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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1395 )

• The BLOAT — Biggest Loser of All Time

  

  Heard a radio report about California’s Shasta County switching from automated to hand counting of election ballots. Ditching their Dominion equipment. The... Read more

  Posted on 08 September 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Of Human Bondage: Harvey Havel’s Wild Whore of Albany

  

  At the last Albany Book Festival, I stopped at a local writers organization table, being manned by poet Mary Panza, a powerful personality. She ordered me to... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “Democrats Will Destroy America”

  

  Democrats will “destroy” America. They want to. This is now a staple of Republican rhetoric.Democrats supposedly want to destroy America because they hate it.... Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Kiss That __________ (Insert Your Own Over-the-top Metaphor)

  

  Okay, now the internet will blow up demanding my banishment from humanity, civilized or otherwise.For readers on Mars, Spanish Soccer Federation President Luis... Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Does Religion Increase Happiness?

  

  My local humanist group hosted a presentation by Ryan Cragun, a sociologist with a flair for statistics, talking about studies purporting to find correlations... Read more

  Posted on 26 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• About Online “Influencers” — Hey, People, Get a Life

  

  “Social media influencer” Kai Cenat, 21, recently caused a big riot in New York City. Ever heard of him? Me neither. But he’s got 6-1/2 million followers on... Read more

  Posted on 23 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• John Bolton Eviscerates Trump

  

  John Bolton’s book, The Room Where it Happened, chronicles his time as Trump’s national security advisor. Not pretty.Bolton had wide-ranging foreign policy... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Life is Good

  

  Flew to Pittsburgh for the American Numismatic Association convention — big annual coin show. Would have preferred to do just one full day, but the flights... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Profiles in Ignorance

  

  An Xmas gift from a family member was Andy Borowitz’s 2022 book, Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber. Easy to see why they... Read more

  Posted on 11 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Kazuo Ishiguru’s Klara and the Sun: What is a Person?

  

  We first meet the narrator of Ishiguru’s 2021 novel, Klara and the Sun, on display in a store window. She’s an “AF” — Artificial Friend. A robot. Read more

  Posted on 08 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump and Trumpism — the Final Word

  

  Trump calls his latest indictment, for January 6, a political hit-job, with a “deranged” prosecutor trying to interfere with the 2024 election. The reality is... Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• El Salvador’s Bukele: Utilitarian/Authoritarian?

  

  In an Ursula LeGuin sci-fi tale, the inhabitants of Omelas all live very nicely. All except one: an innocent child in a cell suffering torture. That’s the... Read more

  Posted on 01 August 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The “No Labels” Party Threatens America

  

  Once upon a time I advocated for a centrist third party, as a way out of our polarized partisan impasse. Even suggested a presidential candidate (Bill Gates).... Read more

  Posted on 28 July 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• What is Life About? The Radicalization of David Brooks

  

  In David Brooks’s 2018 book, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, climbing a mountain is his metaphor for living. You build a career, a family, a... Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• What’s Up With Black Republicans?

  

  Senator Tim Scott, who’s Black, seeks the presidential nomination of what has really become the White Nationalist party. I want to say, Good luck with that. Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Chirp, Chirp, Chirp

  

  Carol Quantock’s recent talk (to my local Humanist group) was for the birds — or, rather, “For the Birder: Identification, Observation, and Protection.” She’s... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Who Are the Real Patriots?

  

  The Albany Times-Union this morning published my letter-to-the-editor (slightly edited). Here is my unfiltered text:Jay Jochnowitz’s 6/25 commentary*, “Let’s... Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• WEIRD People Getting to Denmark

  

  I am WEIRD. You probably are too. WEIRD is an acronym for Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. This is explored in Joseph Henrich’s 2020... Read more

  Posted on 08 July 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• On Bullshit

  

  is actually a serious book, by a serious philosopher, Harry Frankfurt, published in 2005, by Princeton University Press, no less. Or at least it purports to be ... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Why Religion? A Personal Story, by Elaine Pagels

  

  The question of this book’s title grabbed me; as someone congenitally impervious to religion, to understand its appeal and etiology has been a lifelong quest. Read more

  Posted on 29 June 2023 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY