I’m contemplating a part-time return to my news editing roots. Here’s an experimental news roundup. Let me know if you find this to be of value / worth your time. I don’t want to just pump out cut and dry news, so let’s pop a red pill & exit the matrix. Here’s some mood music and atmospheric art to set the tone for this gonzo ride through the noosphere…

Advanced Truth, a digital hallucinogen courtesy of Gero Doll

Now for the nooze…

A wise person once said, “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.” They didn’t mention anything about breathing money. Can we breathe money? I certainly hope so…

Acid seas threaten creatures that supply half the world’s oxygen

Ocean acidification is turning phytoplankton toxic. Bad news for the many species – us, included – that rely on them as a principal source of food and oxygen.

Fukushima is the nightmare that won’t end, and keeps getting worse…

Fukushima’s Children are Dying

More than 48 percent of some 375,000 young people—nearly 200,000 kids—tested by the Fukushima Medical University near the smoldering reactors now suffer from pre-cancerous thyroid abnormalities, primarily nodules and cysts. The rate is accelerating.

From the “ya don’t say” department…

Right Now We ‘Grossly Underestimate’ Economic Damage From Climate Change, New Paper Says

Right now lots of mainstream climate research, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), relies on versions of the “DICE model” to project the damage climate change will do to the global economy in computer simulations. And so far, the modeling done by IPCC has predicted relatively modest hits to world economic production from climate change if global carbon emissions continue on a business-as-usual path. But the DICE model also has several well-known limitations, including an overly simplistic model of how the economy grows, too little attention to climate sensitivity, and too little attention to certain extreme risks. When Stern and Simon Dietz — colleagues at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change — retooled the model to address this issues, they found the modest hits ballooned into massive reductions…

Dear Asteroid People,

Noam Chomsky, aka the American Socrates, has a message about climate change for you…

Climate change “may doom us all, and not in the distant future,” Chomsky said. “It may overwhelm everything. This is the first time in human history that we have the capacity to destroy the conditions for decent survival. It is already happening. Look at species destruction. It is estimated to be at about the level of 65 million years ago when an asteroid hit the earth, ended the period of the dinosaurs and wiped out a huge number of species. It is the same level today. And we are the asteroid. If anyone could see us from outer space they would be astonished. There are sectors of the global population trying to impede the global catastrophe. There are other sectors trying to accelerate it. Take a look at whom they are. Those who are trying to impede it are the ones we call backward, indigenous populations—the First Nations in Canada, the aboriginals in Australia, the tribal people in India. Who is accelerating it? The most privileged, so-called advanced, educated populations of the world.”

No fear, Greenpeace will save us… WTF?!

Greenpeace loses more than $5 million in currency speculation

With an annual income of €72.9m in 2013, last year’s loss of €3.8m represents a significant hit for Greenpeace International, though the organisation said none of its current campaigns would be affected. With combined funds from over 40 national organisations, Greenpeace International has a global budget of around €300m. The most significant damage may be to the trust of its supporters: 90% of the organisation’s funding comes from small donations of under €100.

Maybe the women can save us… if they ever get off Facebook…

We’re failing the fight against climate change because women spend too much time on Facebook

Mashable’s Stephanie Buck is calling upon the women of the world to “dump Kimye” and “tackle climate change.” Her call to action is based largely on a talk given by attorney and media correspondent Lisa Bloom last week at the 92Y S.H.E. Summit, which describes itself as “a global conversation and celebration of female potential and possibility that is accessible and relevant to women everywhere.”

“No one ever said on her death bed, ‘I wish I’d spent more time on Facebook,’” says attorney and media correspondent Lisa Bloom. A more likely scenario: regret that she didn’t do more to save her grandchildren from rising carbon dioxide levels, because she was too busy scrolling her News Feed and flipping through Us Weekly.

Bloom believes Western society’s current preoccupation with trivial celebrity gossip and insipid social media — and the time we waste with it — will be its downfall. As our fascination for easy entertainment increases, our investment in global affairs decreases. In particular, women should do more to fight climate change; it is a uniquely women’s issue, she says. They are innately suited to battle climate problems, some would argue better than men.

