I want to share with everyone a passage from the opening of the movie The Gods Must be Crazy. This silly 1980s movie provides a very oversimplified, idealized image of African Bushmen, but at the same time gets its label of modern westernized man spot-on. This excerpt from the film's…
Sometimes you need a lunar eclipse to be reminded that we live on an amazing big sphere hurtling through space. It's not a wild fantasy story. And I guess my eyes are pretty good to see something that is a quarter million miles away. Lunar Eclipse - February 21, 2008…
I received this email from a regular reader in response to one of my responses to my Creationism in Florida Schools post:
“The real question that comes to my mind after reading this St. Petersburg Times poll is, should we allow popular demand to decide what is taught in science classes?”
How about for deciding what is taught in science, deciding tax policy, setting social programs, setting foreign policy, etc., etc., etc.? Should we allow popular demand to decide for these as well? I think we currently do, and I think it is with the same disastrous results. The next logical question is how should we pick the deciders? The problem is, we will never move to the next logical question.
What was considered ancient political wisdom at the time of the Caesars was: If the people can vote themselves bread and circuses, they will. Concentration of capital is the primary benefit of a taxation system. It allows big things to be done by a people of whom no individual member can afford. Government social programs (a form of insurance that used to be the province of churches, thus the tradition of tithing) are an example of dilution of capital. As is the Economic Stimulus Package that raced through our government checks and balances without much of either.
The examples of Ancient Greece, the Medici families (practically an empire unto themselves), the California legislature, and the Summerhill project (as described in the book by A.S. Neill) show that, …
It's difficult to overcome the prejudice that having more choices is always better. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz made a convincing case that too much choice can overload and paralyze us. I couldn't help but think of the paradox of choice while grocery shopping yesterday. One of the…
Ralph Nader recently sent a pointed letter to President Bush. The letter concerned a annual national tragedy of 58,000 of needless workplace deaths. Here is an excerpt (from Common Dreams): Dear President Bush: I was listening to your address before the self-described Conservative Political Action Committee gathering in Washington, D.C.…