Memorable Journeys Take Unforeseen Detours

Enlightenment must include detours, challenging basic assumptions, and willingness to change when confronted with evidence.
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Enlightenment must include detours, challenging basic assumptions, and willingness to change when confronted with evidence.
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Read MoreWhat moral responsibilities, if any, do those of us in wealthy countries have to accept new immigrants from less-developed nations?

Read MoreAssholes of America have found their ideal candidate.
He embodies their deepest-rooted fears. He plays to their crazed phobias and nuttiest conspiracy theories. He exploits their frantic desperation for simple answers to complex problems. He’s the grotesque political pathogen of mass ignorance. Like them, he’s every bit as mean, as crude, as juvenile, as xenophobic, and overtly as sexist and as racist as they are — only worse.

Read MoreRemember when the Republican Party used to be respectable and rational? Remember when the GOP used to nominate presidential candidates who members of both parties could admire and look up to, who were both intelligent and statesmanlike, leaders who inspired the best in all of us, rather than dividing the country and extracting the very worst fears in their supporters?

Last year, I had the honor of emceeing the induction of Jack McClelland into the Poker Hall of Fame
Read MoreAll poker players owe a debt of gratitude to Jack McClelland, who has dedicated much of his life to the game he loves.

Read MoreIf you like your public beaches, then thank socialism.

Read MoreNo matter what the number — whether you live to be 25 or 55 or 95 — life’s way too short.
Indeed, time is our most precious resource, because it’s constantly diminishing.

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It’s 10:15 on a Saturday night, and I can’t find a parking space.
My restaurant of choice closes in 15 minutes. I haven’t eaten all day. I’m starving. I want Thai food. Problem is, there’s no place to park my rental car within a quarter-mile in any direction. Suddenly, I seem to get lucky.
There’s a spot! It’s empty!
Wait, not so fast.
It’s a handicapped space. Shit!
Hmm, let me think about this situation for a moment. Hey, I don’t see any handicapped people around. I mean, it’s not like someone in a wheelchair is going to show up at this late hour, right?

With poker commentator Dave Tuchman on our fast boat to nowhere, out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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My morning began with a mouthful of ants.
By mid-afternoon, on a fast boat to nowhere out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I rescued a dead fish.
Ten hours, one bottle of cheap wine, and a dozen overpriced cocktails later, by 2 am, I was pacing the sidewalk out in front of a downtown art gallery like a vagrant, screaming profanities through a plate-glass window at shitty paintings being sold at mind-numbing prices.

Read MoreLook at this hideous piece of shit. Not me, you fool!
I mean, look at the painting!