Another theme that came up during the Memory and Representation session at the recent Popular Culture Association convention in Atlanta was how using different names for things can shape our memory of events. For instance, labeling people as "heroes" may shift attention away from inquiries as to whether their deaths…
I just (well, two weeks ago) got back from the Popular Culture Association national convention in Atlanta. Anyone who regularly attends academic conferences knows how alternately cutthroat and deadly dull they can be. Well, the PCA was a pleasant exception, with a minimum of backstabbing and a maximum of exchange…
Consider the reasoning process of our top leader, who has the responsibility of steering us through incredibly dangerous times. The following excerpt is from Editor and Publisher: I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true . . . One, I believe…
Point of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry’s radio show and podcast. The Center has made available (iTunes or MP3's) interviews with many of the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers. Topics include religion, human values and the borderlands of science.…
The Missouri legislature is entertaining a bill that would require a signed permission from a student's parent(s) before the student may receive sex education. A few weeks ago, while listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR, I learned that, according to recent polls, Americans exhibit NO MAJORITY CONSENSUS on the…