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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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AUDIO: We rarely realize we’re wasting our lives ’til it’s too late

By David McElroy · October 25, 2021

For a few weeks now, I’ve been thinking a lot about some simple questions.

What does it mean to waste your life?

And if you discover you really are wasting your life, what do you do about it?

I’ve known that I wanted to talk about this for awhile — ever since I saw an odd exhortation on a church sign near my house. It said, “Please don’t waste your life.” I didn’t disagree with the sentiments of the sign — although I’m unclear what their context was — but I started thinking about how few people even realize their lives are wasted until it’s too late.

That led me to thinking about my own life — and how my thoughts about a life worth living have changed over the years. But I wasn’t really ready to talk about it until I passed a house near my office Monday afternoon and saw a front yard with two two adult-size chairs and one child-size chair.

Then I knew how I wanted to conclude this. Maybe it won’t apply to you, but it feels true for me.

Tap or click below to listen. And please forgive the train in the distance at the end. I’m not really worrying about avoiding such sounds anymore. Keep Reading

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In dysfunctional modern culture, porn defines ‘normal’ for millions

By David McElroy · October 21, 2021

I’m on the losing side of a bitter culture war. The hip postmodern folks won. The people they called prudes and squares — people like me — were the ones who lost.

The cool people don’t believe life has meaning or purpose. They don’t believe we came from anywhere or that we’re going anyplace. They say a person’s only real goals are pleasure and self-gratification.

If it feels good, do it. That’s their motto.

Of all the damaging effects of their sloppy thinking and slipshod ideas, it seems as though the worst have come from the mad rush to disconnect sex from love — and from the eagerness to unleash porn on immature and lustful people.

It’s not popular to talk about voluntary limits. Most people don’t want to see what these ideas are doing to those around them. They just want to laugh at the prudes who are dumb enough to disapprove. They don’t want to see the collateral damage of what they’re doing.

But if you look at the filth and degradation that are inside the minds of many millions of people today — and if you can see the damage they’re doing to themselves — you’ll see that this massive culture change has done serious damage that can never be undone.

The culture as a whole is doomed, but you can still decide whether this will affect you — or your children.

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Let’s try a candid conversation just for the few who want to hear

By David McElroy · October 14, 2021

Most of you shouldn’t waste your time listening to this. It’s not for everybody. It would bore most of you.

In Hermann Hesse’s great early 20th century novel, “Steppenwolf,” the protagonist, Harry Haller, encounters a strange place with a sign out front which says, “Magic theater. Entrance not for everybody. For madmen only.”

I feel almost like attaching such a sign here, because what I’m posting tonight is not for everybody. But for the few with the madness to want to go down this rabbit hole, I’ll offer it to everybody once — with a warning.

I’m recording something with no script or plan. It would bore most people. Honest. But I hope the right people might find it — maybe you — and somehow connect with me because of where this continuing conversation could lead. If you think there’s some madness about you that might eventually connect with the “magic theater” in my mind, enter by tapping or clicking below.

It’s really not for everybody.

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When I take lightning pictures, I’m always hoping When I take lightning pictures, I’m always hoping to get just one usable photo, but I got two dramatic images tonight. You might recognize the water tower and communication tower that you’ve seen in many of my sunset photos. This is about a mile from my house in Leeds, which is just east of Birmingham.
For those who are in places where it’s miserably h For those who are in places where it’s miserably hot today, here is a minute of light rain and gentle thunder from my back yard late Saturday afternoon. It’s very relaxing to stand at my back door and watch this, especially since the heat is pretty mild today — 80 degrees (about 26 celsius) — for July in the American South.
Alex was willing to cooperate with me for a new po Alex was willing to cooperate with me for a new portrait late Wednesday night. It’s been roughly three and a half years now since the cold night when I was able to lure him out from behind a garbage dumpster into a trap — but I don’t think he’s sorry at this point that he fell for the trick. 😺
This is the face of a man who’s thrilled that the This is the face of a man who’s thrilled that the weekend is finally here. It was a very long (and productive) week, but the time has finally come that I have time to write and read and think. Late Friday night, I’m at the McDonald’s near my house with a Diet Dr Pepper and a MacBook. For me, it’s like Cheers without the booze.
Donald Trump has figured out who to blame for the Donald Trump has figured out who to blame for the the D.C. Reflecting Pool turning green. The dastardly deed was carried out by a specially trained squad of Antifa cats trained by the Far Left. It’s not his fault. Arrest all the cats! #satire #parody
This was the sunset that faced me as I left Walmar This was the sunset that faced me as I left Walmart near my house just a few minutes ago. It was a beautiful light show for just a few minutes.
Here’s proof that reality and satire are indisting Here’s proof that reality and satire are indistinguishable these days.
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. 🤣
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Critter Instagram

