Category Archives: society & culture

The Anti-Trans Wave

Posted on March 15, 2023 by midiguru

In recent months, Republican legislators in state governments across the U.S. have introduced a torrent of bills that attack LGBTQ rights. If enacted into law, as some of them surely will be, these bills will cause both hardship and pain … Continue reading →

Posted in politics, society & culture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Lame & Queer

Posted on March 15, 2023 by midiguru

Apparently, Ursula Le Guin’s son has knuckled under to the forces of political correctness. He has consented to a few editorial changes in her children’s books. (You can read his explanation here.) The words “lame” and “queer” are being excised … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, society & culture | Leave a comment

White-Out

Posted on February 27, 2023 by midiguru

In today’s news, Elon Musk (a flagrant asshole) is defending Dilbert creator Scott Adams (also a flagrant asshole). Adams made some overtly racist remarks, as a result of which his once-popular comic strip is being dropped by a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in society & culture, unitarian universalism | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Changes in UU Article II (TL;DR)

Posted on January 18, 2023 by midiguru

Regular readers of this space (all five of you) will be aware that I’m concerned about some of the changes that have transpired in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) during the last few years. In 2020, the UUA charged a … Continue reading →

Posted in religion, society & culture, unitarian universalism | 1 Comment

Ghost Stories

Posted on October 25, 2022 by midiguru

No, I’m not going to tell you how to write a story with ghosts in it. What interests me are the ghostly ideas that drift, unexamined or even unnoticed, across the pages of even the most realistic fiction. I don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, society & culture, writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Heretics R Us

Posted on October 22, 2022 by midiguru

In 325 A.D., the emperor Constantine arranged a conference among the Roman world’s Christian bishops. Accounts vary, but about 300 bishops traveled from near and far to the city of Nicaea, in what is now Turkey. Constantine paid for their … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, religion, society & culture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Slinging Bullshit

Posted on September 3, 2022 by midiguru

Tonight on Facebook one of my friends posted some images of a thread about how a Harry Potter game has some implied anti-Jewish bigotry in it. I haven’t seen the game, but the description made it seem pretty bad. So … Continue reading →

Posted in media, society & culture | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Get It Right, and Get It Written

Posted on August 2, 2022 by midiguru

I’ve written two novels that are historical mysteries. One of them is unpublished, and I’ll probably never get around to revising it, because it has problems. The other, While Caesar Sang of Hercules, I think worked pretty well. You can … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, society & culture, writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Game Night!

Posted on July 26, 2022 by midiguru

We’re living in a sort of Golden Age of board games. When you say “board games,” many people surely think you mean Monopoly and Scrabble, or possibly checkers. But modern board games have advanced miles past those dusty classics. Today’s … Continue reading →

Posted in games, random musings, society & culture | Tagged | 2 Comments

White Light

Posted on July 22, 2022 by midiguru

I won’t pretend to be comfortable with the idea of identity politics and “centering marginalized voices.” I would prefer to look at how things are now for individuals rather than agonize over past wrongs done to large groups. But I … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, society & culture | Tagged | Leave a comment