“Micro-aggressionism” or “Thou Shalt Not Disagree”

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Last week, I was booted out of Codex Writers, a private, online writer’s group that I’d been a member of for somewhere around fifteen years. I’m not broken up about it, but the reason for said booting is interesting, unexpected, and worth a post.

Over the years, writers moved in and out of the group, but there were usually somewhere around fifty to a hundred members active on the boards. We discussed the writing craft and business. We held writing contests. We provided critiques. People shared interesting things about their lives.

The group has moderators. And the moderators got together last week and decided John Brown had to go.

Why?

What, of all the sins one may commit online, triggered this?

Was it refusing to stop posting pictures of cats?

Using too many emoticons?

Infecting everyone’s pages with Russian spam bots?

Nope. Nope. Nope.

I know what you’re thinking. Surely, John, you must have been posting in a belligerent, arrogant, and strident way. You must have been a jerk.

That’s what you’d think.

I assumed that’s what the problem was too. I invited those who were angry and hurt to come to my personal thread and explain what it was that was making them so hurt and angry. A number took me up on the offer. And, to my great surprise, one of their criticisms was that I was too polite.

One person posted that my politeness made her think I was sealioning (a new term to me). Other’s agreed.

Another person said that my polite manner surely indicated I wasn’t sincere. Other’s agreed.

In fact, one of the moderators stated that being polite was part of the insidious problem that was John Brown. She said that my politeness had suckered folks in to letting my awful behavior go on too long.

I was offensive, and I was too dang polite about it.

So what was I doing?

Well, I was asking for evidence.

Don’t ask for evidence

My sin was suggesting that some claims being made about a certain topic seemed to be premature. My sin was in looking at the evidence being offered to support some of these claims and firmly stating that I couldn’t see how it supported the conclusions.

On every topic on the forum, we could question claims and discuss evidence in an effort to figure things out. But there was one topic, as I learned, for which a number of the active members and the moderators decided that was forbidden.

The topic was systemic or “institutionalized” discrimination. On the forum, most of the discussion was how it related to publishing.

They explained to me that it was offensive for me to want to see if the evidence actually supported the claims. It was offensive to post when I couldn’t see that it did.

You might wonder how in the world can that be offensive. After all, evidence is one of the first things we ask for when people make claims.

If Billy Joe comes up to you and says, “Son, aliens done landed in my yard last night. I swear it on a stack of Bibles.” Most of us would want some additional evidence.

We’d want to see the video he took and look at the burn mark in his lawn and the broken branches he said were made when their ship landed. And we’d want to see the report showing that the residue collected off the swing set was a substance unknown to mankind.

But it isn’t just claims about aliens that we do this with.

Historians do it about history.

Scientists do it about science.

Courts require it for reaching verdicts.

Heck, we even do it when we look at movie reviews—we use those reviews as evidence that the movie is going to probably be good or bad.

Evidence.

We’re always looking for evidence to see if our guesses are right. But on this topic, wanting evidence was offensive. I was told it was “hurtful” and “damaging.”

The logic of micro-aggressionism

How could folks get to the point where wanting and challenging evidence for claims was a bad thing?

Well, quite easily. And they aren’t the first to do it.

And lest you think this unfortunate logic is found only in obscure writers groups, you need to know it has  spread to many American university campuses. That means it’s eventually coming to an organization near you. And that means chances are good that you or someone close to you will have to face, at some time or another, online or elsewhere, an angry mob (or moblet, as the case may be).

So let’s examine the logic so that when you do, you’ll be able to see the response for what it is, name it, and bring its tenets out into the light and show them for what they are.

Here’s their logic.

ONE, each of us has our individual prejudices, biases, and beliefs about the world.

I’m sure you agree with this. It seems pretty obvious. One guy might think soccer is for wimps, and another might think football is for lumbering meatheads. Of course, it’s not just about sports. We also hold views about people from other groups. Depending on your experience, the media you’ve been exposed to, and the statements and behavior of those around you, you might have unconsciously picked up certain beliefs about Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Germans, Swedes, Whites, engineers, clowns, etc.

