Periodically, I become a bit disoriented in the swirl of life, which gives rise to the question: “Who am I?” We aren’t static beings, of course. We are complex adaptive systems, communities of relatively simple cellular life that number in the trillions. Many of “our” cells (in fact, the great…
In "Supreme Imbalance: Why Originalism and Conservative Activism Are Wrong," I think Jeffrey Stone has it about right in his Huffpo article on the jurisprudential doctrine that goes under the name of "originalism." With this mindset, the notion that any particular moment's conception of rights should be taken as exhaustive…
I spent some time over at Focus on the Family, a site that teaches God's own version of morality, to see what they had to say about drug use. As it turned out, the advice depended on whether the drug was illegal, as though God defers to the U.S. Congress…
The state of Missouri has never had an official poet laureate. Like many people, I didn't know that, although unlike many of those many people, I should have. One of the hats I wear (besides the one in the cool profile photo above) is the president of the Missouri Center…
Here's another obstacle to objectively evaluating a person. There are many aspects of people. If you are attracted to one aspect strongly, you might (subconsciously) allow that characteristic to serve as a token for that person's other personality characteristics. As this article from PsyBlog indicates, this is called the "Halo…