About half an hour before sunset Saturday, Alex is About half an hour before sunset Saturday, Alex is relaxing in the same office window where he was when I got home Friday evening.
At 2 a.m., Oliver is purring in my lap, but he jus At 2 a.m., Oliver is purring in my lap, but he just heard one of the cats — we can’t tell which one — jump to the floor in the next room, so he has he eyes intently on the door to see if one of them is about to come to the bedroom and become his late-night prey.
When I got home at 7:30 Friday evening, I found Al When I got home at 7:30 Friday evening, I found Alex sitting in a window waiting for me. I took this photo from the driveway. I loved Alex’s pose, especially with the reflection of the tree limbs behind me.
This was made sometime around 2005 and it’s one of This was made sometime around 2005 and it’s one of my favorite memories of these two dogs, both of whom have been dead for many years. It seems to be the only video I have of either one of them. The red-furred girl was named Lucy (after Lucille Ball) and she was very camera-shy (and shy in every other way, too). I was trying to get some video of her when Maggie — a dog who wasn’t the least big shy — decided she was jealous and wanted my attention instead. They were both amazing dogs.
There’s a widely observed bear wandering around in There’s a widely observed bear wandering around in Shelby County, south of Birmingham. Oliver heard about him and sneaked out of the house to go make a new friend. One of the latest pictures of the bear happened to catch this action shot of Oliver riding him around. He’s back at home now, so I’m not sure how he got out. 😺
From the CritterCam: You might have seen a picture From the CritterCam: You might have seen a picture I posted about 45 minutes ago showing Oliver asleep in this bed and Alex asleep in the hanging basket beyond him. I just checked the webcam and found Alex coming over to the bed to try to claim it as his own. Oliver lifted his head — as you see here — and Alex moved on. No fireworks over the spot tonight. 😺
It’s not even sunset yet, but all three cats are a It’s not even sunset yet, but all three cats are asleep for the moment. Oliver is in the cat bed on my desk and you can see Alex’s head and ears sticking out of the hanging basket of the castle behind him. If you could see through Oliver’s head, you would find Sam in the window on the other side of the office, where he’s been napping, too.
When I came home late Thursday afternoon, Alex was When I came home late Thursday afternoon, Alex wasn’t sure whether it was worth waking up to greet me or not. He’s definitely leaning toward “not” at this point — since it’s not close to dinner time.
Sam is hanging out with me in the office late Wedn Sam is hanging out with me in the office late Wednesday night. He’s a handsome fellow who’s more confident every day.
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It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

Here’s the latest of my ridiculous parody shorts. It crossed my mind Tuesday to wonder what a slick and fast-talking car dealer might do right now to try to turn the high price of gasoline to his advantage. So I conceived of a fat and lovable character who tried to sell cars that don’t use any fuel — and then I started wondering if it would be funnier if all the characters were felines. Designing the King Cashpaw character took about four hours, but the rest took only another four hours, so this was a relatively quick piece that virtually wrote itself. I know it’s almost impossible for these parody videos to find a larger audience, but at least they amuse me — and there are 19 of them on my YouTube page now. The first few were very limited, but they’re getting more complex.

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.

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