TWO, it’s likely there are others out there with the same prejudices and biases. Some of those ideas will be held in common by smaller percentages of the population. Others will be held in common by larger percentages of the populations.

I’m sure you agree with this too. A lot of Americans like football, but some don’t. A lot of Europeans like soccer, but there are some who don’t. We can see this with our beliefs about various groups. For example, ask anyone in the USA what they think about Nazis, hippies, or hockey players, and you’ll find a handful of common responses.

THREE, various prejudices and biases can get perpetuated in the society. This is what the micro-aggressionists call systemic discrimination.

I’m sure you’re nodding along here as well. Americans have loved football for generations. Europeans have loved soccer too. Views are passed on from parents to children. They’re passed on via the media. There’s a systemic introduction to and reinforcement of those likes, dislikes, and beliefs.

I think we’ll all together here.

However, this is the point where the micro-aggressionists diverge.

When those who have bought into the micro-aggressionist views see any disparity between groups they focus on (ethnic minorities, women, and minority genders), they claim, FOUR, that the disparity between the two groups MUST be because of systemic discrimination. Nothing else could be the cause.

I was told it wasn’t up for question. Furthermore, I was told that you can’t prove such things anyway. It’s “like ecology.” And so I shouldn’t ask. I was also told that questioning simply proved that I was lazy and ignorant, because if I’d done any amount of thinking or study, I’d agree with them. 

But it didn’t stop there. They claim, FIVE, that if you question their default answer, you’re not only an ignoramus, but you are also hurting others. Literally hurting them.  

The very act of asking for evidence, they say, is a micro aggression, a micro threat, a micro attack. It’s a tiny assault. And those tiny assaults perpetuate the discrimination. So if you disagree, you’re bullying and hurting. If you question, challenge, or want evidence, you’re damaging people’s lives.

And this all leads them to their final conclusion—SIX, if you won’t voluntarily stop, you must be made to stop. You must be silenced. And if you can’t be silenced, then you must be banished.

Did you see where they went off the rails?

Multiple factors

The fact is that there are a LOT of factors that could cause differences in the situations between two people. And commonly held prejudices or biases is ONLY ONE of them. And until you’ve really dug into it, there’s no way to tell how large a factor it is, or if it’s a factor at all.

Here are just a few of the factors that have been shown to have significant effects on a person’s success:

  • Birth order
  • Beliefs about self-efficacy
  • Grit
  • Work ethic
  • Whether you were born and raised in a single-parent family
  • How wealthy your family was
  • Self-control
  • Whether you graduated from high school
  • Certain pollutants in the environment
  • Where you lived
  • Your height
  • Your level of attractiveness (and it’s different attributes for men versus women)
  • Your age
  • Learning disabilities
  • Reading ability
  • Level of activity in a religion
  • General health

Notice that none of them have anything to do with ethnicity, skin color, or gender. To ignore these as contributing factors in any given situation is not only simplistic and wrong-headed, it can be harmful.

For example, why do Blacks have such high murder rates in some of our biggest cities?

Micro-aggressionism would ignore all the many factors above and assume that it must be some form of systemic racism. It would demand you accept that explanation. And tell you you’re ultimately contributing to a perpetuation of high murder rates if you question it.

Luckily, there are others who are looking into that issue. One strong correlation is with high out-of-wedlock birthrates. Another, with the spike in the late ’70s, is with unleaded gasoline. Or was it simply the boom in males aged 15-24? Or is it possible that murder rates are caused by different mixtures of factors at different times? Look at the graphs here.

What if a major factor is out-of-wedlock births? That has nothing to do with discrimination. It has everything to do with a life choice. And if that is indeed one of the main causes, then we can help save thousands of lives by figuring out a way to help the kids in those cities make better life choices and avoid getting pregnant outside of marriage. What if a pollutant is a compounding factor? Working on fuzzy claims of racism isn’t going to take lead out of the air.