As extreme weather becomes the new normal, a tsunami of another kind is heading our way…

The coming ‘tsunami of debt’ and financial crisis in America

… the debt held by American households is rising ominously. And unless our economic policies change, that debt balloon, powered by radical income inequality, is going to become the next bust.

Yes indeed, debt slavery is all the rage these days…

Half The Country Makes Less Than $27,520 A Year And 15 Other Signs The Middle Class Is Dying

If you make more than $27,520 a year at your job, you are doing better than half the country is… the American Dream is becoming a mirage for most people… here are some hard numbers to back that assertion up…

#1) According to a brand new CNN poll, 59 percent of Americans believe that it has become impossible for most people to achieve the American Dream…..

#4) 52 percent of Americans cannot even afford the house that they are living in right now….

#7) The labor force participation rate for Americans from the age of 25 to the age of 29 has fallen to an all-time record low.

#8) The number of working age Americans that are not employed has increased by 27 million since the year 2000.

#9) According to the government’s own numbers, about 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that is employed at this point.

#10) This may sound crazy, but 25 percent of all American adults do not even have a single penny saved up for retirement….

#14) According to one recent report, there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity right now.

As the rich get richer…

CEO Pay Continues to Rise as Typical Workers Are Paid Less

Obama PowerAverage CEO compensation was $15.2 million in 2013, using a comprehensive measure of CEO pay that covers CEOs of the top 350 U.S. firms and includes the value of stock options exercised in a given year, up 2.8 percent since 2012 and 21.7 percent since 2010.

Longer-term trends in CEO compensation:

  • From 1978 to 2013, CEO compensation, inflation-adjusted, increased 937 percent, a rise more than double stock market growth and substantially greater than the painfully slow 10.2 percent growth in a typical worker’s compensation over the same period.
  • The CEO-to-worker compensation ratio was 20-to-1 in 1965 and 29.9-to-1 in 1978, grew to 122.6-to-1 in 1995, peaked at 383.4-to-1 in 2000, and was 295.9-to-1 in 2013, far higher than it was in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s.
  • If Facebook, which we exclude from our data due to its outlier high compensation numbers, were included in the sample, average CEO pay was $24.8 million in 2013, and the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio was 510.7-to-1.
  • None dare call it… class warfare

    Fomenting a Revolution: Extreme Acts of Greed Against the American People

    $1,000,000,000,000,000 in Sales. Not One Cent for Sales Tax

    The trading volume on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reached an incomprehensible $1 quadrillion in notional value in 2012. That’s a thousand trillion dollars. In comparison, the entire U.S. GDP is $17 trillion.

    On that quadrillion dollars of sales CME imposes transfer fees, contract fees, brokerage fees, Globex fees, clearing fees, and contract surcharges, many of them on both the buyer’s and seller’s side. As a result, the company had a profit margin higher than any of the top 100 companies in the nation from 2008 to 2010, and it’s gotten even higher since then.

    But not a penny in sales tax for the taxpayers who provide publicly-funded infrastructure, technology, systems of law, and security to help them process billions of financial transactions. Instead — incredibly — CME complained that its taxes were too high, and they demanded and received an $85 million tax break from the State of Illinois.

    Let them eat cake…

    Witness Wednesday Protests Launched In Washington To Highlight Tragedy of Longterm Unemployed

    In the sweltering mid-day Washington, DC heat yesterday, a small group of members of Congress and community leaders gathered outside of the capitol building. Solemnly, as if at a funeral, they read a handful of stories written by a few of the more than 3 million Americans who are longterm unemployed (a category defined as being unemployed for six months or more and still looking for work). Since December 2013, when Congress let emergency unemployment compensation, or EUC, expire—a program that offers minimal financial support to the longterm unemployed—they have been without the help they need to get back on their feet.

    Starbucks to the rescue… maybe not, just a great status quo PR stunt…

    Don’t Get Too Excited About the Starbucks College Deal

    It’s all smiles and pats on the back for Starbucks today over news that the coffee chain will cover tuition for employees who enroll in college courses through the Arizona State University (ASU) online program….

