The Korean Trampling Disaster Reveals Something Important. But What?
I don’t suppose I need to spend any time here describing what happened in South Korea over the weekend, when a crowd gathered for some sort of a Halloween festivity ended up trampling more than a...
View ArticleThe Israeli Electoral System Needlessly Wastes Votes. Rank-choice Voting is...
Tomorrow Israel goes to the polls. The outcome will apparently depend on whether some party or parties fails to reach the threshold of 3.25 percent. Such failure in the present election threatens to...
View ArticleInspired by a Brilliant Daily Kos Piece that Describes a Judge's Brilliant...
I’ve just been reading a piece on Daily Kos that inspired me with the brilliance it describes, and the brilliant job it does of painting the landscape on an important topic: i.e. how America deals with...
View ArticleThe Right of Secession (A Critique Addressed to the Pro-Confederates Among...
When one drives along the roads of my area, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, one will often see Confederate flags atop flagpoles near people’s homes. The Spirit of the Confederacy — which is the Spirit...
View ArticleLooking into Our Post-Midterm Future
This piece will be running as an op/ed in newspapers in my very red congressional district (the 2012 version of VA-06, which includes Lynchburg.)************************The midterm elections seem to...
View ArticleThe Secular Worldview has Gaps that Need to be Bridged
This piece is appearing as a newspaper op/ed in the very red congressional district in which I was the democratic nominee for Congress in 2012. I am appreciated by the liberals, though I sometimes...
View ArticleThe Extraordinary Saga of Trump and the American Body Politic
[This piece has appeared as an op/ed in newspapers in the very red congressional district (VA-06) where I live.]**************************Trump stands out as a figure in American history — more unique...
View ArticleTrump Team Delusion
I can only go by what is reported in this Rawstory article, which is about how Jack Smith is showing that he will be proceeding aggressively with respect to Trump and his crimes:According to one Trump...
View ArticleWhat Makes People Vulnerable to Lies? (In Newspapers in My Very Trumpy Region)
This piece will be appearing in newspapers in my very red congressional district (VA-06).****************************What Makes People Vulnerable to Lies?I’ve discovered in recent years that the truth...
View ArticleSpeaking as an Old Man
Sometimes in my writing these days, I say things that indicate my age. It might be something like, “In the America in which I grew up, in the 1950s and 60s…” Sometimes I will actually give a number:...
View ArticleWhy Is Human Sexuality Beset by Complications?
Anyone attentive to our society in our times, or familiar with various historical cultures, should know that human sexuality – in addition to all the good it brings into people’s lives – has been beset...
View ArticleHow Biden Can Make the Age Issue Work for Him in 2024
This strategy is predicated on the assumption that these three propositions are true:Biden will be the Democratic nominee.Biden’s opponent will be Donald Trump. AndBiden’s health is better than Trump’s...
View ArticleThe Fox News/Dominion Suit and the Issue of “Standing”
[This piece will be running as an op-ed in newspapers in my very red congressional district in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and Lynchburg.]*******************************The legal idea of “standing”...
View ArticleGood Propaganda and Evil Propaganda (The Difference Between Mrs. Miniver and...
[This piece will be running in newspapers in my very red congressional district (VA-06).]**********************The word “propaganda” is generally used in a pejorative sense—something bad. But...
View ArticleThe Coming Moral Test for the Republican Base
[This piece is appearing this week in newspapers in my very red congressional district (VA-06).]******************************The Republican base is facing a major moral challenge. It recently faced a...
View ArticleMy Exchange with a Republican on My Piece on the "Moral Test" Facing the...
I published here recently a piece titled, “The Coming Moral Test for the Republican Base.” That piece garnered more interest than most of my Daily Kos offerings. And this weekend it has been published...
View ArticleHow Movies Shaped How I See the World
[In my weekly op/ed pieces that appear in newspapers in my very red congressional district in Virginia, I have repeatedly challenged the Republicans hereabouts about their supporting the atrocious...
View ArticleWhy We Liberals/Democrats at Last Have the Wind at Our Backs
Let me say straight out, although I’m optimistic, I’m also always worried. And, in matters like this, with a nation embroiled into a conflict over the most fundamental issues of what kind of society we...
View ArticleTalking about Beauty to Challenge My Conservative Neighbors About the...
This piece is most deeply about what I’m calling “A Better Human Story,” i.e. a way of understanding ourselves, our history, and our challenges by making better use of the Evolutionary Perspective. (A...
View ArticleFox Giving Money to Dominion Would Not Be Nearly Enough
I write this without knowing if I know all that’s available to know about the settlement reached in the hugely important suit between Fox and Dominion. Not knowing what the terms are, I will just...
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