I didn’t watch any of the memorial services yesterday. I didn’t tune into the radio and listen to the 9/11 commentary, ten years later. When I was on the elliptical machine at the gym last night, I kept my headphones in my MP3 player instead of watching the solemn and respectful services. I didn’t post, or re-post, and of the ubiquitous Facebook or Twitter 9/11 memorial...
American politics are a mess. I have never been more disturbed and concerned about the future of our nation than I am right now. Our politics have never been more partisan. Our leaders have never been less willing to compromise. Grand gestures and impossible ideology have become more important than doing the right thing. Ad hominem attacks are the norm. Red herrings are the rule of the...
Today is a bad day for stocks in the wake of the S&P credit downgrade of the U.S.A.. As you can imagine, it’s the highlight of every online news organization in the country. I decided to take a look at the major news outlets to see how they were reporting the news. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of them were reporting mostly the facts with a little political leaning as possible, with the...
S&P dropped the U.S. credit rating today from AAA to AA+. This is a huge blow not only to US interest but to the global economy as a whole. The ramifications of this downgrade will be felt all around the world. According to S&P, the US medium-term debt reduction strategy isn’t enough and is a reason why they downgraded the US. Of course, I knew the right, the tea partyers...
The public outrage over the acquittal of Casey Anthony has me, frankly, perplexed. I have been monitoring all the social streams, Twitter hashtags, Facebook conversations, and news outlets and the public is universally upset at the verdict. Why? The case against Casey was built entirely on circumstantial evidence. Let’s think about that. There was no evidence of premeditation or intent to...
I’m on Twitter a few days ago when I decide to search for the hashtag #patriotism. Yes, I was shamelessly looking for ways to plug my posts here on BinaryBiker.com on patriotism. My tactic, look over posts and, when it seems like it might be a fit for one of my blogs, I reply to the poster with a link to my blog. This kid (@dakuten on Twitter) said something about patriotism and he...
…. or a bumper sticker. Or a coffee mug. Or a pen. Or any other article of clothing, business utensil, or chachkie. I noticed, shortly after 09/11, that more and more “patriotic” gear started turning up. It was everywhere I looked – and still is. It makes sense, right? America is coming together, despite our ideological and political differences, to face a common...
The Binary Biker has been published (again)! A blog post I wrote in 2010 on Patriotism was picked up and included in a textbook titled Current Controversies: Patriotism. Published by Greenhaven Press, the text is part of a collection of books that touch on hot and emerging topics in today’s world. From the publisher’s website: Each anthology is composed of a wide spectrum of primary...
Senior pranksters at my son’s high school sprayed the school with silly string and Saran wrap the day before yesterday. Because of the school’s Zero Tolerance policy, the police are involved and, if caught, the offenders will face criminal charges of trespass and vandalism – marks on their criminals records that will follow them the rest of their lives. Zero Tolerance in our...
On May 1st, 2001 I checked my smartphone phone before I went to bed and saw that the President of the United States was preparing an important press announcement and would be addressing the nation live. A late-night, unplanned, Presidential address; something big was happening. Feelings of dread filled me as crawled out of bed, went to the living room, and turned on the television. Did we get...
Ron Sparks is a technology professional, science fiction and fantasy author and poet living in Zurich, Switzerland. His latest book "ONI: Satellite Earth Series Book 1" is available on Amazon.com.