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Retributive Justice Again

I rail periodically against retribution as a notion of justice here on the blog. I suppose it is an artifact of my interests in religion, human nature, and criminal justice that keeps this topic always relevant to me and makes me want to dwell on it at painful lengths. I spent the last [...]

So whats going on in your neighborhood?

For once in my life, I am actually speechless.
My beloved hometown makes national headlines yet once again!

Revisiting Ralph

In my younger years, I carried Ralph Waldo Emerson in very high esteem. This was before my conversion to Unitarian Universalism. In fact, a friend of mine, whom I carried in very high esteem, spoke highly of RWE and lent me a copy of some essays to read. I was instantly hooked. I’ve kept [...]

Tribes…

For students of human behavior and its relationship to politics, this is absolutely unsurprising.
The findings indicate that male voters exhibit biological responses to the realignment of a country’s dominance hierarchy as if they participated in an interpersonal dominance contest.

Pretty Good

Via Unc… I post here because I know there are a couple of pickers in the audience. I expect they will agree with me that the kid is decent.


Actually, this is just the one Unc stumbled upon. Turns out the kid has a couple of other tunes in his repertoire. … Billie Jean [...]

“Rape-Rape”

I wasn’t going to say anything about Roman Polanski. I figured no one needed my help to figure out that what he did to his victim was the utmost of deplorable. But apparently some people do need some help. Whoopi Goldberg, who up until today had as much respect from me as any Hollywood [...]

ODS

I honestly don’t remember if I got to watch Reagan’s 1988 address to us kiddies. I certainly don’t remember being kept home from school to avoid being indoctrinated. Nor do I remember school officials posturing over it. But, we may not have had CSPAN, or whatever.
By the time Bush I decided to address [...]

Narratives of Style

I almost set this as an eye-booger link… but I liked it so much, I wanted to share it in a more permanent way. Via Post Politics, go read a non-eulogy that has very little to do with Ted Kennedy.
Lest I confuse, I have no interest in the ethnic angle per se, nor in [...]

Un-American is whatever I say it is

OK… First – this is going to be my last post critical of conservatives for a while. There’s been a lot of crap going on that makes me angry and sad and I’ve had plenty to say about it. But at some point, It’s worth talking about some positive things instead of railing [...]

My Own Grid of Disputation, Modified to Accommodate Medical Cases

Since RW isn’t familiar with Beck, I thought an illustration would be in order… The idea and template ripped shamelessly from Cosmic Variance.  I’ve indicated approximate values for a number of other figures to give a baseline against which to measure GB’s rating.  And, yes… I had to extend the chart a touch to fit him [...]