But those under the sway of micro-aggressionism gloss over all of that. They are like doctors who diagnose every symptom as a sign of a broken leg.

Your chest hurts?

It must be a broken leg.

You’re bleeding from the head?

It must be a broken leg.

Your belly is distended?

Dang, another broken leg.

Criminalizing disagreement

The second error the micro-aggressionist philosophy makes is in thinking disagreement is bad.

Yes, it can be uncomfortable when people disagree with you.

Yes, disagreement, even when polite, can stress you, raise your anxiety level, or make you lose sleep.

But if you forbid disagreement, then you lose all of the good things disagreement and the challenging of ideas brings.

Things like science and the search for truth.

Things like votes for women.

Things like civil rights.

The progress of our society has only been possible because we’ve been able to disagree. When we begin to think disagreement is bad, we start down a road that ultimately leads to a tragic end. One we’ve seen over and over.

It’s the road of the Taliban and ISIS. The road of the Inquisition. The road of the KKK. It’s one of the main roads that leads to oppression.

In the last century, Joseph Stalin, the champion of socialism, the champion of the common man, the one who wanted to wipe out inequity, killed an estimated 9-20 million non-combatants. Compare that to the estimated 11-12 million Hitler and his Nazi regime killed. What was Stalin’s view on disagreement? “Ideas are far more powerful than guns,” he said. “We don’t let our people have guns. Why should we let them have ideas?”

Indeed.

To Stalin, disagreement with his socialist ideas was hurtful. It was damaging. It perpetuated inequality. Those that expressed even a whiff of it were either shot or shipped off to the Gulag, the wonderful forced-labor prison camps where people died in droves.

Mao, Pol Pot, and others all felt the same way about their programs.

But the micro-aggressionist philosophy blindly ignores that. It ignores they all started with the righteous cause of equality.

Sure, in the beginning, it might feel like the yellow brick road, but that path doesn’t lead to Oz. It doesn’t even lead to the witch’s place. That road leads to Mordor.

If you go there and raise that regime, you’d better hope two little fellows show up who have the courage to disagree.

The truth is that disagreement is like the tension and stress you feel when you workout and build muscles. It leads to a healthy, vibrant, and strong society.

Banning disagreement is like banning exercise. The result is a dramatic loss of health. A society of couch potato, Ding Dong hunchbacks.

What now

The writer’s group I got kicked out of is filled with good and interesting people. I wish them no ill will. And, again, I’m not broken up about being thrown out. Oh sure, there were good conversations and helpful insights. But, ultimately, it means one less distraction. And that’s good for me getting books out the door.

However, the ideology that some there hold is simplistic, unhelpful, and wrong. It’s not going to take them where they want to go. We know because we’ve seen how that movie ends.

And it appears it hasn’t run its course yet in our society. Which means at some point in the future, you’re probably going to meet folks who have, out of the goodness of their hearts, fallen for this logical trap.

I hope you find opportunity to speak up.

When you do, I hope you treat them politely and with good humor.

And I hope you clearly and unfailingly disagree.

Extras

If you want to know more, here are some great reads and interviews to get you started.

How we pick up unconscious biases

“The Hidden Brain”. This is a Radio West interview of Shankar Vedantam. Nobody conducts interviews better than Doug Fabrizio. In this one Vedantam shares fascinating insights about how we pick up our unconscious biases.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Khaneman. A good-humored and groundbreaking tour of the two systems in the mind that drive the way we think and the resulting cognitive biases.

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt. How those two systems Khaneman talks about manifest themselves in politics and religion and how we can have better civic dialogue.

Free speech and micro-aggressionism

“Hate speech is protected free speech, even on college campuses” by Erwin Chemerinsky. An article in Vox, a liberal-leaning publication, by a Harvard Law professor who has taught about free speech for decades.

“What exactly is a microaggression?” By Jenee Desmond-Harris. Another article from Vox that explains what microaggressions are from the point of view of someone who agrees with that philosophy.

The First Amendment by the Cornell Law School. An overview of what speech is currently protected and what isn’t.

An example of civic dialogue between a classical liberal and someone who disagrees.

Good Stuff! TruContain, Johnny Walker, Great British Baking Show

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I love the sunny winters we get up at Bear Lake. I hate the snow that my car brings into the garage. Because the snow melts, and the water runs to the bottom corners of the garage and pools there, creating a huge mess until I get out there with my cement squeegee.

Who wants to continually be moving crap in and out of the garage so you can squeegee it? And in the winter when it’s freezing?

Not me.  

For years I’ve wanted to do something about it, but what can you do after the concrete of your garage is poured?

Well, this year, after the first big storm, I got sick and tired of traipsing through the water and mud and cleaning all that crap up. So I put my massive Google-fu skills to work. And, lo and behold, I discovered a product called TruContain.

It’s a car mat for your garage. It’s made of thick vinyl and has raised edges.

I bought one.

The UPS man delivered it not many days later.

The installation instructions were simple. Two steps. The perfect number for me to manage. Step one was to let it warm up in the house for twenty-four hours so it was easier to unroll. I did that. Step two was to unroll and position it in the garage where we park our car. That took about a minute. So far so good.

No soon after the mat was deployed, we had another snow storm. The van went out for daily driving and came back with an undercarriage covered in ice and snow. We parked the van on the mat. The ice and snow melted. And the mat caught it and contained it.

I was delighted.

The next day the van went out for another day’s use and came back all covered in snow and ice again. The snow and ice melted, along with a bunch of dirt. And the mat caught it again!

I was whooping for joy.

I’m still whooping for joy because my garage is dry!

If we get a lot of water on the mat, I’ll use the shop vac to suck it up. I took out five gallon of dirty, cold water the first time. Five gallons that would have flooded my garage! If there’s not too much water on the mat, I’ll drag the mat out with a helper and dump the water on the lawn.  

I love my TruContain garage mat.

If you have winter water mess in your garage, you’ll want to consider it. I got mine from the manufacturer garageflooringllc.com.  

One word of advice. If you get one, don’t get one bigger than you need. If it’s too big, then the mat will stick out from the sides of the car, and when you go to step out, you’ll be stepping out into your mini garage lake.

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I enjoy books about Army Rangers, Navy SEALS, Special Forces soldiers, etc.  Almost all of them are written from the point of view of the operators. But I just found and enjoyed one, not about the operators, but about a guy who helped them in Iraq.

The book is called Code Name: Johnny Walker and was written by the guy the SEALs called Johnny Walker with the help of Jim DeFelice.

Who is Johnny Walker?

He was a resident of Mosul and was what they called a “terp”, an interpreter who went with the SEALs on their missions. He went on hundreds and hundreds of missions with them. And he offers a fascinating glimpse into what life was like in Iraq during the Iraq War for those Iraqis who helped the coalition forces.

The SEALs appreciated his service. I know this because a host of them have blurbed his book. Furthermore, they helped him eventually immigrate to America. That’s how grateful they were for his service.

If you like these types of books and would enjoy new insights, I think you’ll really enjoy the book. Johnny Walker does swear a bit. But I tend to take people as they are. And it was well worth time I spent listening to him.

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For Christmas my daughter received a number of seasons of The Great British Baking Show. It’s a competition baking show. I’d heard about it before, but I’d seen episodes of American competition cooking shows and didn’t enjoy them at all.

However, my daughter said this was nothing like the American shows, that it was awesome, and it was so awesome she wanted to the DVDs for Christmas so she could watch the episodes again. I needed to give it a try, she said. So I gave it a try.

I’m happy to report that I and my family have are enjoying the heck out of her DVDs.

The British folks that are competing in the challenges are down-to-earth and interesting. Some of them are funny. The tips about baking are interesting. And, best of all, the British show makers know how to create suspense.

They start each season with a group of twelve amateur bakers. Two professional bakers give them a baking challenge with a time limit and then judge the bakes. After a series of three challenges, the pros name a star baker for that series and then also announce who was at the bottom of the pack and will be leaving the show. If you like cooking or have ever found yourself watching a cooking program all the way through, I think you’ll really enjoy these fun, British bakers.

Good Stuff! The actual Christmas story

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It’s interesting how many things we’ve added to the accounts we have in the Bible.

For example, nowhere does the Bible say that Mary rode a donkey. Mary might have walked. Or rode in a cart. Or gotten piggy back rides. We don’t know. We do know that there is no donkey mentioned in the record.

It also doesn’t say she had the child the night they arrived.

It only says she was “great with child” when they made the roughly 80-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And that “while they were there” in Bethlehem “the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.”

So she had the baby sometime while they were there. That could have been during the first hour. But it could have also been a week or month later. We just don’t know.

It doesn’t mention anywhere the word stable.

Christ might have been born in a stable, or he might have been born in a cave, or inside the house, or out on the porch, or on the roof (lots of those places had flat roofs where they hung out). We just don’t know. What we do know is that he wasn’t born in a palace. And that they laid him in a manger because there wasn’t any room in the inn. An odd circumstance for a king.  

Notice as well that there weren’t multiple inns.

It just says “the inn.” And if you look up that word in the Greek, it’s translated as “guest chamber” in the other spots where it’s used in Luke. So they could have been talking about the one guest room in the house where they were staying. Either way, we don’t have anything that says there was a mean innkeeper who later regretted turning the couple away or that Joseph went door-to-door looking for a place.

We have no record in the account of three wisemen.

It just says “wisemen.” So there might have been two of them. Or twelve. We don’t know. And it appears they came sometime after Jesus had been born because they first saw the star of his birth in the east and only then set out to find him. They might have been coming from Persia, hundreds of miles away. Or they could have been living in Bethphage, a mile to the east of Jerusalem. Either way, they didn’t know they should travel to Bethlehem because it says they went and talked to Herod first, in Jerusalem, and asked “where is he that is born King of the Jews?”

The question freaked Herod out (if you’re the current king, you kind of want to know who else is claiming your throne), and so he gathered all the chief priests and scribes to discuss it, and those guys said the prophecies said it would be Bethlehem. And so Herod met with the wisemen again and told them to go there. And only then did they go down to Bethlehem. So it doesn’t appear the wisemen were there the night of the birth.  

There’s no record of camels hanging out with the baby either. Or sheep. Or goats. There’s not a lot there. But what is there is interesting.

Now, I want to go on record stating I have no problem speculating about the event and imagining what it might have been like. I love to do it. Good grief, I write fiction.

In fact, for many years I figured I needed to get in on the Christmas noun gig. You know what I mean. Every year we get heart-warming books about new Christmas nouns. We’ve had Christmas sweaters, Christmas jars, Christmas boxes, Christmas candles, Christmas carols. This year I see there’s one about Christmas fudge and other about a Christmas train. So I figured I’d do one. Mine would be about the Christmas rat. A little fellow who decided to snuggle up with the babe instead of giving him a nibble. One of these days I will get that hungry rat story written.  

In the meantime, while there’s a lot of good stuff we’ve added to make the event special, it’s also nice to know what the record actually does say. Whether you’re Christian or not, it’s helpful when dealing with others to know what was recorded about this event that is so significant to the largest religion in the world.

And so the last bit of good stuff I recommend this month are the two brief accounts we have. The first one is in Matthew 2:1-16 and tells the story of the wisemen. The other is in Luke 2:1-20 and features some shepherds.

Merry Christmas!

Good Stuff! Two books, a movie, and a dinner

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Are you ready for a story that’s heroic and inspirational? And poignant. And action-packed. And all true.

I just finished Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown by Eric Blehm. And wow. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have read this book.

It tells the story of Adam Brown who was killed while on assignment in 2010. But this book isn’t about a special operations battle in Afghanistan, although the battle is detailed. It’s not a war book. Although it tells about many episodes in the life of a Navy SEAL operator. No, this book starts when Adam was a kid.

