Hey Everyone. Welcome to Saturday's issue of TimeMachiner.

Not long after Tuesday's edition went out, yet another act of senseless violence took place. In my home country (and home to many of you too) I've found that we live in a constant Rinse And Repeat cycle of horror. It's hard to concentrate on the corners of the internet I love to explore for myself and my readers when a fundamental part of our world is in peril.

I cannot fathom the pain so many people have suffered day after day, year after year. And yet again, here we are. There is a famous quote, seemingly misattributed to Albert Einstein, that goes "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Here in America, we are most definitely exhibiting insanity.

The Onion, which has cutting cynicism, is known to post the same headline & article every single time a mass shooting occurs. With Uvalde, they not only did it but then filled their entire homepage with every single version of the article. The location, photo, and the number of victims is the only thing that changes. The article is a long look in the mirror at the America we have become. The article appears SEVEN more times than the screenshot can even fit.

A hard truth about America, courtesy of The Onion

Personally, I am sick and tired of the inaction. "Thoughts and Prayers" are coupled with "Too soon to politicize this" which leads us to do nothing. Repeatedly we are forced to witness the massacre of people simply because we do nothing. For a subset of those people, there is a group that is forced to lose a loved one. And in a subset of that are the people who are lost. Gone forever.

And we continue to do nothing.

I am angry at the people who commit these crimes. But I am angrier at our "leaders" who have decided that the murdering of our fellow citizens and human beings is an acceptable price to pay in order to "preserve freedom" or whatever excuse they use to make them sleep easy at night.

They all hope for the same thing: pacify the outrage as best as possible. Then wait for it to subside. Finally, distract with "bigger issues" such as the continued fight against people's rights and endless culture wars.

One person tried to sneak a bomb onto a plane in his shoe in 2001. It is 2022 and we are still removing our shoes at TSA checkpoints. Why? To make sure we are all safe. Sounds reasonable.

At what point do we value our lives over a weapon? At what point are the lives lost too many?

America is the only developed nation to have this happen. Again and again, this argument rages on and the outcome remains. Remember the Buffalo, NY mass shooting? I'm sure you do, given it was 14 days ago. From then until Uvalde, 15 more mass shootings have occurred and 12 people have died.

I would say let us mourn those innocent children and adults who were slaughtered this week. But we need to make it fast. The next mass shooting is scheduled to happen any day now.


In addition to all this insanity is a revelation on my end: My self-imposed schedule is pushing me toward burnout with TimeMachiner. Thursday's edition of The Longform, which you were expecting, is delayed. I simply haven't written it yet. I know what it will be, but it hasn't been done yet. Too many times in the past month have issues been down to the wire to get out on time.

The Tuesday / Saturday schedule for The Stream is proving to be a bit much. So, right now I am moving to a Tuesday-only schedule for The Stream. I will work to get The Longform out next Thursday. Writing TimeMachiner should be as interesting as Reading TimeMachiner. These changes are to keep that going.

I launched TimeMachiner with the goal of creating something creatively-sustainable. As time goes on I may resume the 2x schedule. I continue to experiment and I hope you continue to enjoy my work.