TagKM Patten

Peter Thiel’s Man in Arizona

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The 2022 midterm elections are here. For the last couple weeks, in the state of Arizona, the Democratic incumbent, Mark Kelly, has been neck-and-neck with his challenger, Blake Masters. Everyone is very excited about Masters becoming “the new senator from Arizona!” Kelly, we know, is the astronaut whose wife, Gabrielle, was shot in the head by a psychotic madman more than a decade ago. But who is...

An Army of the Awakened?

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On the 16th and 17th of September – a Friday and Saturday – Charlie Kirk and his organization, Turning Point USA, hosted an event in Phoenix, which was called “Defeating the Great Reset.” Hey, I thought, that’s what I want to do. I told my publisher about it. He decided to pay my way – and his, which I didn’t know about until the day of. “Car pool?” Sure, why not. The first day started in the...

Inflation, A 40-Year High

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Just a few short years ago, when one went to a gas station, one could see the happy or at least content faces of people at the pump filling up their tanks. The Trump presidency, for all its drama and guffaws, oversaw steady gas prices that usually stayed between $2.25 and $3.00. During the worst days of the pandemic, gas prices occasionally dropped down to a buck-fifty; when people are not...

The Debates of Social Media

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We log in and the notifications alight Now we must click to the most ferocious of fights There, on the screen, is the race to be right A quick search on Google and the answer is there Someone else chimes in, no time to be fair Back and forth, citation and study Don’t bother to read them, it’s just not necessary But what data is truest, we must know for sure An expert starts typing, some deep...

Information as Immortality, Data as Damnation

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What went through the mind of the first primate that realized its body would soon decay and die? Likely, that fear found itself into our very DNA, something horrific but true which must immediately be screamed about at the top of the nearest mountain. Even if lesser-evolved animals share with us the ability to understand their own mortality, could they build upon that epiphany, to then conjure up...

Searching for the Silverlining in the Deathcloud of Covid-19

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The gravelly female voice comes through the radio with all the steady, dull energy of an emergency broadcast. She needs to inform us of the latest bad news. At the moment, there’s a lot of it. People are flushing massive amounts of non-flushable wipes down their toilets, which is clogging up the pipes and sewers. A couple new celebrities have announced that they’ve tested positive for the virus...

Dr. Archer, Again

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It’s said that acupuncture works for some people. Years ago, the acupuncturist that I had come to know somewhat well had done wonders for my anxiety. I needed to see him again for this head pressure. For some reason, he had to move his office to Highland Park, much closer to LA. It was going to be a mission then. Probably take all day. Temperature outside read something like 97, and it wasn’t...

Too Many Coyotes: Part Two

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My family decided to preserve our deceased dog. Along with an urn full of his ashes, we would have one of his paws imprinted on a piece of clay. Shadow would remain in the household, even if only as dust and rock. A few days after the fatal attack, I went back over to the animal hospital to pick up the sepulchral objects. “Thank you,” I said solemnly to the young lady after she handed me the...

Too Many Coyotes

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Part One I can sometimes hear them as I drive around the sharp bend in the busy suburban road, almost always at sundown. They’re so close, they seem to be right behind the chain-link fence: a whole pack of hairy, ravenous creatures – so starved they sound like they’re trying to eat one another. I would guess there was at least a couple dozen, all huddled inside of a small den surrounded by...

Auto-White-Crown

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Ten-Thirty at night. It’s not that late. Scratched eyeglasses hang between my black jacket and rests on the red sweatshirt as I take my nightly walk around the block. By the side of me, an aging mutt is anchored to a nylon leash. Oreo is my companion for the evening. He pants heavily with a dry tongue that almost hangs down past that growth on his leg. I let the slack go looser, then tell him...

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