There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it a good world and would like to conserve it as it [...]
Or, on hoaxes and skeptics and believers. Report from Iron Mountain, Griffin, Shermer, etc & et al. The hidden message. “I want you to know, that I know about this conspiracy, and I am now in its service.” (Griffin as Clinton). Could it be that a conspiracy theory is that theory which best fits the [...]
Following on my list of top ten fiction books below, something easy for Super Bowl Sunday, lost in the shuffle. Like my fiction list, this is in no analytical order. Some are footnoted research tomes, some are long riffs on a subject, all are good, of course. 1. Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago (Royko) [...]
Too often, as the WSJ’s puffery shows, we take scientists to be super-human, rationalists above all else, never prone to the human frailties of ego, jealousy, etc. I would argue that it’s because scientists have become our “secular priesthood“, as Chomsky observed. Dethroning God was all well and good, if one sought the facts, but [...]
Overseas military operations are exempt because: 1. Climate change is a national security issue. 2. Climate change is scientifically questionable. 3. The U.S. gov’t often exempts itself. The twist of (1) requires no further comment. Stated alone, (2) is true, in that, despite the dominance of the green meme, climate change is still open to [...]
In the elder days of art Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part, For the Gods are everywhere — Hey Snag wots in the bibl’? Wot are the books ov the bible? Name ‘em, don’t bullshit ME. — If we truly had a separation of church and state — in practice, pun [...]