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Monthly Archives: October 2012
Write Better Than You Do: Four Writing Tips From 2000 Years Ago
Want to write better than you do? Consider trying these four ancient tricks: Focus on the sublime. The Greek writer, Longinus (first century CE), is among the first persons to address what would become a recurrent theme in the history … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged communication, creativity, critical thinking, longinus, reading, thinking, writing, yoga
3 Comments
Is Hurricane Sandy Another “Let Them Go Bankrupt” Moment For Mitt Romney?
It certainly appears so. This is at the New York Times today: Most Americans have never heard of the National Response Coordination Center, but they’re lucky it exists on days of lethal winds and flood tides. The center is the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Colorado, Florida, Iowa, mitt romney, Ohio, paul ryan, Virginia, Wisconsin
1 Comment
What Does It Really Mean To Face Reality and Death?
In her work of creative nonfiction, For the Time Being (1999), Annie Dillard (b. 1945) writes the following: There is now, living in New York City, a church-sanctioned hermit, Theresa Mancuso, who wrote recently, “The thing we desperately need is … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Annie Dillard, death, depression, futility, life, mental health, suicide, The Book of Ecclesiastes
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The Truth about Race and the Republican Party
The following “emperor has no clothes” moment of truth-telling comes from a white Republican, Laurence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief-of-staff: “My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people — not all of them, but most of them — who are … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Colorado, Florida, new hampshire, Ohio, racism, Republican party, rush limbaugh, Virginia, Wisconsin
8 Comments
Egypt and the Hell of Islam
At The New Republic, Graeme Wood, a journalist and editor for The Atlantic, writes about his Salafi acquaintances in Egypt, and describes one of the bloke’s understanding of hell in graphic detail. What Graeme Wood learned from him and some of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged alexandria, coptic, Egypt, hell, Islam, Muslims, salafists
3 Comments
Cloud Atlas Big Woo
The New York Times has a review this morning of Cloud Atlas, and this paragraph jumped out at me: The movie insists — repeatedly and didactically — that a thread of creative, sustaining possibility winds its way through all of human … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
3 Comments
Mourdock-Romney
United they stand.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Colorado, Florida, mitt romney, Ohio, paul ryan, rush limbaugh, Virginia
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The Comforts of Modernity Lead to Atheism
That’s the fascinating thesis of psychologist Nigel Barber, supported: (1) inductively, by research he’s been conducting; and (2) deductively, by a rather straightforward syllogism, which I would put this way: Religion thrives on fear and insecurity. Where people have it … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, demographics, demography, God, Karl Marx, obamacare, religion, social democracy
13 Comments
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi Joins Prayer for Destruction of Jews and Their Allies
Um, those allies would include those of us in the United States. __________ And we give them money. (Or, more accurately, we borrow money from the Chinese and then pass it on to the Egyptians.) Especially galling is when the cleric … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged antisemitism, atheism, Egypt, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Mohammad, Muslims
10 Comments
Don’t Tread on Me (Epistemically)
This falls into the category of Stop the epistemic power-plays! It comes from a recent article in Scientific American written by Shawn Lawrence Otto: The Founding Fathers were science enthusiasts. Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer and scientist, built the primary justification for … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, democracy, determinism, free will, philosophy, science, the Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson
3 Comments