It like the story of Louis Zamperini that’s told in Unbroken by Laurel Hillenbrand (and, yes,the film adaptation missed so much of the story, including the most important part,that if you haven’t read that book, you are missing out on an absolute treat). In this one, Brown starts out as a boy with bright promise, but after he graduates from high school, he makes a number of bad choices and drives his life right off a cliff.

You’ll be flipping the pages to see what helps him turn it around and whether he can make the change permanent, or if he’ll lose everything, including the love of his wife and kids. You’ll also be amazed at his grit. It’s a tremendous read. If you can listen to it on audio, you’ll enjoy the narration by Paul Michael. Either way, if you like stories about redemption and triumph amidst struggle, if you like books about special operations forces and elite soldiers, then you’re going to love this book. Highly recommended.

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The 12th Man is a 2017 World War 2 historical drama based on the true story of Jan Baalsrud. He and eleven other Norwegian resistance fighters set off from the UK on board a fishing boat with six to seven tons of TNT to sabotage some German military facilities.

However, their mission falls apart soon after reaching Norway. A German warship attacks. The resistance fighters set fire to the TNT on their boat and jumped into the water just off shore. Eleven of the fighters are caught by the Germans. The twelfth, Jan Baalsrud, gets shot in the toe, but still runs across land and manages to elude immediate capture by swimming across the fjord, in the dark, in the freezing, winter water.

Yeah, and that’s just the beginning. The story is about his attempt to get to the safety of Sweden, a neutral country. I watched this with my teenage daughter, and we were riveted with the suspense and action. And we were amazed at what this guy endured.

You will have to read English subtitles during a large parts, but we found that after a few minutes, we really didn’t notice it. It was a great date night. If you like war movies and action, I think you’ll love this movie.

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Tonight I ate a dish that instantly became one of my favorites. My oldest daughter and her husband found it. They love it and shared it with Nellie. And since it was her night to cook, she decided to give it a try. My first bite was wow.

It’s a baked casserole, a cross between lasagna and spaghetti, called “MillionDollar Spaghetti” from tastesbetterfromscratch.com. Just click on the link the get the recipe.

Now, here’s the thing: you can use spaghetti pasta, or you can make it totally low carb by replacing the pasta with cooked spaghetti squash like we did. The low carb version was awesome. I can’t wait to heat up the leftovers tomorrow.

By the way, here’s a quick way to cook spaghetti squash.

First, cut the squash in half lengthwise. The easiest and safest way I’ve found to do this is to place the uncooked squash on a cutting board. Next, get a big knife and set it along the line you want to cut. Finally, rap the spine of the blade smartly with a thick stick or long block of wood until the knife cuts through all the way. Using a knife this way is called batoning because you’re using a baton, a stick. It’s a slick and safe way to cut a hard squash.

Once you have cut the squash in half, scrape out the seeds with a large spoon.

Next, pour about a quarter cup of water into the hollow of the squash, and then turn the squash hollow-side down on a plate or microwave dish. Microwave the half on high for five to six minutes. It’s done when you can easily pierce the outside with a fork.

Remove the plate with hot pads and use a fork to scrape out the cooked squash. Voila! Cooked spaghetti squash in less than 10 minutes.

You can also just bake the halves in the oven for 40 minutes on 375 degrees. Baking gives the squash a slightly richer flavor. In this method, you brush the halves with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper then put the sides face-down on a baking sheet. Again, it’s done when you can easily pierce the outside with a fork.

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And here’s one more because it’s Christmas. I attended a young women’s meeting for my local congregation not too long ago. As part of the program, one of the leaders read a picture book called You Are Special by Max Lucado.

It’s about these small wooden people called Wemmicks who stick gold stars or gray dots on one another. The pretty or talented ones always get stars. The others, like Punchinello, get the ugly gray dots. And then one day Punchinello finds a happy Wemmick that has no dots at all. In fact, no dots stick to her. How does she manage it?

It’s a great little tale with an important insight. After hearing it, I knew I needed a copy of the book to read to all my grown up kids. 

