Readers,
This past six months some writing has come out.
I just had an essay just come out in Plough, “Eating Anything”
Read it here! Continue reading
Author Archives: Caleb Coy
Five Reasons Writers Reference Other Works
Maybe you were like me, reading the Ray Bradbury short story for the first time, “There Will Come Soft Rains.” You read about the robot characters in the house faithfully tending to the humans who are long gone. Then [SPOILER ALERT] a robot reads a poem, then the house burns to the ground. Continue reading
“Drill Baby Drill” Won’t Fix The Economy
They always tell me, “do your own research.”
Actually, it’s usually, without punctuation, “its lies wake up America dont listen to the experts do your own research.” Or something like that.
So I did. I did my own research. It turns out that if you want the economy to get better, you can’t just start drilling for more oil and assume the price of everything will go way down. Continue reading
An Opportunity To Fund a Twelve-Year Blog
Readers, I want to thank you for reading this blog for over a decade. I started this blog in 2012. Originally it was a blog about being a father, but I realized the platform could be useful, and so I kept at it for twelve years.
I’ve covered topics from religion, to politics, to parenting, to literature, to the different ways to describe Tom Waits’s Voice.
In all this time, the blog, of course, has been free. And I intend it to stay that way.
And while I believe in free resources and I don’t like asking for money, I’d like to give readers an opportunity to support the work of this blog. Writing takes work. And when it comes to doing research, that work can sometimes take hours.
Not to mention that I’ve had work published outside this blog, and believe it or not, some journals don’t pay their contributors. But I try to provide links to them anyway.
So if you have found this blog enjoyable, useful, or even tolerable throughout the years—or maybe you just feel the urge to support another “starving artist” in this world— today you have the opportunity to give a little something to help support that work. At your discretion.
So if you feel so inclined, here are three venue options through which you can support a hard-working writer.
Paypal
@CGuard
Venmo
@Caleb-Guard
Cashapp
$CCGuard
God bless you all. And God bless Robin Hood!
When Jews Say Stop Arming Israel
During the Nixon administration, much ado was made to paint anti-war protests as anti-troop or anti-America. The idea was that dissent itself was anti-America. A pernicious myth was replicated that college hippie protesters were calling soldiers “baby-killers” and spitting on them, despite there being no documented evidence of this, and most evidence pointing to compassion between protesters and soldiers returning home. Scores of noncombatants and veterans shared anger at government leaders for putting us in that mess.
I passed by a peaceful protest in support for the people of Gaza yesterday. I am aware that in some locations a select few protesters hurled some anti-semitic rhetoric (and rocks, apparently) at fellow students, and that is wrong. But to confuse a protest for Palestinian rights with a protest in the name of Hamas is to fail to learn from history. The protest movement happening across campuses currently is not anti-semitic any more than standing up for the rights of Jews in Germany would have been anti-Germanic.
If the protests are anti-Jew, why are Jews joining in? Jews rallied outside Schumer’s home in protest against giving aid to…Israel. It’s about stopping war and carnage. And in this instance, people of various identities, including Jews, are wanting to stop Jewish aggression against Gaza’s. Maybe they know something a lot of Americans don’t. Or don’t want to admit. Maybe these Jews know that the government of Israel has acted against Gaza (which, some of you probably don’t know, is not Hamas).
So while Fox news plays over and over again one clip of one Arab American hurling insults at one Jewish American—(and MSNBC is wasting everyone’s time showing shocking footage of *gasp* Trump’s limo pulling up to the courthouse)—look for when Jews, Arabs, Americans, Ukrainians, Russians, and people the world over are joining hands to call out world leaders. What exactly are all these people anti of? One another? Not when they do this. Not when they call for ceasing the violence brought on by those that failed in leadership.
Horrible leaders are trying to protect themselves. They want people at one another’s throats. It’s how they get votes. From Putin to Netanyahu to Haniyeh to Biden to Trump.
Protest them. Peacefully. You’ll get maligned. Keep going.
“This is the Passover that we take our exodus from Zionism. Not in our name. Let Gaza live.”
The “Journalist” Interview of Putin Wasn’t Just Bad—It Was Propaganda
You can accuse mainstream outlets like MSNBC of being “state-run” all you want, but the proof is in the pudding.
In WW2 A newspaper owned by a U.S. President would be bad, but a newspaper owned by Hitler would be worse.
Tucker Carlson has always been and always will be an opportunist who has no problem capitulating to a dictator rather than engaging in journalism that serves We the People.
And men like Putin know that he would only be useful until he needs to have them executed, because men like Carlson will always go wherever the wind blows them.
The popularity of such a “news” personality should concern you greatly. If Russia ever successfully invaded the U.S., Tucker Carlson would be among those who would gladly shake hands with a dictator and volunteer to be his personal spokesperson. Because he already has.
So if he’s bad for our country, and we want to be a healthy democracy, our solution is to refuse to watch him, and address the serious problem of those who do watch him. That is why one should never apologize for ridiculing, mocking, and exposing fans of his material. This isn’t about opinion or taste in television. It’s about duty to your fellow man.
As to John Stewart, John Oliver, or Stephen Colbert, whether you like them or not, they excel at reminding us the emperor has no clothes.
Men like Tucker Carlson will bend over backwards to tell a naked king, “what fine threads you have.”
It’s Been a Notable Year For Writing
Even more than last year. I’ve been really at it in the satire field. Meanwhile, some fiction, poetry, and non-fiction continues to appear. I appreciate all the reader support during this time.
Am I A Published Writer At Barnes and Noble?
A couple weeks ago I received some exciting news.
It turns out that an essay I had written in 2021 and published in 2022 was featured in 2023, making my name appear in bookstores everywhere, including the great chain Barnes and Noble.
This felt like a great milestone. I had to celebrate.
So folks, while I have yet to have an actual work of my own appear in the shelves of such a conglomerate book peddler, rest assured, you can find me there, in a way.
If you’re curious, the essay is titled “In Maggie’s Shadow,” and appeared in issue 71 of Potomac Review. Here is a link to a snippet of it.
You can order a copy here.
The essay gained recognition in the 2023 volume Best American Essays. The essay does not appear in the book, but the editors gracefully selected it as “notable.” I’m blushing.
On the Unfolding/Continuing Israel-Palestine Conflict
A couple Sundays ago my 11-year-old told me that he learned about the war happening in Israel and how he wanted to pray for them.
Then he said, “And God will always take Israel’s side, right?” Continue reading
Why I Can’t Stop Thinking About the Roman Empire
It’s true, I think about the Roman empire a lot. There are a few reasons.
I’m a male.
I’m American.
I’m Christian.
But one of these things makes me think about the Roman empire in a very different way than the other two.
CALEB COY 