Posts

The Problem (Really) in Modern Discourse

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I always walk this fence where I don't like how politics has injected itself into all of our conversations, but I still occasionally enjoy having them. I think by and large, we all have sensible conversations, but thanks to the internet and social media, we've kind of let the old rules slip away. I get aggravated by people that I agree with and with people I disagree with online because there's been a huge lack of intellectual honesty the past few years. Someone will find great offense to something one politician does while letting a favored pol pull the same stunt. We've lacked a lot of consistency and this lack of intellectual honesty turns a lot of people off leading them to silence their friends by muting or unfriending them. The next huge hurdle we face now is that no one really knows about fallacies and basic debate devices that used to lead to productive conversations have been replaced by screaming and mob mentality. A good example is reacting to en erra...

It's 2017 (a little late)

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Yeah, it's been a while. I am sure that most people were quite alright with the prospect of putting 2016 in their rear view mirrors. It wasn't the greatest of years for me, but overall I had a good year. I began finally after 42 years my forever career. I was hired on by the Commonwealth as a compliance regulator in the life and health insurance industry. I work with a phenomenal group of smart people that are dedicated to ensuring state residents have equitable, reasonable insurance. My household over the past couple years has grown in ways that I don't care to disclose in a public forum. It has come with its share of challenges and blessings. The passing of time has taught me that while I thought I was fairly wise about the world in my youth, I really had no idea. As far as my posts here, I fully plan on a mix of cultural and personal blabbing into the next year when I find spare time, which is going to come at a premium more and more as time passes. I have not fo...

The Drowning Death Spiral of Modern Political Debates

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There's nothing like a tragic loss of life for people to tout their political beliefs. And it's so much easier in this social media age. As I've noted many times before though, there's a lot less discourse now and a lot more shouting and yelling. The weekend tragedy in Orlando is a sad and depressing example of this showboating. In the midst of evil and intolerance, sides have geared up to discuss the merits of gun control again. Yet I don't really hear a coherent debate. What I hear are two sides screaming about two narratives that don't mesh together at all. Picture two children arguing. One wants a video game and the other one wants to eat. The focus is in two different arenas, food and fun. On one side of the gun debate are people who are strong advocates of constitutional jurisprudence. Passing increased measures to limit a law abiding citizen access to weapons, they believe, will not solve the problem of evil that exists when a bad person obtains o...

Where is Mike?

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I know I publish so rarely nowadays on my personal blog. People just don't post in traditional means anymore. Most people throw out interesting information and tidbits to their social networks and I'm certainly no exception. But I wanted to post where I could be found if people wanted to interact with me even to this very day. My Twitter is here .  My Facebook is private to my family (sorry, not sorry).  I write for iTechTriad, a great tech driven publication here .  I write historical articles on Medium here . I'm doing a series on Washington's rules now. I always look forward to interacting with friends. Please feel free to check me out, follow me, and let me know so I may do the same!

Think Different or I'll Boycott You!

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I know I often say I shy away from and avoid political posts. I don't even tolerate it in my social media timelines and in an election year that is a hard task to accomplish. There is something that is bugging me though about the political process and since I have a platform, here I go! I just wanted to provide two quick reasons why I believe that the boycott is completely asinine in nature and in delivery: Boycotts are lazy - In this political climate it seems to be easy for some to speak their minds via the retweet, repost, regram, or boycott than to actually bring about any activism. I am not advocating rioting and protesting, but a boycott is incredibly slothful and usually doesn't influence or impress your friends. Often times nowadays lazy activists on the other side will then call in a buycott and the effect is completely null  Boycotts hurt regular people - Someone dear to me works for a company that is a target for a recent boycott because of a policy that...

Three Years and a Lifetime of Fortune

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Our first Easter brunch in 2007 In 2005, I had to start over. I was 31, I was in a run down apartment in a terrible part of town. I was alone and I had no car. I relied on the kindness of strangers to get me to the grocery store and to work. I could never fully thank them for going out of their way to help me too. One day I will.  In the middle of all of this chaos and rebirth I found someone who literally saved me. I found someone who restored my emotionally and in every way. I found a way to thrive again. She found me on MySpace of all places; she liked my style in music. She was intrigued to find a local tall male available in her area. She asked if we could meet.  So we did. We had several dates after several conversations and in May 2006, we were a couple. Everything was new again. I was sure my lot in life had been cast to be this wandering bachelor. I was apartment shopping in Texas and Florida. I found completeness in a way I never knew existed. ...

What The What?

I know I have not posted in a while. This blogging thing is deader than dead, but I still like to keep this platform open and communicate my life and thoughts with anyone crazy enough to read them. What some may notice though is that there has been a few changes as to how to get to me and what people see when they load thelewisshow.com. For the past four years almost I have been writing for other publications. I started out in 2011 writing for some friends in an Android centralized news and opinion blog called Android Activist. I then went on to write for RootzWiki which was Android heavy with an emphasis on the open community. Then I took a gig for Tech Dissected which was vastly more my speed, but time constraints, family obligations, and massive writer's block kept me off my game. So as a result I decided I'm just going to write for myself. I will keep my own thoughts here on this blog that I've possessed for now over 11 years. Eventually things will come together, b...