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

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Errol Morris’s Interview Mini-Film, “Eleven Excellent Reasons Not to Vote?”

Errol Morris surveys attractive and trendy-looking 20-somethings about their voting attitudes.

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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

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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

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Romney vs. Obama Among Latinos: A 52-Point Gap

How does Mitt Romney find a route to the presidency if he is losing Latino voters with a 52-point gap? Here’s news on the most recent Latino Decisions tracking poll: 87% of Latino voters say they are almost certain they … Continue reading

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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

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Back to the Closet and Coat Hanger: Clay Bennett’s Unsettling Image of a Mitt Romney Presidency Combined with Republican Control of Congress

__________ Clay Bennett on Facebook Clay Bennet’s website

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Bad News for Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney is campaigning today in Florida. In Florida. And he’s in the county of Escambia in the Panhandle–the most conservative part of the state. What’s he doing there if his internal polling shows him in a strong position in … Continue reading

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President Obama Needs to Win Just Two of Six Coin Tosses on Election Day

I just thought of something cool. President Obama is highly likely to win the election because he basically just has to win the equivalent of two out of six coin tosses. The odds against that not happening are pretty low. What are … Continue reading

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Robert Shrum on Mitt Romney’s Unraveling

Here’s part of Robert Shrum’s take on the presidential election going into the final week: Romney can run, but he can’t hide—from the Bain ads that are on the air again in the Midwest, from the relentless Obama focus on … Continue reading

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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

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Rape Pregnancy is a Gift from God?

Mitt Romney and Richard Mourdock: BFF.

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Peak Romney?

If you place Mitt Romney’s likelihood of victory on a bell curve, he appears to be on the right side of it; that is, he appears to be on the “going down” side of the trajectory. Concerning yesterday’s polls, here’s … Continue reading

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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

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Sour Power: Mourdock-Romney

The revolt against the hippies.

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Mourdock-Romney

United they stand.

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God Wants Some Rapes to Result in Pregnancy?

Richard Mourdock thinks God is a monster that intends–intends–some rapes to result in pregnancy. Mitt Romney thinks Richard Mourdock would make a dandy addition to the U.S. Senate.

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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

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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

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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

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