    Starbucks will pay an average of about $6,500 over two years for freshmen and sophomores who enroll full-time in ASU’s online program, which costs roughly $10,000 in annual tuition. To cover the $13,500 balance, students must apply for financial aid. Because their wages are low, many workers are expected to qualify for Pell Grants…. Make no mistake, behind the feel-good rhetoric lies a basely neoliberal reformist plan….

    Starbucks offers college tuition but graduates might still be baristas

    For many Americans, however, whether employed by Starbucks or currently working at another low-wage job, there is nowhere else to go. While Starbuck’s efforts to help its employees gain access to higher education is admirable, higher education does not automatically guarantee a better job or economic independence. In fact, last year more than quarter of a million college graduates were working minimum wage jobs.

    Many jobs currently available to college graduates actually have no need for expensive higher education. For example, in 2010, half of college graduates ended up taking jobs that required less than a bachelor degree, according to the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Another 38% didn’t even need a high school diploma…. recent college graduates are still struggling to find jobs that will capitalize on their education – and pay a wage worthy of it. The current employment rate for those 20 to 24 year olds is 63.9%, according to the Department of Labor.

    Many of those college graduates who are employed are working low-wage jobs. In December 2013, the underemployment rate for college graduates was 18.3%, compared to 9.9% in 2007. In 2012, about 284,000 college graduates were working at or below the minimum wage, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s 70% higher than 10 years ago in 2002.

    Ah yes, the American dream: graduate from college and work off your debt as a Starbucks’ barista. After all, things could be worse…

    Slave-Trade Supermarkets

    Walmart, Tesco, Aldi, Morrissons, Carrefour, Costco. What do they all have in common, apart from the fact that they are supermarkets? They all sell products that are produced under slavery….

    Have you ever seen a movie that depicts an apocalyptic future where poor people live underground? Beware, the Tunnel People…

    Inside the Tunnels Las Vegas’s Homeless Population Calls Home

    In the 1990s, Las Vegas began building storm-drainage tunnels to protect the tourist destination from raging flash floods. The plan was to construct 1,000 miles of tunnels within 20 or 25 years. Today, the tunnels house the city’s homeless population.

    The scorpion-filled tunnels gained notoriety in 2002, when Timmy “T. J.” Weber used them to evade the police after he murdered his girlfriend, but the homeless people are neither murderers nor radioactive mole people—they’re normal American citizens who have lost their way. Las Vegas offers them little help, so they turn to the tunnels for shelter.

    Actually, forget it, don’t even let them eat cake…

    In 33 U.S. Cities, Feeding the Homeless Has Been Criminalized

    … many of the same places that are banning food-sharing are the same ones that have criminalized homelessness with harsh and punitive measures. Essentially, they’re designed to make being homeless within city limits so unpleasant that the downtrodden have no choice but to leave…. The UN even went so far as to single the U.S. out in a report on human rights, saying criminalization of homelessness in the U.S. “raises concerns of discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

    Speaking of cruel and inhuman, how about that US healthcare system? USA, USA, We are #1….

    The U.S. Has The Most Expensive And Least Effective Health Care In The Developed World

    For the fifth time in a row, the United States has been ranked last in a prominent think tank’s review of industrialized nation’s health care systems. Compared to other wealthy countries like Germany, France, Switzerland, and Australia, the U.S. lags far behind when it comes to ensuring health care access, efficiency, and equity….

    Among the nations included in the Commonwealth Fund’s survey, the highest percentage of U.S. residents skip out on the medical care they need because they can’t afford it. Thirty-seven percent of Americans said they didn’t fill a prescription, visit a doctor, or seek out recommended medical care because they were worried about the cost….

    Health Care: Let’s Have People Over Profits Once and for All

    There are some things in this world that shouldn’t be turned into profit-making machines, and health care is definitely one of them. Believe it or not, there was a time in America when in almost every state health insurance companies and hospitals were required to be nonprofits. Back then, Americans could actually get the health care and treatment they needed at affordable prices.

    I suppose this is what happens when you let corporations run your government…

    Bill Moyers, aka Mr. Dignified Outrage, delivers this riff on Wall Street’s secret weapon: Congress

    These finance executives took part in “scandals that violate the most basic ethical norms,” as the head of the IMF Christine Lagarde put it last month, including illegal foreclosures, money laundering and the fixing of interest rate benchmarks. In fact, banking CEOs not only avoided prosecution but got average pay raises of 10 percent last year, taking home, on average, $13 million in compensation.

