On Accepting Refugees: Pros And Cons

(NOTE:  This article has been revised again; the pros and cons listed have been kept up to date, even though the intro is vintage campaign.)

Major media outlets are full of reactions to recent announcements that the President will be asking to increase the ceiling on Syrian refugee acceptance for next year.  Unsurprisingly, the stories are largely focused on the reaction to the announcement; contention drives the media profit mill, and so it would be unusual to see any other form of response from them.

Since it’s the height of the upcoming Presidential election cycle, it’s also not surprising that every hopeful candidate has (more…)

Jihad! Why boots on the ground is a bad move

There is global outrage at the recent terror attacks on civilians, and rightly so.  The group calling itself the Islamic State (I’ll be referring to them as Daesh, following the example of France’s President Hollande) has claimed responsibility for not only the attacks in Paris, but also bombings in Beiruit and a passenger jet in Egypt, Metrojet Flight 9268.  In all, several (more…)

Bread And Circuses: Why We Need Them

We all know the quote “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” It’s a paraphrase from a work by Karl Marx. Most of us have no idea of the context or his intended meaning.

“…Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion (more…)

Healthcare: In Order To Fix A Problem…

The first step toward a solution is to know what the problem is.

Healthcare in this country has been the subject of widespread and highly politicized debate in recent years.  Most of us agree that there’s something wrong, but we tend to disagree on what, exactly, that might be.  It’s little wonder that the solutions that we try are subject to controversy — and that controversy includes widespread civil disobedience, of a type and breadth not seen since the civil rights era of the 1960s and 70s.

The trouble is, we don’t know what precisely is wrong.  We haven’t diagnosed it.  So… (more…)

Excerpt from “War Crimes”

(Sometimes, we need to take a break and appreciate the wonderful things we’ve been given over the years.  Today, I’d like to remind you of the glorious yet fictional legacy of that greatest of presidents, Josiah Bartlet, master of oratory and unparalleled leader of the Free World.  The following was excerpted from The West Wing, episode:  “War Crimes”.  Enjoy.)

CHARLIE:  How was church?

BARTLET:  [mumbles] It sucked.

ABBEY:  It was fine. [to Bartlet] Stop it!

BARTLET:  It sucked!

ABBEY:  [sighs] You’re talking about church.

BARTLET:  Oh, like I’m not already going to hell. (more…)

Must God exist for you to know what is right?

“Morality is a biological adaptation no less than are hands and feet and teeth. Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. I appreciate that when somebody says “love thy neighbor as thyself,” they think they are referring above and beyond themselves. Nevertheless, such reference (more…)

On Computer Bugs

Little-known (and apocryphal) trivia: The first recorded computer “bug” was a processing error caused by a dead moth that had been caught inside a relay, blocking the switch.

This story is both true and false.  The insect existed, and in point of fact has been preserved as part of the collection at the National Museum of American History, but the term “bug” was in common use for many years before the moth was found in 1946.  Here are some other bugs that have been found and preserved as a part of my own collection:

(more…)

It’s Not The One Percent, Dammit!

There is more than one valid and effective solution to our problems. Unfortunately, the political parties in our strongly divided system are far more concerned with blaming one another than in getting anything done. This is hardly a purely American phenomenon, of course; that’s just a handy example.

The evident solution is NOT to discard parties and then recreate the process from the ground up. Instead, it’s to get (more…)

Amazon Is Evil: Why Do I Still Link To Them?

For background, please read the post that inspired me out on Steven Brust’s blog, plus the original article he linked in his post. If you already think Amazon is evil, you might want to skip these; alternately, if you read them both, you’ll be able to feel more justified in your indignation. If, on the other (third?) hand, you feel that all corporations everywhere are evil… (more…)