This year was a big year for Santa in my house. My son had seen a relative’s Nintendo Switch. This became the prize. If we visited, my son would ask to play. If the relative visited, did he bring the Switch? It was the big request to Santa. Santa came through.

It was a near thirty year echo of my first system. I decided to play Super Mario Bros to beat it for street cred. I did and upon completion my son said that it was cool but it was the old game. A great way to limit my son’s screen time was by making Switch time a family affair.

The whole family can get involved, which suddenly means divided screen time and a group activity. On a vicious snow day, Switch time was a given. I asked my son to guide me through the new Mario game. We had to go shovel the driveway, and there was a snowman made, but we had a lot of Switch time. It was fun and great time just chilling with a game and steady chit chat.

There was this radio show that had a specialist on with the advice to spend 10 minutes per day with your kid just one on one. This will make a super difference! Studies show that working parents spend anywhere from 19 to 34 minutes with their kids. Who are we kidding? The same average parent must be spending the average time (6+ hours) in front of the television or scrolling.

If we want to discuss atomization, we have to admit that we have lost the battle when 10 minutes is pitched as a huge difference maker. If working parents spend on average 19-34 minutes with their kids, we should be honest about where that time is spent. Alexa and Google Nest could confirm it for us. People elect to spend that time on other activities, and there is no changing this preference. If the parenting specialist on the Doctor Normie show has to sell people on ten minutes, we are not changing without something between an act of congress and an act of God.

I highly recommend the Switch. Your kids have to go to bed well before you. You can play while they are asleep and improve your game. They won’t mind. On to the links…

Hedges on the Dollar and the Empire – Reading this made me hopeful that the empire would come to an end. The regime would be shook. Hedges indirectly makes Trump look like an agent to deliberately end the regime, which would be far better than what reality suggests. I have read these dollar doom essays for years and even written some. I do not believe in hyperinflation, but it is fair to say that a few years of 10-20% inflation would feel like a hyperinflation with no mechanism for wages to catch up.

The Empire’s Sacrificial Offerings – Our useless interventions waste our sons and sometimes daughters fighting for other nations’ and industrial interests’ bottom lines. This article on the suicides at the VA, literally on site, drives home just how destructive to the American people and psyche our imperial wars have been.

An Empty World – Are the population estimates all off? This essay goes into a couple of demographers who think the population projections are off. They think technology and even ideology is causing disruptions even in the third world. It is possible that globohomo will expand faster than idiocracy.

Journalist targets a science journal funded by Thiel and that journal strikes back – A journalist gasps for air as a science journal dares to push back on climate change and evolution. It is typical_journalist_behavior.txt. The great read is the response by the journal. They wield a sharp weapon with their pen unlike the pearl clutching journalist for Mother Jones.

Boy Scouts Poz Timeline – This blog post cites the different things the Boy Scouts caved on that eventually birthed an all girls troop. In a ludicrous move, the ’98 lawsuit involved a scout from ’80. Our society being so focused on the rule of law and paper is part of why we are stuck where we are. We allowed the courts to be manipulated by “letter but not spirit of the law” groups.