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What's a neocon? A non-picture Strauss story.
Several commenters on lyson's fine strauss diarysuggested I post more on Neocons. Sadly, this won't have pictures like Mr. Leaker and Mrs. Wilson, but we're working on it. What is a Neoconservative,...
View ArticlePlato, Socrates, and the state of constant questioning.
One of the main problems with our political scene today is a lack of critical thinking about the issues. Too many people sacrifice their critical thinking for the latest causes and fail to think for...
View ArticleDelay respects the will of the people more than Lieberman.
The shocking fact about Joe Lieberman's sore loser mentality is that Tom DeLay respects the will of the people better than Joe does. Tom DeLay saw the writing on the wall when he got indicted and...
View ArticlePlato vs. Socrates
It can be said - and I am saying it here - that one of the most significant - in the long run - conflicts of our time is that between those who bow down to the God of Certainty and those who embrace...
View ArticleThe Group Meme vs Individual Freedom
There is no group. Not in the material sense. There is only the tendency to see abstractions as realities.Yet the behaviors we must modify are the ones that generate attitudes toward an individual as...
View ArticleBill Moyers does it again!
Is it possible to be so incredibly insightful, well-informed and write so well? Is Bill Moyers an angel? A Muse? A Saint?One thing is for sure: He is a lover of Democracy, a fan of the Declaration of...
View ArticleThe Trial and Death of Socrates
In 399 B.C., the philospher Socrates was put on trial, charged with sacrilege. He was tried, and found guilty. He was sentenced to death.What happened next? more below...
View ArticleA Historic Halloween Poem
It's Halloween and just a poem that I spent much time on a few years back. My hope is to lighten things up here, as I've been feeling pretty gloomy these past few days and even angry at times during...
View ArticleOf Political Correctness and Journalistic Hysteria
Here is one time liberals and radicals can agree, at least partially.
View ArticleImpeachment: The Chickens Come Home to Roost
From Russia comes an interesting view of impeachment and the strange standards which both the Democrats and Republicans seem to think are set for it.
View ArticleOn human nature...a philosophical and political ramble
Sorry if this diary is a little "stream of consciousness," rambling, and long, but that's exactly what it is. I've been mulling over these thoughts for awhile now and thought getting them down "on...
View ArticleDefining what is cruel is, of course, extraordinarily difficult
In a world in which animal rights are gaining ground, barbecue season should make me feel guilty. My hunch is that in a century or two, our descendants will look back on our factory farms with...
View ArticleThe Diverging Consensus - A Response on Globalization and the Current...
So I'm taking a class called "Globalization and Social Change" this semester, in pursuit of my PhD in International Studies, and my prof has assigned us to write a response to the reading every week....
View ArticleThe story of Nicomachides
Once on seeing Nicomachides returning from the elections, he asked, "Who have been chosen generals, Nicomachides?""Isn't it like the Athenians?" replied he; "they haven't chosen me after all the hard...
View ArticleIs Brett Kimberlin Really an Exonerated, Ex-Political Prisoner?
What is the real connection between Brett Kimberlin and The Raw Story? Has he perhaps had a significant role in the creation and rise of that alternative, internet newspaper? Or has he been allowing a...
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{Updated Four Times} Reality Closing in on Speedway Bomber Brett Coleman...
Despite Larisa Alexandrovna's claims that Brett Kimberlin of the Velvet Revolution is an exonerated, ex-political prisoner, the truth was figured out and exposed years earlier by a distinguished...
View ArticleYou Can't Inspect Safety Into Food.
A dominant theme that has developed among the discussion of the recent Salmonella outbreak linked to peanuts and peanut products manufactured by the Peanut Corporation of America is the assertion that...
View ArticleCan Obama Save Capitalism?
Original article, and editorial, via Socialist Appeal (US):The capitalist system may well be suffering the worst crisis in its history. According to George Soros, billionaire investor and frank analyst...
View ArticleDissent and Condemnation
As ever when a fundamental dispute arises, the partisans engage in condemning one another. Both advocate one set of values, usually slight variations on the same set, while engaging in conduct...
View ArticleSocrates, Plato, and Aristotle
I have to hand it to these dudes. Well before Christ, they spoke the truth like no other then and since. They had a handle on civilization and society that if followed by all, would have possibly...
View ArticleI Failed Barack Obama!
And so it came to pass that in the sixth month of his presidency, Barack Hussein Obama was declared a failure. He is being called a traitor, Cheney-like, Bush-lite, baby-killer, socialist, communist...
View ArticleCorruption Civilization.
Whether employment comes from the public sector or the private sector does not matter. What matters is that the jobs have public utility. Corruption ruins public utility. Some ways of doing things in...
