In the 1970s, Exxon scientists informed the board of directors of the deleterious effects of burning their product on the climate. Did the bigwigs take the socially responsible action and tell the world and immediately switch to power sources with no emissions? No chance. The industry made the capitalistic move and kept the scientific information […]
Fred Malo
Posted inColumns
The View from the Therapy Pool: The truth we never accepted
“We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Not a lot of equivocation there. Thomas Jefferson declared the words that followed could only be refuted by someone with their head in the sand. “All men are created equal.” The man who wrote those words was definitely an enigma. Jefferson, along with 41 of the 56 men […]
Posted inOpinion
The View from the Therapy Pool: The existential joys of camping
I had a delightful childhood primarily because of the thick layers of love that were spread around my family’s home like warm butter, but also due to the spiritual adventures we experienced together. We camped. Our most frequent campground was the Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan. They have a dune there they actually […]
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View from the Therapy Pool: Religion, the curse of mankind
Thunder River Theatre’s current production of “Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday” expressed many poignant and touching ideas on deity, aging and the afterlife that inspired some deep thoughts on my part. A lifelong atheist, I’m giving second thoughts to the Native American concept of a Great Spirit or Creator. It’s not something that’s visible […]
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How did fracking ever become legal?
Freeing oil and gas deposits from its shale, tight sand and coalbed methane coverings was first done with explosives in 1865. Using pressurized fluid and sand, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was invented in 1947 and commercialized by Haliburton in Kansas in 1949. Beginning in the 1990s, the process, combined with horizontal drilling, started the methane […]
Posted inOpinion
View from the Therapy Pool: What happened to the baby boomers?
Born in 1949, I’m a proud member of the baby boomers. You know, the generation that’s responsible for the biggest population explosion in this country in the 20th century as the World War II soldiers came home and found making love was a lot more fun than making war. We brought on the dawning of […]
Posted inColumns
Time to raise the white flag?
I’ve never let on to be all that smart. I was a poor performer in school and I never accumulated enough merit badges to go beyond the rank of First Class in the Boy Scouts. I’m cool with that because I never put much stock in intelligence quotients. Unless you have some kind of disability, […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Scientists have to prove it
A certain segment of our society repeatedly rejects science and the guidance it gives us on how to conduct our lives. The existence of evolution, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic are ignored as figments of some egghead’s imagination. When I took a beginning science class early in my high school years, the teachers taught […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
The church of the hypocrites
Submitted in Decemeber 2020 I have a Christmas present for all you Christians out there. This atheist’s going to tell you what’s wrong with your religion. Mohandas Gandhi was a Hindu who read passages from the New Testament every day. When asked if he ever contemplated converting to Christianity, he said he had, “and then […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Journalism in a capitalist society
Submitted in February 2021 Bachelor of Arts History and Journalism Indiana University 1973. Many job-oriented people would say I wasted my degree because I only worked for a newspaper fulltime for a brief period in the 1990’s. I disagree. Our colleges and universities aren’t trade schools to prepare you for gainful employment. They’re there to […]