Good Stuff! The future, Service Depot, Bear Lake ice cream shops

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Huge changes are coming to our world soon.

They’re going to affect your health, wealth, and job. They’re going to take us back into space and make us live longer. They are changes that almost blow the mind. And they’ve already begun.

Michio Kaku is a world-renowned physicist that has always been fascinated with all sorts of science. And in Physics of the Future, he looks at what’s currently happening in computing, robotics, biotechnology, medicine, energy, and engineering, and explains how it’s going to affect our daily life between now and 2030, 2030 to 2070, and 2070 to 2100.

The insights are awesome. The book’s a feast. Page after page.

Did you know, for example, that there are parts of our DNA that have genes for certain traits, but those genes are turned off? For example, humans have genes for growing fur all over our bodies, but they’re turned off. Snakes have genes for legs that have been turned off. Chickens, one of the distant progeny of the dinosaurs, have genes for growing tooth buds in their beaks (imagine the grandchildren being chased by one of those bad boys). There are many more such dormant genes, and in the not too distant future, we’ll be able to turn them on.

Did you know that today we can regrow organs? So far scientists can grow skin, blood, blood vessels, heart valves, cartilage, bone, noses, and ears from your own cells. They’ve be able to grow windpipes and bladders. Imagine damaging your eye and being able to grow a new one that your body won’t reject.

Did you know that we’ve already been able to hook people up so they can move objects with their minds?

And what about computers and robots? Many futurists fear the robots will become smarter than us and take over the world. Will they? Kaku explains why this isn’t likely with the technology we currently have and what really makes up intelligence.

These are just a couple of the dozens of thrilling topics Kaku explores. And he makes it all so easy to understand and entertaining.

A new world is coming, full of perils and exciting opportunities. An Kaku gives us an intelligent sneak peek.

If you wonder what our world will be like in the near future, if you enjoy science and technology, if you want to be informed, then you will love this book. When you finish it, you can then move onto his book The Future of Humanity, which delves deeper into what we can expect in the near future in space. You can then move to The Future of the Mind, in which he explores in more detail what we can expect in understanding, enhancing, and empowering our minds.

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I’m not a handy man. I’d like to be one. I respect folks who know how to fix things immensely. But I have a million other things on my plate and don’t have the time to learn how to be one. And so when our oven and gas range started having problems, I was staring at spending around $2,000 to replace it.

But then I found Service Depot in Logan, Utah. They do handyman, appliance, HVAC, and plumbing repairs. I called them. They send out someone all the way to Bear Lake to look at the issue and give me a bid. He was clean-cut and smiling. When I invited him in, he stopped to put booties on to make sure he didn’t track dirt into my house. We arranged an appointment, and a few days later another fellow who was equally clean-cut and pleasant to deal with showed up and fixed the range for about one-fourth of what it would have cost to replace it.

These folks were prompt to respond, friendly, and bootied. If you need repairs done around your house, my experience with them was great.

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If you enjoy ice cream and are in the Utah Bear Lake area, I have two recommendations. For soft-serve shakes and cones, you can’t do better than Zipz in Garden City. Some soft-serve is icy and thin. Not enjoyable at all. But Zips uses a soft-serve ice cream with a higher fat content, which makes it deliciously smooth and creamy. And when you add flavors—oh baby! We recently went there as a family and got shakes. They have a lot of different flavors, but I got the Nutella and pretzel mix and floated up a bit toward heaven. If you like chocolate at all, you have to try that shake.

The other place is in Laketown. The Sinclair gas station turned their old car wash into a hard ice cream shop called, ta-dum, The Car Wash Ice Cream Shop. It’s bright and clean. The youth scooping the ice cream there are smiling and friendly. And they have a flavor called Coconut Castaway that’s scrumptious. Think of a Mounds chocolate bar, but in ice cream. More heavenly floating. What makes it even better are the reasonable prices.

If you’re in the mood for ice cream, if you want to get a bit closer to heaven, then do yourself a favor and get yourself to one of these shops.