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Education in America: Are you appalled yet? You should be.
Healthcare reform, climate change, income inequality, and anti-corporatism are issues that are very important to me, but you might say my long-term passion is educational reform. I've been doing some...
View ArticleRepublicans are tops
Of course, that's only a hypothesis and open to challenge. But, let me try to make the case.A few weeks ago, Representative Alan Grayson, in addressing the Florida Democratic Convention, suggested...
View ArticleBuyer Unaware
I taught in public schools for nearly 30 years, and my Dad before me. I have seen and taken part in the demise of the informed voter. Alright, maybe there weren't any good old days, but no one will...
View ArticleThe Forgotten Mythos of Reason
In my previous piece, "Got Mythos?", inspired by Karen Armstrong's book, The Case for God, I concluded that...Our country has a great principle of separation of Church and State, which acknowledges a...
View ArticleMarch Book Post
What I read last month. Some very gloomy fiction, beautiful sci-fi and fantasy, and ancient philosophy. The selection of most significant political interest today is I.F. Stone analyzing the trial of...
View ArticleSocratism
There are those who believe that people can be divided into clear, simple categories, and those who do not. I am one of the latter, and having begun by doing what I do not believe in, will now do so...
View ArticleCome See The WITCH HUNT - Aug. 31
Wendesday – August 31st, 2011 11:30 A.M. @ The Ohio County Magistrate Court 26-15th St. Courthouse Annex Wheeling, West Virginia ------------------ Read more of it @ my...
View ArticleThe [Insert Ideology] Media Conspiracy
Every person and every media outlet has a point of view (usually several), and every point of view has opponents who consider it bias. Stephen Colbert, for example, likes to point out that facts have a...
View ArticleCurrent Dialectic: Occupy movement
Occupy Critical Inquiry: an inquiry into the Occupy movement using FaceBook that started with the "working hypothesis" that there is "a copy of the problem within a movement that the movement is...
View ArticleIs Stanley Cohen dialectic?
For those who don't know, Cohen self-describes as "public enemy #3" in Israel. I recall him as a "Hester St" radical lawyer of the Emma Goldman faction of the Lower East Side of NYC. As I disclosed...
View ArticleThe USA, "Thucydides 'Trap" and China
In a recent article in the Financial Times Professor Allison of Harvard University, argued that a parallel could be drawn between the actors in the Peloponnesian War and the contemporary friction...
View ArticleWhat's Your Definition of "Reality-Based" Thinking?
Let me start by making two important points. Personally, I'm aware that as individuals we are vulnerable to being wrong on any given issue; that our conclusions, our world view, our understanding of...
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Mostly Forgotten Female History: Aspasia of Miletus
Aspasia of Miletus was the mistress of Pericles of Athens. Socrates said she was mainly responsible for Pericles's Funeral Oration."If we look to the laws, ours now afford equal justice to all in...
View ArticleRush Limbaugh Explains Why He Is A Low-information Person, And Is Too Stupid...
In a perfect example of projection, Limbaugh explains why he is too stupid to know he's stupid! Thank You Rush!August 12, 2014 RUSH: The Dunning-Kruger effect. Why low-information people do not know...
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Lord, I prayed for blue eyes!
my eye color--not blue! I've been swimming in the Kos pond for a while now, getting acquainted with the ecosystem. I haven't found any super turtles yet. But I did bump into my mentor, SOTS. SOTS is...
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Lessons learned from swimming in the Kos pond after only one month
I plunged in the water on May 22, 2015--not long ago certainly. But I have learned some enormous lessons already.The first lesson is that there is a tremendous intellectual endowment in this pond,...
View ArticleAbout the Nick Timaeus
I've got the strange nickname of Timaeus. Where did that come from?In part is was from the fact that in the earliest years of the blogosphere, from about 2002 onward, there were lots of classical...
View ArticleThe Voice of the City of Angels
This seems to be the week when God calls the overachievers back home. First, Nichelle Nichols (Lt Uhura from Star Trek). Then, Bill Russell. Now, long-time LA Dodgers broadcasting legend Vin Scully...
View ArticleBlack Kos: 'most of these politicians don’t even understand how a woman’s...
MVP Harris is leading forcefully in the ongoing battle for reproductive rights — which we are going to WIN!Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-VelezWatching VP Kamala Harris, and her rousing...
View ArticleHas our Ship of State -- not so quietly -- become a Ship of Fools ...
—— I’ve been a fan of the Robert Plant song“Ship of Fools” for as long as I can remember. Not sure why exactly — it was mostly the melody, and the way it makes me feel, I think, when I listen to...
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