The Latest Stories from Walter Rhein

How the creative brain fabricates the anxiety of lost inspiration — As I go through the day, I come up with titles and the first few lines of articles. Maybe I’ll be washing the dishes, or maybe I’ll be brushing my teeth. Without fail, these little seedlings of inspiration cause me anxiety. That’s a great idea! I can’t lose that one! …

The fundamental philosophy of conservatives leaves them constantly itching for a fight — First, let me give you a little background. I’m in good physical health, but I’m getting old so that means things are starting to fall apart. I’ve had Asthma my whole life and recently the doctor said I had blockage in my lungs that was “consistent with COPD”… whatever that…

Apologies don’t sustain you, apologies don’t fix anything — Imagine that everything you ever worked for was stolen from you. Imagine that the credit for all your achievements went to somebody else. Imagine that you were left broken and penniless at the end of your life. While you suffer out on the street, the people who took everything from…

The strategy of oppressors is to erode the foundations of decency, and they’re succeeding — You can get some conservatives to admit that there’s no good reason for anyone to own an AR-15 or any other weapon of war. That’s not the hard part. They’ll acknowledge something is the right thing to do and still vote against it. “I don’t think anyone should have that…

It happens every year; let them make it part of their state budget — I live in Northern Wisconsin. Every single winter, it gets very cold. We get destructive ice storms. It can be -30 for as much as a week. Sometimes we get several feet of snow. When was the last time this was national news? When was the last time people said…

White supremacy is incapable of creating anything, so it finds a host and survives like a parasite — There are certain people in the United States that delight in wearing their disrespect for humanity like a badge. They don’t openly acknowledge their racism. Instead, they use subtle messaging and then chortle about it like they’re getting away with something. When you call them out on their coded language…

A review of ‘Teslanauts’ by Matthew Donald — I’ve been working my way through Teslanauts by Matthew Donald and I have to say, I like the book. I don’t know if this exactly qualifies as steampunk, but I feel that term provides potential readers with a good idea of what you’d be getting into. Instead of complex contraptions…

The “appropriate” time to speak up and demand change is right now! — I still remember the evening after her body was found. Before I could go to sleep, I went through my whole house and opened every door in search of threats. I even looked in the cupboard beneath the sink and, of course, under all the beds. Even then I couldn’t…

Millionaires who take their orders from billionaires shouldn’t be asking for pennies from me — “Hey! I’m a millionaire and I realize you’re just a hard-working schmuck, but would you please send me $3 so I can continue to put the interests of big corporations over hard-working people like you?” I’m so tired of getting these emails. I also get texts. I also get phone…