    New survey says… if you want to get elected in 2014, shout about “the crooks on wall street.”

    It’s a landslide… the government no longer has the consent of the governed…

    Key Midterm Election Indicators at or Near Historical Lows

    Approval of Congress at 16%; national satisfaction at 23%

    The election environment for congressional incumbents in 2014 will be challenging, with several key public opinion indicators as negative or nearly as negative as they have been in any recent midterm election year. This includes congressional job approval, which, at 16%, is on pace to be the lowest in a midterm election year since Gallup first measured it in 1974.

    Ut oh, the natives are getting restless, it’s time to wag the dog… in classic Obama fashion…

    We will not send any troops…

    Obama Orders US Soldiers Back to Iraq

    Despite initial assurances to the contrary, new combat-ready troops already on the ground inside war-torn country.

    In remarks on Friday, Obama told the American people he would “not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq.” Despite those assurances, the Associated Press reports that “nearly 300 armed American forces are being positioned in and around Iraq” as part of the president’s military response to the deteriorating situation inside the country.

    But wait… we’ve had a new covert invasion of Iraq underway since February…

    Videos Americans Didn’t Get to See on Our Nightly News (Warning: Graphic Images)

    While the U.S. media obsess with the Iraq War that we created 11 years ago and can’t stop… they’re covering up our current invasion (overseen by our CIA and former Blackwater mercenaries), which Obama and more than $5 billion of U.S. taxpayer money started in February.

    And the mainstream media war propaganda complex is spewing out the same tired old war profiteers…

    Deja vu all over again…

    Stop treating war-crazy buffoons as experts! They got it wrong, remember?

    Wolfowitz, Kristol and the rest of the neocons should be pariahs. Instead they’re on Sunday show round tables.

    In the name of national security…

    Reporting Live, from Post-Constitutional America…

    Peter Van Buren breaks down the breakdown of civil liberties…

    RIP, The Bill of Rights

    We are the first to see, in however shadowy a form, the outlines of what a Post-Constitutional America might look like. We could be the last who might be able to stop it.

    In Post-Constitutional America, however, the government strives to “control the message,” to actively thwart efforts to maintain a citizenry informed about what’s done in its name, a concept that these days seems as quaint as Jefferson’s powdered wig. There are far too many examples of the post-9/11 erosion of the First Amendment to list here. Let’s just look at a few important ones that tell the tale of what we have lost since 9/11.

    The always spot on Charles Hugh Smith sums it up…

    The Most Destructive Presidencies in U.S. History: George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama

    The Bush and Obama presidencies have effectively dismantled the rule of law and the Constitution by invoking essentially unlimited executive powers in the name of “national security:” we the citizens of the U.S. can now be accused of violating secret laws, be indicted in secret, tried in secret and sentenced to life in prison based on evidence fabricated in secret, i.e. declaring unclassified documents classified after the fact to incriminate and imprison whistleblowers.

    How is this any different from totalitarian fascist regimes?

    This is absolutely contrary to basic civil liberties defined by the Constitution.

    And now, a message from our sponsors

    Here’s a rant for ya… from the Mighty Jim Quinn…

    FOURTH TURNING ACCELERATING

    Lies, misinformation, deception, propaganda, easy debt, cheap oil, endless commercial expansion, relentless marketing, never ending war, politicians selected by bankers and mega-corporations, tax code created to benefit the .01%, and laws written by the lobbyists for the oligarchs designed to control the plebs and enrich the modern aristocracy, made the world go round until 2008. Linear thinkers in government, business, banking and media have been perpetuating the falsehood of a return to normalcy, recovery….

    The 2008 global financial crash was the catalyst for this Fourth Turning and the next leg down will unleash the fury of the masses as their remaining wealth, along with their hopes and dreams are obliterated…. The extreme and growing wealth inequality driven by Federal Reserve policies, corporate lobbyist written government regulations and tax laws, and bankers controlling the political, economic, financial, and media levers has reached levels previously associated with collapse and revolution. The greed, hubris and arrogance of the .01% will lead to their downfall.

