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MY BLOGS
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The Rational Optimist
http://www.rationaloptimist.wordpress.com/
Commentary of Life, Society, Politics, and Philosophy
LATEST ARTICLES ( 1397 )
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“Crimes That Shock the Conscience of Civilized Men” (and Women)
That’s a phrase I remember from my legal education.Over a year ago we learned of Trump’s cruel policy of separating migrant children from parents. Read more
Posted on 28 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Why Does Evolution Produce Such Diversity?
A science writer friend pointed me to a recent “Edge” essay by Freeman Dyson (https://www.edge.org/conversation/freeman_dyson-biological-and-cultural-evolution)... Read more
Posted on 26 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Holier-than-thou Syndrome and Biden’s Latest “controversy”
Joe Biden said that as a senator he’d been able to work with colleagues he’d disagreed with, even segregationists like Mississippi’s James Eastland. Read more
Posted on 24 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
ALARM! Russia Attacking America
On 9/11 we were attacked. America united fiercely, in outrage and resolve, to confront the enemy and prevent a repeat.In 2016, a different enemy attacked us,... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Fat Girls and Sex
NPR’s “This American Life” had a fascinating story featuring Elna Baker, a young fat gal (she used the F word). She tried to convince herself it wouldn’t truly... Read more
Posted on 18 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Is China Our Enemy?
In 1989, China’s regime followed Mao’s dictum, “power comes from the barrel of a gun,” shooting many hundreds of democracy proponents in Tiananmen Square. Read more
Posted on 15 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Somaliland — “The Country That Was Left for Dead” — “A Country Doing Everything...
Those are quotes (From Edna Adan and Michael Rubin) from a June 8 conference we attended, at Marist College, on Somaliland development. Read more
Posted on 11 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Fantasyland — My Talk Tuesday, June 18
Next Tuesday, June 18, at noon, I will give a talk at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue, focused on Kurt Andersen’s book Fantasyland: How... Read more
Posted on 11 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
“Automating Inequality” — Using Technology to Screw the Poor
Automating Inequality is a book by local researcher Virginia Eubanks; I attended a talk she gave. The focus was upon three initiatives ostensibly aimed at... Read more
Posted on 07 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Hate, Love, Humanism, and (of Course) Trump
I’ve been called a hater, in blog comments. My extensive political analyses written off as simply hate. As though Trump hate is somehow built into me; a... Read more
Posted on 04 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
What Love Becomes
Love triumphs. They marry and live happily ever after. The End.But not always. In Jan Marin Tramontano’s new novel, What Love Becomes, we meet two fortyish... Read more
Posted on 01 June 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Crisis of Followership
Great Britain has a crisis of leadership. One main party now headed by an agit-prop Marxist; the other by a hapless prime minister, who has now quit, leaving th... Read more
Posted on 30 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Reparations for Slavery?
Reparations for slavery is becoming part of the “progressive” full Monty that Democratic presidential candidates must endorse. It’s a terrible idea. Read more
Posted on 27 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Humans Becoming Gods — Or Chips in a Cosmic Computer?
Yuval Noah Harari is a thinker of Big Ideas, with a capital B and a capital I. An Israeli historian, he wrote Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind, about how w... Read more
Posted on 24 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Follow-up — Tony Milillo — The Pathology of the Hard Left
My last post concerned abortion. I also put it on the Capital District Humanist Society’s Facebook page, where one Tony Milillo entered two comments — highly... Read more
Posted on 22 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Cruel Republican Abortion Extremists
I’m not “pro-abortion.” My humanism valorizes the dignity of human life; and advancing it through reason (rather than religious dogma). Read more
Posted on 21 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
What Are We Saying When We Talk?
That was the subject for a fascinating entry by “Johnson” (after Samuel), The Economist’s language columnist.We typically say language is for communicating and... Read more
Posted on 18 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Plan-free Fact-free Anal Sphincter Foreign Policy
Everyone before was stupid. He knows everything. Intelligence briefings, consulting experts, careful planning — loser stuff. The great deal-maker’s own great... Read more
Posted on 16 May 2019 POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Faking Democracy
Kings used to rule everywhere by “divine right.” It was unquestioned. “Democracy” wasn’t even a thing. But in modern times it has acquired such universal moral... Read more
Posted on 13 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Abdi Nor Iftin: American
I was only half listening when the story began on NPR. But soon it was riveting. Abdi, a Somali refugee barely surviving in Kenya, struggling to reach America.... Read more
Posted on 11 May 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY