ReadMoreWriteMoreThinkMoreBeMore

Yesterday, at a rally in advance of the upcoming Iowa caucuses, GOP Presidential candidate and frontrunner Donald Trump said (in his outside voice): "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters. It's, like, incredible."  My first thought was: yes, that IS incredible, as in not credible. It's almost as just plain unbelievable as it is unbelievable that Trump would think it or say it. My second thought? Yeah, he probably could. 

I suspect that I'm not the only one who sometimes wonders what is the point in trying at all to maintain some sort of serious, active, and critically engaged civic posture anymore, much less try to cultivate the same in others? This Presidential  election season is a bona fide circus.  The Republicans have a leading candidate for President who basically believes, and says out loud, that he could shoot a man on 5th Avenue just to watch him die.  Another thinks that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain. And, to be fair, it's not that much better on the Democrats' side, where the Official Party Line is that this whole dog-and-pony-show is nothing more than fait accompli. Madame Secretary has the pedigree, the bankers' backing, and the entire technocratic, Machiavellian genius of the DNC election-machine behind her in what they all assume to be, in reality, a war of attrition.  Oligarchs gonna oligarch.

Since this is my first entry of 2016, I want to begin by noting that this year marks the 10th anniversary of blogging for me here at RMWMTMBM. There have been some prolific years (2008-2010) and some lean years (2012), but I'm proud to have kept this site more or less active and, with a few minor stylistic/aesthetic alterations, pretty much constant in terms of content for the last decade. The original tagline I chose for this blog-- "where philosophy, music, politics and pop culture get equal deconstruction"-- is as descriptively accurate today as it was ten years ago, I've made a lot of friends through this site and engaged in countless invaluable conversations because of it.

It's been a good run so far.

[SIDENOTE: I've been inspired by fellow philosophy professors and bloggers Jill Stauffer (Haverford) and Adriel Trott (Wabash) to try my hand at blogging every day for a month.  Stauffer did it in December here and Trott is doing it throughout January here.  I've resolved to do it in February because, well, fewer days.  So stay tuned.]