    With poverty and injustice like this, the aristocratic perpetrators are preparing for blowback

    Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown

    Social science is being militarised to develop ‘operational tools’ to target peaceful activists and protest movements

    Among the projects awarded for the period 2014-2017 is a Cornell University-led study managed by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research which aims to develop an empirical model “of the dynamics of social movement mobilisation and contagions.” The project will determine “the critical mass (tipping point)” of social contagians by studying their “digital traces” in the cases of “the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the 2011 Russian Duma elections, the 2012 Nigerian fuel subsidy crisis and the 2013 Gazi park protests in Turkey.”

    Twitter posts and conversations will be examined “to identify individuals mobilised in a social contagion and when they become mobilised.”

    Another project awarded this year to the University of Washington “seeks to uncover the conditions under which political movements aimed at large-scale political and economic change originate,” along with their “characteristics and consequences.” The project, managed by the US Army Research Office, focuses on “large-scale movements involving more than 1,000 participants in enduring activity,” and will cover 58 countries in total.

    OMG! The FBI is following you… on Twitter… #TRILL

    Here Is The FBI’s Official Guide to Twitter Slang

    The FBI knows what LMAO means. According to an internal manual released today under the Freedom of Information Act to the open-records website MuckRock, the bureau also knows what ANFAWFOS, EOTWAWKI, and IITYWTMWYBMAD stand for. So beware: The feds have cracked Twitter slang. Or think they have.

    Militarize the police…

    Sheriff: Local Cops Need MRAPs Because America Has Turned Into A War Zone

    Johnson County is one of eight Indiana law enforcement agencies to acquire MRAPs from military surplus since 2010, according to public records obtained by The Indianapolis Star. The vehicles are among a broad array of 4,400 items — everything from coats to computers to high-powered rifles — acquired by police and sheriff departments across the state.

    Law enforcement officials, especially those from agencies with small budgets, say they’re turning to military surplus equipment to take advantage of bargains and protect police officers. The MRAP has an added benefit, said Pulaski County Sheriff Michael Gayer, whose department also acquired one: “It’s a lot more intimidating than a Dodge.”

    Someday soon, the mega-rich will have personal security drones that hoover overhead on a digital leash and taze any poor people who get in their airspace. Here’s an early version…

    Follow Me’ Drones Will Hover By Your Side on a Digital ‘Leash’

    With the AirDog, the drone will communicate directly with a wristband worn by the pilot, naturally called a “leash.” The user can plug in the distance from the wristband, angle, and altitude that he or she wants the drone to fly, and the drone will automatically follow.

    In this Post-Constitutional Brave New World, Activism Is Terrorism

    Lawyer: Military Employee Admitted He Was Paid by Army to Attend Private Activist Meetings in Homes

    An attorney pursuing a lawsuit against alleged domestic United States military spying says during depositions in the case a civilian employee who worked for the Army admitted he was paid to attend activist meetings at private homes in the state of Washington. And a fusion center intelligence employee, who coordinated with the military, also considered civil disobedience to be “terrorism.”

    If the government is going to treat all of us like terrorists, you might as well get yourself a blackphone…

    NSA-Proof? Super-Secure Blackphone Shipping by July

    If you wish your smartphone had more security and privacy features, you might soon be switching phones: pre-orders for the Blackphone, codeveloped by secure communications provider Silent Circle and hardware developer Geeksphone, will hit the market before the start of July…. It has a number of privacy and security features, including encrypted phone calls, texts and video chats, a custom Android-based operating system and a Virtual Private Network to anonymize users’ Web traffic.

    Speaking of avoiding the surveillance state…

    Edward Snowden and John Perry Barlow, “A Conversation Across Cyberspace”

    The Powers That Be are also trying to kill the open internet… Stand up for media freedom and ride the #WaveOfAction to #SaveTheInternet

    Open Letter To FCC Employees On Real Net Neutrality

    … we want to invite you to the noon showing on July 1 of the musical: Which Side Are You On, Tom? The musical places Tom Wheeler between The People and the giant Telecom industries. Chairman Tom Wheeler can be a hero who will be remembered in history as a key person who saved the Internet for all humanity. We know Chairman Wheeler has strong industry ties, and has profited immensely from his alliance with telecoms and broadband providers, but we also know that the people he serves want the Internet to be free of discrimination.

