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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1470 )

• Assholes — A Theory

  

  “Well, he’s got the asshole vote,” I remarked to my wife early in 2016. “But are there enough assholes?”Now I’ve read Aaron James’s book, Assholes — A Theory.... Read more

  Posted on 28 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “Evil Geniuses – The Unmaking of America – A Recent History”

  

  Kurt Andersen’s 2020 book is about “political economy.” He argues that ours went from being basically fair to unfair, the turning point around 1980. Read more

  Posted on 25 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Soccer Life Lessons

  

  I am the least sports-minded person on Earth, but here’s a thing I can confidently say most soccer champs do wrong.You’re about to take a penalty kick. The... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Liz Cheney at the Alamo

  

  Liz Cheney’s politics are orthodox conservative. She believes in the Constitution, democracy, rule of law, and truth. But unlike almost every other Republican... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trumpers’ Heroic Persecution Fantasy

  

  Trump cultists’ rabid reaction to the FBI search warrant is revealing. They don’t just see him under threat; they see themselves under threat. Read more

  Posted on 16 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Last Rose of Shanghai

  

  Shanghai, 1940. The Japanese have ravaged through much of China; they’re in Shanghai, but don’t (yet) control its international settlement. Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Mar-a-Lago Search — Republican Hypocrisy Incandescent

  

  Trumpworld is foaming at the mouth in paroxysms of outrage over the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search, screeching that it’s an improper “weaponizing” of government agains... Read more

  Posted on 11 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• David McCullough 1933-2022

  

  David McCullough was a great American. Just weeks ago I read his little 2017 book, The American Spirit – Who We Are and What We Stand For. I did so because I... Read more

  Posted on 09 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Ignorance Epidemic

  

  Keenya Oliver Bemis, who teaches high school biology in Schenectady, gave a talk to my local humanist group based on Natalie Wexler’s book, The Knowledge Gap –... Read more

  Posted on 06 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Open Marriage?

  

  I remember the Pecks’ first time at a local humanist gathering. Very ordinary looking dull folks, I thought. I remember that because deeper acquaintance has... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Consciousness Revisited

  

  At the used book sale, I explained, “I’m buying this because I debated this author on this subject.”It was David Gelernter, Yale professor and computer science... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• My Full English Breakfast Dinner, and Hot Doggerel

  

  Watching some TV show with my wife, we heard the words “full English breakfast.” And, just being goofy, I piped up, “I’d like a full English breakfast.”“What ar... Read more

  Posted on 28 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Cry, The Beloved Country: South Africa

  

  The story was too good to be true. South Africa’s white-minority “apartheid” regime, oppressing the Black majority, was long decried. Then F.W. de Klerk, a... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Sleep and Body Rhythms

  

  Sleep’s important role in health and longevity has grown increasingly apparent. Sleep well nightly and you put off the Big Sleep.I was a sickly kid. But now,... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Understanding Mass Shootings

  

  Yes — another droplet spit into the vast ocean of verbiage on this topic.We think shooters are nut cases. Obviously they’re not normal. But “mental illness” is... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Bong Bong Problem

  

  Ferdinand Marcos, elected president of the Philippines in 1965, became a vicious kleptocratic dictator ruling by violence and torture. Overthrown in 1986. Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Daniel Sloss’s 100% Rule for Relationships — The Perfect as the Enemy of the Good

  

  Daniel Sloss wished his girlfriend would just die.Saving him the stress of a break-up. His 2018 Netflix stand up comedy show is very funny. Also very serious. Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Steven Pinker on Rationality

  

  (This was my July 5 Albany Library book talk; slightly condensed)Steven Pinker is a Harvard Professor of Psychology; a 600-pound intellectual gorilla of our... Read more

  Posted on 08 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Introducing a Revolutionary Device to Save Civilization from Lies

  

  Lies are as old as language. We once thought the internet would make us smarter, by providing access to a world of information. But it has weaponized... Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Trouble with This Country is . . .

  

  Non-voting.I used to think bemoaning low voter turnouts was misguided. Because non-voters are the less engaged, less informed, not likely to enhance the... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY