The Idea Comes From the Bible There is a long history of references in popular culture to the idea of not being “in between”. The idea is to take a stand, to dig in, to let the world know what you think is important. The immediate such reference that comes to mind is from Bruce …
The Often-Harsh Reality As we finish up another season of Thanksgiving in America, I cannot help but feel thankful. I sit stuffed to the gills after a series of stunningly bad food choices, having left neither the couch nor my lounge pants since Wednesday evening. In the dictionary under “cosseted existence”, there should be a …
We Have Been Here Before (in fact we never left) The culture wars are all the rage. It seems that everywhere you look you can see evidence of people tearing each other apart. One side is a bunch of “deplorables”, clinging to their guns and bibles, while the other side is advancing some radical agenda …
Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right, Jackasses Everywhere It should be uncontroversial to state that the world is full of jackasses. We all know when someone is acting as one, and if we are honest, we should recognize that we at times are one ourselves. In our day-to-day lives this is not much …
An Age-Old Fear Lately the news, business and main page, have been filled with stories about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Mostly this has focused on the Microsoft product Chat GPT, which is sort of a souped-up search engine. Chat GPT also has the capacity to learn and to engage with people in a …
The Anti-Terminator Thesis: Machines Save Humanity (Again) Read More »
The Genesis of an Idea A while back I was looking at the Twitter feed of an author I follow. She was posing a question to her followers; what the most beautiful church is you have ever seen. The query elicited many responses, and photos. Every answer was a spectacular church, often of historical note. …
Has to Be Something Better, Has to Be Last week I discussed whether humanity should go out seeking alien life. In the end I concluded that yes we should. This week I want to examine the odds of finding another earth like planet with some kind of similar life. Then I wish to discuss some …
Advertise What to Whom? I watch a fair amount of science fiction. I practically memorized the original Star Trek series in syndication. Then I did memorize Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. I mean every character’s lines. I’m in for about any sci-fi movie or series. One thing that many of these shows have in …
Why Journalism is Important As we continue to witness the detention, and ever closer extradition, of Julian Assange, in addition to the Russians detaining a Wall Street Journal reporter, it is important to get back to first principles and remind ourselves why journalism needs to be protected. It sadly needs to be stated again that …
A Shameless Appropriation The title of this essay is a blatant rip-off of a 1983 book by Fox Butterfield called China: Alive in the Bitter Sea. In this remarkable book the author details the lives of ordinary Chinese living under the brutal oppression of the communist regime. He delves into the all-encompassing totalitarian nature of …