    John Oliver: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Is NOT A Dingo

    That laughter felt good, we need a comedic break…

    Sound the alarm, beat the war drums, yet again

    Irrefutable proof that Iran is manufacturing nuclear weapons…

    Here are two nuclear fembots sent to destroy the minds of Americans…

    “Pelvic bones are the new nipples”???

    That, actually, hurt my mind…

    Let’s rectify this, here’s a heartwarming hit of divine comedic wisdom…

    Jim Carrey’s Commencement Address at the 2014 MUM Graduation

    We can’t do a news roundup without mentioning the World Cup of Inequality… (Forgive me footballers, I too enjoy a good ole football match to escape the dreary compulsion & tyranny of everyday life, don’t mean to muddy up your spectacle of distraction.)

    Dave Zirin on the World Cup You Won’t See on TV: Protests, Tear Gas, Displaced Favela Residents

    Many Brazilians have expressed fury over Brazil spending an estimated $11 billion to host the cup while the country’s hospitals and schools remain woefully underfunded. In a video taken by the Associated Press, a police officer can be seen firing what appears to be a live pistol round at anti-World Cup protesters near Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã soccer stadium. Police have reportedly also used tear gas, rubber bullets and noise bombs to disperse demonstrators. We go to Rio to speak with sportswriter Dave Zirin, who was tear-gassed on Sunday while covering the protests. He is author of the new book, “Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics and the Fight for Democracy.”

    EatFootballs

    Now feels like a good time to throw in a comment from the Pope… here’s what he just said at a conference on “Investing in the Poor: How Impact Investing Can Serve the Common Good in Light of ‘Evangelii Gaudium'”…

    pope

    Before we go… let me get up on my virtual cyber soapbox and riff a bit…

    As you can see from this flowing torrent of nooze, we need to take action & do something to fix this shit, and we need to do it now. As my wise & psychedelic old friend Terrence McKenna once said, “We are led by the least among us.” The paid-off political puppets and Supremely corrupt Court jesters are NOT going to save us. You, my friend, have to step up and be a leader. If you’re tapped in enough to be reading this right now, you’re probably already active. Much love & respect to you! To the few of you who aren’t in the choir, it’s time to start singing: #BeTheChange in your personal life & ride the #WaveOfAction.

    For all the horrific news, there is an abundance of positive change happening right now. There is an unprecedented uprising underway! A wave of transformation is sweeping across this planet. The new paradigm is emerging, organically evolving, rising up from every crack in this godforsaken civilization. So start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.

    Here’s two actions that are striking at the root….

    Take A Step Forward ~ March For Democracy #M4D

    We began a 480-mile march from Los Angeles, over the mountains and valleys of California, to the state capitol in Sacramento. We will deliver a simple demand to the leaders of our nation’s largest state: publicly acknowledge the crisis of corruption and take immediate action to end it.

    [Join them in solidarity on June 22nd as they occupy the state capitol building.]

    And from one of my favorite co-conspirators…

    A Crowdfunded, Kickstarted SuperPAC to end all SuperPACs

    Government has failed us. More than 90% of Americans link that failure to the influence of money in politics. Yet the politicians do not talk about this influence. While our democracy decays, they spend endless time with their funders. These funders hold our democracy hostage. We want to pay the ransom and get it back. Here’s how we’ll do it

    Ok, okay… that’s it for today…

    Did your ever-shortening attention span hold out?

    You deserve a break, while we still have oxygen, go breathe in a sanity-elixir & get some rest…

    The Theology of Rest: A Modern Sermon About Living with Presence in the Age of Productivity

    “Busy is a decision,” a wise woman once once reminded us. I often think about how our modern obsession with productivity is blinding us to the fact that being productive can be the surest way of lulling ourselves into a trance of passivity, where we coast through our lives day after day after day, showing up but being absent. I’ve previously written about our culturally conditioned tendency to wear our ability to labor endless hours as a badge of honor that validates our work ethic, but what it really bespeaks is profound failure of priorities and self-respect. We treat rest like a sin, not like the sanity-elixir and ambrosia of creativity that is.

    What do you think? Should I keep pounding these out?

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