Why don’t conservative Christians protest the use of legal mind-altering drugs?

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…

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A Poet Laureate For Missouri

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…

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The “halo effect”: yet another cognitive Achilles’ Heel

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…

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Rumsfeld’s propaganda – his “snowflakes”

We all knew it, but the details are now pouring in. It's all so very reprehensible . . . This is an excerpt from today's Washington Post: In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and…

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Your chance to oppose FCC effort to invite further media concentration

Free Press has posted this article, including a take-action link: In 2003, the Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, under Chairman Michael Powell, tried to push through a drastic media ownership deregulation package that would have transformed the American media ownership landscape. The proposal triggered one of the largest and broadest…

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