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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 ( 1308 )
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Suffer the Little Children: America’s Crime Against Humanity
Remember when “for the children” was a staple of political discourse?The Trump administration is now implementing a policy of taking children away from... Read more
Posted on 28 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Burned Alive in Venezuela
I have strong beliefs. I know many people with different strong beliefs. I don’t lean left, but most who do are good people, sincere in wanting human progress.... Read more
Posted on 25 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Leaker-in-chief Condemns Leakers
The uncanny pattern continues: every insult, accusation or smear Trump flings at others applies more to him than to them.Now he’s fuming against leaks and... Read more
Posted on 21 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Adventures with Technology
Turning on the TV, we’d see a gal from cable company Spectrum talking about the all-digital story. I’d click past her, thinking we were all set with a big moder... Read more
Posted on 19 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Stories We Tell Ourselves
Why do people accept little pieces of paper in exchange for goods and services? The paper has no intrinsic value. U.S. currency used to carry a government... Read more
Posted on 14 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Iraq Revisited — Rising from the Ashes?
Iraq holds parliamentary elections today.Conventional wisdom calls the Iraq War an unmitigated disaster rooted in lies about weapons of mass destruction.I had... Read more
Posted on 12 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Malaysia’s Election Shocker: Good Defeats Evil
In today’s world, with democracy eroding in so many countries, it’s great to see one go the other way. To see some voters, at least, stand up for democratic... Read more
Posted on 10 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The War Between the Scouts
Poor Boy Scouts. First they struggled over whether to allow gays in. Now they’re allowing girls too, and changing their name, from Boy Scouts of America to... Read more
Posted on 09 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Good and Evil — Khizr Khan’s Book
Good and evil. Such black-and-white Manichaeanism is so unfashionable. Isn’t everything shades of grey — the color of sophisticated thinking?Not always.This is... Read more
Posted on 06 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
A Nobel for Trump?
Some credit Trump’s bluster with getting Kim Jong Un to negotiate (hence the Nobel Prize chatter). Or did Kim, instead, see Trump’s behavior as creating an... Read more
Posted on 03 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi — Not the Best Book I Ever Read
The blurbs: “powerful,” “blazing,” “devastating,” “spellbinding,” dazzling,” “epic,” “luminous,” “spectacular,” “hypnotic.” This debut novel by Ghana-born Gyasi... Read more
Posted on 01 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
China: the Dragon Breathes Fire
Diocletian reformed the coinage tooThe Roman Empire had a chaotic patch in the Third Century; most reigns were brief and ended violently. Read more
Posted on 27 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Visiting Sunny Tropical Iceland
Years back we made the mistake of visiting Washington, D.C., over Christmas. It was bitterly cold. I vowed no more icy vacations!My wife’s windblown selfieSo... Read more
Posted on 23 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
“Without God Everything is Permitted”
My wife and I have been reading, aloud to each other, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky’s 1880 novel. A key motif is whether “without God everything is... Read more
Posted on 20 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Pecha Kucha Night – My Love Affair with Numismatics
The Opalka Gallery at the local Sage College has a great event called “Pecha Kucha Night;” they’re held all the world. A bunch of presenters each shows and talk... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Fake News and Government Propagandists
Researching my 1973 book on Albany politics, I pored over early 20th century local newspapers. I was astonished how partisan they were, openly touting... Read more
Posted on 08 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
America’s War on Refugees
Way back in 2015 (a different epoch), when I wrote here comparing America unfavorably with Germany regarding refugees, my daughter (working in the Middle East... Read more
Posted on 05 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Words You Can’t Say on TV — Or Can You?
The late great comedian George Carlin’s most famous routine was “The seven words you can’t say on TV.” That was in 1972.My wife and I are longtime devotees of... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Children’s Crusade
The recent student marches about guns spotlight how America’s civic culture has gone off the rails. It’s not the marches — it’s the reaction to them. Read more
Posted on 30 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Stephen Hawking
had a horrible illness, given only a few years to live.He lived them, and then fifty more. He had ALS (motor neuron disease) which destroys muscle control. Ther... Read more
Posted on 28 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY