Monthly Archives: October 2017

Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on.

Get on your feet, Homelessness, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, The Way of Peace,

Major life changes may be imminent, including a reversal of the processes whereby I became homeless.

The correct writing for me at this time is the next several chapters of The Way of Peace. These will appear on Saturdays, but not necessarily in quick succession and not necessarily very soon. They will be brief, but are a challenge to me to write; as history shows, since they will basically be the same today as when I first conceived them in 2010.

The Way of Peace appears to be the talk I must walk.

Slender Man conclusion — Morgan Geyser

Clippings, National news, ,

Prosecutors seek 40 years in mental hospital for Morgan Geyser in Slenderman attack

I continue to find it easy to not know which girl is which. Apparently Morgan is the one who prefers short hair and at one time had facial moles. It doesn’t help that the browser I am using now often refuses to display images.

Previous post: Slender Man verdict – Anissa Weier

Gun control editorial misfires

Clippings, Media, National media, OUR BEST POSTS, The William Tell Show, , , , , , ,

Alternative Fact of the Week: Chicago as gun grabber paradise

The William Tell Show faces an uphill battle.

In any marketplace, one can only buy what’s made available for sale. Someone makes decisions about what’s made available for sale. In the marketplace of ideas, if the decision-maker is lacking in wisdom, emotional maturity, or emotional intelligence, then ALL that’s made available for sale is likely to reflect those same deficiencies. And such is the situation in the media today: Americans have few good role models for responsible, adult free speech.

Phrases like “mindless regurgitation” have no place in a serious piece that desires to be taken seriously.

Related: Free Speech Handbook Guideline #5: Avoid pejoratives.
Related: Free Speech Handbook Guideline #6: Avoid sarcasm.

The End of Anger, by Ellis Cose (2001) …

Career goals, Media, National media, The William Tell Show, , , , , , , , , , ,

… is a slim volume for $24.99. The description on inside front dust jacket concludes it “may well be the most important book dealing with race to be published in recent decades.” That strikes me as presumptuous. The front matter includes a list of the author’s other titles, from which it appears he seldom writes about anything else.

Yet the portions I browsed remind me of something I want to do on my own show. The preface examines in some detail changes in public opinion polls between 2008 and 2010. I don’t attach the weight to these facts that Cose does. But if, for example, the President’s approval rating rises with one group and falls with another group in the same time frame, I would like to find out from listeners whose opinions changed and why; to examine with listeners how their thinking works, and on what bases their opinions change.

(Originally posted 05/12/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reposted 01/22/14.)

Update: My financial well-being

Job search/Job prospects, Uncategorized

Social Security kicked in the last Wednesday in September.  I get just shy of $1,000/month.  Means:

– I can stop asking people for money. (YAY!)

– I can put money in the offering plate at church. (YAY!)

– I have become completely self-supporting.

– I can even be generous to others, within reason.

It does NOT necessarily mean it’s time for me to leave the shelter.

The rule of thumb being that one month’s rent should not exceed one week’s income, I can not afford a room in a rooming house for about $300/month.  On the one hand, I’m not eager for any more of the drama that often comes with sharing a kitchen and bath.  On the other hand, I can project (pray) harmony into my future housing situation.

Or I might seek senior housing, that might have a sliding scale.

My dream has been a studio with private kitchen and bath — and cat — in a nice neighborhood.  I anticipate that the place I want, in the place I want, will cost $600/month.  To afford that, I must find a job that will pay $18K/year.

This is do-able.

For the past six months ago, job search prospects were hamstrung by the fact that the only computer readily available to me was a dinosaur terminal with a dinosaur browser.  The browser typically crashes about once every ten minutes.  Every day, as to more and more sites, it became “unsupported.”  On this browser, I cannot access USAToday, LinkedIn, HuffPost comments, or GoFundMe; I cannot create or edit blog posts.  It is utterly unusable for job search purposes.

Once my new income arrived, I bought an economical tablet that should enable me to go anywhere I choose online, and do job applications.  However, it has a miniature keyboard, so that at this writing I am learning to type with two fingers.  I’m accustomed to typing as fast as I think, so I will probably need to learn to think as slowly as I type.  But once I’m accustomed to this tool, many doors will open wide.

For the moment, I will leave my GoFundMe intact, in case anyone may still choose to donate.  I am grateful for every support.

Business as usual

Clippings, Media, National news, World News, , , , ,

North Korea says U.S. ‘declared war’ warns it could shoot down U.S. bombers

09/25/17: The most clear-cut case ever of North Korea’s decades-old practice of (a) accusing the U.S. of some provocation that never happened, as (b) pretext for escalating their own belligerence.

10/11/17: North Korea appears now to have backed down from that stand. They appear merely to have completely misconstrued a Trump tweet. Other reports have indicated they find Trump’s tweets totally baffling and are energetically seeking help to make sense of them.

Which may make them no different from any of the rest of us.

Anthony Weiner sentenced to 21 months in sexting case

(1) He’s in for, in the words of the Led Zepplin classic, a “whole lotta love.”
(2) The AP seriously misstates the situation, in saying this scandal may have destroyed Hilary’s candidacy. It did no such thing. For the first time ever, I am left to wonder how much such baseless assertions in the media affect our thinking.

Family injured in attack at Six Flags Great America; nine suspects arrested

Stereotypes have basis in fact.

The Gospel vs. George F. Will

Bible, Clippings, National media, National politics, OUR BEST POSTS, The William Tell Show, , , , , , , ,

David Farenthold, “Austerity is a hard nut to crack”
George F. Will, “2013’s lesson for conservatives”

Farenthold asks what’s best for the country.  Will asks what’s best for conservatives.  That difference illustrates what Trojan Horse Productions and The William Tell Show are all about.
Continue reading The Gospel vs. George F. Will →

Taking off for the weekend

Homelessness, , , , ,

The mission principally serves two groups.

First (in too many ways) are the “clients,” 450 men enrolled in the 12-month residential drug-and-alcohol treatment program; for which reason they are commonly called “programmers.” Each of them has a permanently assigned bunk and some form of closet space, and can use the mission as a mailing address.

I need to keep in mind that, but for the program, most of them would be homeless.

Second (in too many ways) are the “guests,” no more than 60 homeless men on any day, who are provided accommodations overnight; for which reason we are commonly called “overnighters.” We must vacate the premises no later than 6:00 a.m. daily, cannot leave anything behind, and cannot return until 3:00 p.m. We cannot use the mission as a mailing address.

Note the distinction between “clients” and “guests.”

At the end of the work day one day last week, I walked toward the parking lot carrying my two heavy bags. Programmer W____ P__ came toward me, walking in the opposite direction, and said, “Bill, you look like you’re taking off for the weekend!”

I said to myself, even programmers don’t get it.

He can take off for the weekend; I can’t. I have nowhere to go and nowhere to come back to.

The way he saw me is the way I look all the time.

(Originally posted 05/10/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reposted 01/15/14.)

talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, talk radio, the homeless blogger