Author: James Riley

“You’re Fired” and Trump Derangement Syndrome

The Responsibility Divide When a parent is pushed to the extreme by a rebellious teenager and a full-blown, high-volume lecture erupts, I’ve noticed the reaction of the troubled teen falls along a spectrum.  The teen will either fight back and make the yelling match more or less even, or they will fall into a kind..

Read more

The Alec Baldwin Thing..

I’m not a lawyer, but.. The general assumption, when it comes to “expertise,” is the notion that if you gather several bona fide “experts” and ask them the same question within their field of study, you will get more or less the same answer. Either the world is getting more and more hopelessly complicated, or..

Read more

Tell Me Lies..

Without meaning we are all just brutes. By “meaning” I’m referring to a broad set of mythologies and shared cultural values that collectively drive both individuals and their nations.  Societies with shared cultural reference points, like Japan, (family honor, fear of shame, thriftiness, self-denial, bravery) tend to be the kind that can turn a mountain..

Read more

Romans 13 Again..

Lots of people I respect, as people of faith and intellect, keep getting Romans 13 completely wrong, so I’ll try one more time… At the outset, this passage (“be subject to the governing authorities”) is likely THE most proof-texted passage in scripture.  People trot it out as though absolutely nothing else in the Word qualifies..

Read more