The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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One Nation Subsidized, One Man Subsidized

By Orion on Sat, 10/27/2012 - 1:04pm |

I grew up in subsidized housing, in the same neighborhood pretty much that I am now. The subsidized housing then was for people with families who were persuing advanced degrees. Where I'm living now is very different - it's subsidized housing for people with varying challenges.

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The Native American Encyclopedia

By Orion on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 11:38am |

There is an account on Facebook called the "Native American Encyclopedia." It's really incredible - whoever is running it, and I assume that it is a group effort, has really put effort in to making it a great source for viewing again and again.

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Thoughts On An Obama Loss

By Orion on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 10:09am |

A little forewarning - I realize I am writing this on a very liberal site. I am a very liberal guy but I've seen a lot and experienced quite a bit in the last few years and it has led me to a few conclusions about things. Upsiding all sides and being generally offensive is what I do, apparently, so try not to take anything too personal.

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Depression

By Orion on Sat, 10/20/2012 - 5:36pm |

If you've been reading my pieces, you've probably noticed that I am depressed. I've really made a mess of things - turning myself from a freelance writer and graduate in to someone who suffered a total breakdown and now lives in subsidized housing. My whole world has been turned upside down but that's pretty much me. Suicide has come in to my head a few times but I have refrained from it for various reasons because of the disrespect such an act would illustrate. Enough about me though.

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A Nation Of Speed Racers

By Orion on Sat, 10/13/2012 - 6:33am |

I got a really thoughtful comment here about how 90s babies are simply not used to a level of chaos, confusion and weirdness that is actually really normal in American society. I've forgotten now but I think that I have already written on that comment. Well it still keeps inspiring me, honestly.

One thing that the commentator said is that "everyone was doing cocaine."

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Guam: Why You Should Care

By Orion on Wed, 10/10/2012 - 6:25pm |

It's been well over a year since I had a breakdown while visiting the island of Guam. It's still weird that I did. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was too much experience before hand that accumulated itself. Maybe it was being in an environment of way too many people. Maybe it was the SSRIs. Maybe it was the mosquitos. Maybe it was just a lack of structure. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

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The Souls of Autistic Folk

By Orion on Sat, 10/06/2012 - 6:31pm |

What makes someone with autism tick?

There is a website called the Autcast that said recently that "Asperger's syndrome is the new black."

I think that's a pretty apt comparison. Like black people, Aspies and autistics have trouble fitting in. Programs aimed to help us often marginalize us. We have problems of dependency, lack of understanding. On a small scale, people are even afraid of us as soon as we walk in the room. Black people were and have been associated with gang violence - mass murderers like Cho Seung Hui and James Holmes have been thought to be autistic and, to be honest about it, probably were. (Post a comment about this and I'll be willing to elaborate, if you want.)

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Human Nature

By Orion on Fri, 09/28/2012 - 12:28am |

I got a comment here a while back saying that people brought up in the 1980s or 1990s seem to not really have a grasp of how crazy things have been - especially in the 1970s. He talked about everybody doing cocaine, race riots and people punching one another in line for gasoline.

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America Has Always Been Socialist

By Orion on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 10:14am |

Politics in this country is bizarre once you mentally separate yourself from it. If one were to listen to Paul Ryan, then there was a wonderful era in which no one was dependent on state benefits (like Social Security or Obamacare, which he has benefited from), nobody went to state universities and nobody got bailed out by the state.

It's a bizarre fantasy that Americans have. It's so bizarre that Barack Obama finds himself, as president, having the label "socialist" lobbed at him. Self ordained socialist Bernie Sanders even went and said, "Nah, Obama's no socialist."

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