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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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If you’re waiting to be rescued, what are you still waiting for?

By David McElroy · May 7, 2019

Few of us like to admit that we sometimes need to be rescued.

We like to believe we’re self-sufficient. We like to believe that nothing can stop us. We like to believe that we don’t need outside help. But when we’re honest with ourselves, we all know better.

Have you ever been in trouble and pleaded with God to help you? Those of us who are Christians know what it’s like to pray about our troubles and to ask God for help. But even non-religious people are prone to begging God for help when things get bad enough in their lives.

Have you ever been in the depths of despair — begging to God or the Universe or fate for help — and wondered why the solution you desperately wanted never showed up?

Maybe the answer to your prayer was already right in front of you. Maybe you were ignoring it because it wasn’t what you wanted or expected. Maybe it wasn’t convenient.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: choices, God, solutions, tradeoffs

We sometimes need help to finish a long race we’ve decided to run

By David McElroy · May 6, 2019

You’re not going to see the names of Laura Mazur and Jessica Robertson on the sports page of a newspaper. They’re not going to be featured on ESPN as great athletes for their marathon running.

But Mazur and Robertson know something that a lot of us forget. It’s hard to finish the things we set out to do, but they know it’s easier to finish with the help of someone who’s running the same race.

Mazur is from New Bremen, Ohio, and Robertson is from Braddock, Penn. I don’t know whether they knew each other before Sunday, but these two women were the last two to finish the Pittsburgh marathon yesterday. It’s unclear at what point in the race they started holding hands, but these two women ran together for at least a couple of miles — and they crossed the finish line together.

They were the last two runners to finish the race. Good runners finished with times under two and a half hours. It took these women nearly eight hours.

But they finished the race. Together.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: marathon, partner, race, sports

Fear of making trade-offs to get best life leaves us with nothing

By David McElroy · May 5, 2019

At some point in your life — probably when you were unhappy — you have found something which you suddenly realized was everything you had been looking for.

It might be the most beautiful place in the world to live. It might be the perfect career which you didn’t know even existed. It might be the perfect romantic partner. But whatever it is, something changes when you discover this thing.

Your heart sings. You’re willing to do whatever is necessary to make this thing a part of your life. Your new realization or understanding suddenly changes everything for you. The future looks different. This is what you’ve always wanted, even before you knew it existed.

But then a moment of doubt creeps into your mind. Fear starts whispering to your heart. You suddenly realize the price you might have to pay to have what you want. The fear paralyzes you.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: dreams, psychology, trade-offs

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This was the sunset I saw from the parking lot out This was the sunset I saw from the parking lot outside of the Walmart near my house just after the sun went down Friday evening.
This little parody was inspired by my trip to buy This little parody was inspired by my trip to buy gas a little while ago. Even at a no-name brand, the price was $4.09. If I remember correctly, it was $2.29 a gallon at the same station on the day the war started. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of winning. 🤣
For the best and most sophisticated in lawn care, For the best and most sophisticated in lawn care, check out the sponsor of one of my upcoming YouTube video episodes. 🙃 #parody #threestooges
Have you felt as though you’re living through Grou Have you felt as though you’re living through Groundhog Day lately? Me, too. Here’s a quick-and-dirty political satire I made this evening for fun and stress relief.
About three minutes before sunrise, vibrant color About three minutes before sunrise, vibrant color is poking through the skies to the east of my back yard.
The lights and color might have been more spectacu The lights and color might have been more spectacular a couple of minutes before this, but this was the best view I had of the Monday afternoon sunset from a bridge over I-20 in Moody, Ala.
I just remembered this shot I got a couple of hour I just remembered this shot I got a couple of hours ago of the fading sunset while I was in the Publix parking lot on the way home. If you suddenly find yourself craving Arby’s or Wendy’s, blame the giant icons in the sky, not me. 😃 (BTW, this was with the iPhone’s 8X telephoto lens.) #nature #naturephotography #sunset #birmingham #alabama
I had just pulled into a parking lot Friday night I had just pulled into a parking lot Friday night and was watching traffic through the distortion of the gently falling rain on my car window when I realized that the abstract view I had matched the way I was feeling tonight, so I turned it into a brief abstract video to match my mood.
Get ready for the next great animated Christmas cl Get ready for the next great animated Christmas classic, featuring singing and dancing and danger from Alex, Oliver and Sam. Coming soon to a theater near you. (The funniest part is that if I cared about this as anything more than a Christmas joke, it strikes me as something that could be profitable with the right story development and the right animators.)
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There are times when I’m nothing more than a rathe There are times when I’m nothing more than a rather large pillow to support some very lazy cats. For Alex, 2:30 in the morning seems to be one of those times.
It’s a dark and rainy day, so Oliver hasn’t yet ma It’s a dark and rainy day, so Oliver hasn’t yet made it out of bed by the middle of the afternoon Monday.
This two-minute documentary is brought to you by N This two-minute documentary is brought to you by National Feline Broadcasting. Viewer discretion is advised. 😺 #parody #satire
The neighbors’ cat, Pepper, has been trying to hun The neighbors’ cat, Pepper, has been trying to hunt birds in my front yard at 6 a.m. Saturday — and she seems annoyed that her intended victims refuse to cooperate. She seems as though she’s going to go home empty-pawed once again.
At 3:30 in the morning, all three of the cats are At 3:30 in the morning, all three of the cats are wide awake because they’ve been chasing a bug. Oliver is on the top. Alex is on the right. And Sam watches from the corner of the bed. At the moment, they’ve chased the bug under a blanket. I wouldn’t want to be that tiny creature, because these boys are killers.
When I got home just after 1 a.m., all three cats When I got home just after 1 a.m., all three cats were waiting for me in the two front office windows. These are Sam and Alex. (You can tell it’s Sam from the silhouette of the clipped ear.) Oliver was in the window on the other side of the chimney.
When I got home at midnight Thursday, Sam grudging When I got home at midnight Thursday, Sam grudgingly agreed to hang out with me in the bedroom for a few minutes. He had been asleep in my chair, so he didn’t have a lot of choice when I picked him up and stole the spot from him.
When I got home at midnight, Alex was hiding in a When I got home at midnight, Alex was hiding in a cave of the castle — waiting for Oliver to wander past. Within a minute or so, Oliver came by and Alex pounced. I presume they had been chasing one another before I got home.
It’s after 7 a.m., but all three cats are still as It’s after 7 a.m., but all three cats are still asleep in the office. At least Sam opened his eyes to see what I wanted. The other two were too lazy to even do that. I envy their lifestyle.
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The Republican Party is dead. It still exists in name, of course, but it’s nothing but a shell. All that’s left are idiots and stooges and con men of the MAGA party. When Donald Trump is gone — which won’t be long — those populist idiots and pragmatic fools will have no one to follow. Democrats will thrive. They will take more power than ever and they will push the federal government further to the radical far left than ever. When that happens, don’t just blame Trump if you’re a conservative. Blame every person who has claimed to be a conservative and has given up on principles, character and everything else that Republicans once claimed to stand for. As someone who worked as a GOP political consultant for many years, this is disgusting and disturbing to me. Those who have enabled Trump to have almost unchecked power are going to be shocked when they see what they will unleash in the long run. It’s been plain all along what this narcissistic con man is. It’s your fault that you chose to pretend not to see what he really is.

We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

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