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Dennis E. Powell's View from Mudsock Heights

Dennis E. Powell is crackpot-at-large at Open for Business. Powell was a reporter in New York and elsewhere before moving to Ohio, where he has (mostly) recovered. You can reach him at dep@drippingwithirony.com.

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Happy With Elon

By Dennis E. Powell | Jul 01, 2026 at 5:30 PM

The chief concern about Elon Musk’s various enterprises isn’t that they have made him rich and will make him richer, but that what he puts out is becoming so good that he could one day hold us victims to monopoly pricing and then slack off.

Making Coffee Better

By Dennis E. Powell | Jun 24, 2026 at 11:09 PM

When the numerous officials in the current administration are put on trial (and, one hopes, convicted and subjected to draconian punishments), their pre-trial fears ought to include that the jury that will judge them is made up of coffee drinkers.

Unconditional Surrender!

By Dennis E. Powell | Jun 17, 2026 at 8:01 PM

Our blowhard, none-too-bright president wanted it to be clear, and he said so on his little message board on March 6: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Father Mark

By Dennis E. Powell | Jun 10, 2026 at 10:40 PM

Father Mark spoke matter-of-factly, perhaps with just a touch of resignation. “Oh, I’ll probably die young,” he said. “My father died when he was 43. Cardiac.”

Scrambling the Radar

By Dennis E. Powell | Jun 03, 2026 at 11:33 PM

As has been noted here many times, it is not possible to do anything online (and often elsewhere) without being tracked. Nothing is considered to be unquestionably private anymore. Artificial “intelligence” is making the situation worse. I strongly suspect that those who welcome our new computerized overlords will come to regret it.

Not Court TV, TV Court

By Dennis E. Powell | May 27, 2026 at 4:53 PM

Many people own “smart” televisions, which is to say sets or boxes connected to the internet. Practically none of those people have read their televisions’ privacy policies. If they had, they would be horrified.

Tick Talk Time

By Dennis E. Powell | May 21, 2026 at 12:12 AM

Everything considered, it was inevitable. If there’s any surprise, it’s that it hadn’t happened before now.

Then again, maybe it had.

Big Fish

By Dennis E. Powell | May 13, 2026 at 11:15 PM

My father died 21,550 days ago, and I still don’t really have him figured out.

If you do the arithmetic and remember leap year days, you’ll find that it works out to 59 years.

It's [Not] a Gas

By Dennis E. Powell | May 06, 2026 at 11:18 PM

Sometimes it seems as if the universe is warning us against something. Or, perhaps, it is just measuring our determination. Testing us. In “The Once and Future King,” the fine telling of the Arthurian legend that set to music became “Camelot,” T. H. White offered the parable that sometimes bad things happen to keep worse things from happening.

Watching Japanese Baseball

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 29, 2026 at 11:26 PM

Over the last few years, as frequent readers here know, I’ve taken interest in the lovely, even cute, Japanese culture.

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