If I invite you to dinner and for dessert, serve you raw eggs on a bed of flour and sugar, do you you say “Oh, what a delicious cake!” or “What kind of joke is this?” It has all the …
Life Begins at Conception and Roe v. Wade was Correct Read more »
We humans are a wildly successful species. Why is that? As life developed, it first responded to the world with reflexes, then emotions, then by thinking, but it was the human invention of language that turned thinking into a superpower. …
Why Language is a Superpower and Why That Has Created a Problem Read more »
Chauncey Devega prophecies loudly and often about the risk of authoritarianism in the US: https://www.salon.com/2021/12/10/democracy-doom-loop/ https://www.salon.com/2021/11/15/american-democracy-is-on-the-treadmill-of-doom-how-do-we-get-off/ Today, Aaron Blake, senior political reporter at the Washington Post, writes that “lawmakers are disregarding private principle in their votes and often doing so …
.It all happened because of an orange. Currency controls were a factor, too. I could also blame xenophobia, because without it, the very border might not have existed. That border separated Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in 1972, Maggie and I …
In my London childhood, a horse-drawn wagon delivered milk each day in glass bottles with the cream risen to the top in a visible layer. Sparrows had learned to peck through the foil caps and gorge on the prize. My …
.The right-wing populist movements here and in the UK are driven by anger. They justify disruption of the present system because it is seen as not working for people. They do not respect law and tradition when they stand in …
How the Populist Movements Compare to the Hippies Read more »
Why do we believe what we believe, and how is it possible that we differ so much? Our beliefs comes from our senses, culture, in-group, experts, feelings and thinking. Of these, only thinking and expertise can make a defensible case. (This is a major rewrite of the original 5/19/19 post.)
I offer this Reddit discussion about the FOX News article Honduran man charged with raping, killing jogger in New Jersey had been deported twice as an example of how hard it is to discuss politics. I am posting as PhilAndMaude. Person-A: A-fucking-nother …
Years ago, I thought I was going to die. The streets were dark and slick with rain. I was getting a ride back from a weekend encounter group where all our emotions had been laid bare, and the driver and …
Call it the law of unintended consequences. The internet is a disruptive technology comparable to the Gutenberg press. Initially it was seen as a global encyclopedia, making all human knowledge available to everyone. Then social media arose, and I saw …