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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1455 )

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

  

  A book group can expose one to hidden treasures and unforeseen pleasures. Here’s a great example.Harold, 65, recently retired, lives with longtime wife Maureen... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• I’m Going to Die

  

  (A version of this appeared on the Albany Times-Union’s “Faith Values” page, June 21)America’s deaths are projected to rise (baby boomers being mortal) from... Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Why Both Left and Right Are Wrong

  

  The Left’s calling itself “progressive,” while in some ways annoying, isn’t entirely wrong. A key element is caring about other people, including those outside... Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Lawn Fetishism Revisited – “I See Nothing”

  

  Behind my property is a small tract stranded between houses, apparently unsuitable for siting another. So, unattended, it grows into a mini-jungle. Behind that... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Superbugs and Evolution: Losing the War on Germs

  

  A recent PBS Frontline documentary spotlighted “Superbugs” – bacteria resistant to antibiotics, a growing menace. Despite some great victories in our war agains... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Iraq’s Tragedy: “Nothing Is Written”

  

  Iraq’s civil war is a metastasizing of a 7th century religious dispute over whether Ali was the first caliph or the fourth.Now, obviously, the “firsters” are... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Mind, Memory, and Movies

  

  The human brain has about 85 billion neurons, most connected to thousands of others, making for trillions of connections – the most complex object known. I’ve... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Journalist Ethics: An Oxymoron?

  

  I heard a talk by Rosemary Armao, a journalism professor at SUNY Albany, investigative editor in Eastern Europe and other foreign locales, and a regular WAMC... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Two Americas: Which is Exceptional?

  

  “The Two Americas” was the refrain of a past presidential candidate, contrasting U.S. affluence with its lack; certainly a familiar theme lately. Read more

  Posted on 09 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• June 6, 1944

  

  On this day 70 years ago the greatest invasion force in the history of the world, led by the United States of America, set out to liberate Europe from barbarism. Read more

  Posted on 06 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Chris Stedman: Faitheist

  

  Chris Stedman’s career is in “interfaith work,” but his book, Faitheist, is addressed mainly to his fellow atheists, urging them to lighten up.It centers upon... Read more

  Posted on 02 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Lessons From the VA Scandal

  

  Suppose you’re Eric Shinseki (Veterans Administration head).Actual VA photoYou learn of huge problems – a vast backlog of unprocessed paperwork (partly because... Read more

  Posted on 30 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Soldiers Without Borders: A Modest Proposal

  

  My daughter, Elizabeth Robinson, is studying International Relations at Tufts and will spend this fall with an NGO (“non-governmental organization”) in Jordan... Read more

  Posted on 27 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Utilitarianism: Is Killing One to Save Five Moral?

  

  You are a bystander seeing a runaway trolley, about to hit and kill five people. You can grab a switch and reroute it to a different track where it will kill... Read more

  Posted on 24 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Piketty Poo

  

  For to everyone who has, will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ideology and Insanity: What is Mental Illness?

  

  I was hooked in by the book’s title, Ideology and Insanity, by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz; ideology can verge on insanity. But Szasz’s focus is instead on the... Read more

  Posted on 16 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• How I Got Irreligion

  

  At around age six, I was sent to a Jewish “Sunday school,” featuring Bible stories: Daniel and the lions, Noah’s ark, etc. I was fine with them, as stories. Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Andrew Cuomo: New York’s Odious Governor

  

  I actually thought Governor Andrew Cuomo started off admirably.For one thing, he seemed sensible toward fracking. But then the antis ramped up their campaign,... Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Worried Optimist: A “Broken Windows” Theory of World Order

  

  David Brooks’s 4/30 column helps crystallize my own thoughts. I’ve argued here, and in my 2009 book, The Case for Rational Optimism, that in the big picture... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition*

  

  In the Spanish Inquisition, if your beliefs did not conform to religious orthodoxy, you would be tortured to change them; and failing that, burned alive. Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY