Kid’s Philosopher,” (link) but Ben wasn’t feeling too cool. During an adorable presentation of the Wizard of Oz at a local grade school, just as the children were singing, “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” Shapiro leapt from the…

“It went from miraculous to tragedy within a few milliseconds,” said Dr. Pablo Schall, Lead Scientist at the Laboratory for Advanced Computation. He shook his head and frowned, running his finger down a printed log of computer data. …

Over-hyped by thriller author superstars, this book just isn’t that good. — The premise is decent. Terrorists threaten an airline pilot’s family and issue him an ultimatum: crash the plane or we kill your family. Reading the review blurbs from other authors and you’re going to be clawing at the cover to start reading. Gushing praise from bookseller superstars, Don Winslow, Gillian…

“There’s no chance that anti-choicers would dare call this intent to control women as some way of honoring their savior,” he said with cherubic innocence. — “There’s no way they will be anti-choice after seeing this,” cackled Amber T. Gonsharch, as she posted yet another abortion-rights graphic to her social media feeds. “This is like the 100th meme I’ve posted this week,” she said. “They must really be rethinking their views now.”

“What a colossal error that we worked this hard to get nothing done and something accidentally got done.” — “This is not our role! This is not what our party is about!” screamed Speaker of the House, Traci Legosi (D-CA) delivering an unusually clear, concise, and coherent message. “In my epoch-spanning career,” she continued, “I have never overseen a blunder this enormous. We are going to launch at least…

Superb Observations about the Spectrum of Beliefs from Clubs to Cults — Like Amanda Montell, I’m fascinated by cults. If a documentary about cults exists, I’ll be watching. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I simply can’t imagine believing the things people in cults believe. …

Another Earth Day approached with consumers blaming manufacturing for their processes and manufacturers blaming consumers for creating demand while the Pacific Garbage Patch laughed. — The human residents of earth prepared to celebrate another Earth Day this week. The yearly holiday is meant to remind humanity of the fragile eco-system that sustains all life. Most preparation centered on assigning blame for the planet’s failing environment on someone else.

“We regret the error that indicated Mr. Grovequist had not paid his bill, when in fact he had, but we are confident that our business escaping any consequences is what he would have wanted.” — Well-known anti-government deregulation lobbyist, Norbert Grovequist was found dead in his home today. Authorities, once given access to the scene, ruled the death an accidental drowning in the bathtub. At a press conference, the local police chief explained how the tragedy unfolded.

Short introduction to Deepfake technology and its impact on our information sources. — Deepfakes is required reading for anyone who cares about being an informed citizen. It’s not a book that’s going to make you feel better about the future. But it will prepare you for the confusing times we live in. This book is short but covers a lot, all centered on…