This is what passes for thought among intellectuals?

Diana Schaub, in her recent essay for The New Atlantis entitled Methuselah and Us, decides to wander into the debate about whether or not death-- mortality-- is a moral and communal goal to be accepted, or a moral and communal evil to be resisted.

She starts her essay with a description of the human condition, and does well by quoting Shakespeare. Then she outlays a few paragraphs in which she describes the state of the art in conquering death, in turning back the clock, and in restoring to us what we have lost as a result of age. The "state of the art" isn't very much, but at least it has promise.

She then goes on to argue any such attempts to turn back the clock are not morally worthwhile. So, what does she choose to use as her source of moral instruction?

Star Trek.

( I thought she was kidding. )

Just did my taxes...

After taking out the expenses for the publicity site, my take-home pay from writing last year was $99.39. That won't even buy me a damned battery, much less replace the flaming laptop. For what I published last year, that's 0.15 cents a word.

I mean, I have an average of ten new readers a day on my website-- who actually read one of the stories.. Set and Osiris, if one in ten actually coughed up a buck or two, I might actually be inspired to keep doing this. Let's face it, I've been writing for twelve years. Maybe this is just reality's way of informing me that I'm not burned out, I was just never very good at this to begin with...