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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 ( 1483 )
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Things We’re Not Allowed to Say
Blacks can say the N-word. Whites like me cannot. Not even in my own blog, nor even when talking of its offensiveness (as Christopher Hitchens once learned... Read more
Posted on 07 October 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The End of the Man on the White Horse
The Man on the White Horse is a hoary staple of the political imagination. The hero, with integrity, ideals, and vision, the leader who will put things right. W... Read more
Posted on 02 October 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Muslims Killing Muslims
In the news: Over 700 killed in a human stampede at the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.A presidential candidate was recently asked whether something about... Read more
Posted on 27 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Deep Down Dark: The Chilean Miners’ Rescue
You are in a small hole inside the very bowels of a mountain, with thousands of feet of rock between you and daylight. Then the mountain violently convulses, an... Read more
Posted on 22 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The App Generation
Maybe you’ve noticed a lot of folks fixated on their phones. Recently I saw some college kids at a bus stop, three fiddling with phones, the fourth not. “Hey... Read more
Posted on 17 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Telling It Like It Is: My Presidential Campaign Speech
My fellow Americans:I didn’t want to run for president, but alas now I must. Mr. Trump supposedly “tells it like it is.” Unfortunately he – and other... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Of Quantum Mechanics, Cabbages, Kings, and Carpets
Astronomer Arthur Eddington said the universe is not just stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine. I’ve written about the biggest question:... Read more
Posted on 08 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Michael Gerson on Obama’s Syria Disgrace
I don’t normally “re-blog,” preferring my own words. But Michael Gerson’s latest column about Syria says it better than I could (click here).That photo of the... Read more
Posted on 07 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Wright Stuff
A contraption hangs from the ceiling of the Smithsonian’s atrium, largely of wood, cloth, and wire, appearing somewhat like a mutant kite. Read more
Posted on 03 September 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Beautiful 14th Amendment, Birthright Citizenship, and Racism
In the question period after my recent slavery talk, someone asked, weren’t even Northern whites, after the Civil War, very racist?No! Read more
Posted on 31 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Speech Hillary Won’t Give
My fellow Americans:I am going to level with you about the e-mail controversy.“I did not have inappropriate e-mail with that server…”No, really, this time. Read more
Posted on 26 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Big Apple Nipple Crisis
So it has come to this.What do you get when you mash up a) prudishness, b) a nanny-state mentality, and c) politically correct gender neutrality?Legislation to... Read more
Posted on 24 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Proust and the Mystic Chords of Memory
Marcel Proust was an odd cat. Poor health immured him for much of his life in his bedroom, whose walls he had lined with cork to keep the world out; he succumbe... Read more
Posted on 22 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Next Door to the Dead: Poems, by Kathleen Driskell
(This is a guest posting, written by my wife, Therese L. Broderick, and appearing on her own poetry blog.)Located on the same grounds where my father is... Read more
Posted on 20 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Piketty, Inequality, Envy, and Fairness
The rich-hating left went orgasmic over Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century. I previously discussed the controversy. Now I’ve read the... Read more
Posted on 17 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Human Life, and Death
Laura Valenti decided to starve herself to death. It took two months.Her mind was deteriorating, but her decision wasn’t crazy. She had Huntington’s disease, an... Read more
Posted on 13 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Great (?) Debate – Fox News Trumped
If (as we’re told) Fox News was aiming to derail Trump, they sure weren’t clever like a fox. The “debate” could hardly have been better contrived to boost him. Read more
Posted on 08 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Are Men Necessary? (Is Hillary?)
When I reported buying, at a used book sale, Maureen Dowd’s Are Men Necessary? I said I’d let you know the verdict after reading it. I bought it because Dowd... Read more
Posted on 06 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
House of Sand and Fog
Massoud Behrani, 56, is a California garbage man. He used to be an air force colonel; in Iran; fled with his family when Khomeini took over. Read more
Posted on 02 August 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The $15 Minimum Wage – Money From Heaven
Do you favor a $15 minimum wage? Nobody asks where the money comes from. Heaven, I guess.We’re told that if you give low wage workers more cash they’ll spend it... Read more
Posted on 29 July 2015 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY
