George Carlin once joked that mankind has done little more than demolish, harvest, strip-mine and otherwise blast nature into the past, where men of science hope it will stay, out of sight and out of mind, a phantom of a world that no longer exist except in very specific fenced in areas for tourist to gawk before […]
Category Archives: Opinion
Exponential Growth and the Inevitable Collapse of Medicare Explained
I’m continually surprised that many people do not understand what I mean when I say that Medicare spending at the federal level is growing at an exponential rate. I recently discussed this issue through Twitter with Jeffery Sachs, a Harvard Ph.D. and long time advisor to the United Nations, and even he didn’t see that […]
Never Mind the Torture Report (Or Rectal Re-hydration for the Masses!)
Today the Senate Intelligence Committee is set to release a report on the CIA’s use of torture in the years after 9-11, but the contents of the report are practically irrelevant since the decision not to punish those responsible makes it an exercise in historical archiving at best, nothing more. After his inauguration in 2009, President […]
Posted in Opinion
Tagged Civil Liberties, Imperial Presidency, Justice System, Social Criticism, Terrorism, Torture, War
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What is the Meaning of Life?
How is that for an ambitious question? So what is the meaning of life? Well, if you ask most people from a complex, industrial society, you will get a lot of unsure answers. Occasionally, you will get an answer rooted in religion such as, “The purpose of life is to serve God,” but what that […]
Super-Tech Makes Democracy Impossible
Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Director of Google Ideas Jared Cohen recently wrote in their book The New Digital Age that “What Lockheed Martin was to the 20th century, technology and cybersecurity companies will be to the 21st.” Indeed, the transition is already taking place. Google now spends more money lobbying congress than the military industrial giant they seek […]
We’re Not in Kansas Anymore, This is Dark-America
In 20th century science fiction, there is one particular story format that is often employed and is usually a fan favorite — the alternate or parallel universe, where the characters are the same but the roles are switched. In the alternate universe, the good guys are bad and the bad guys are worse. This idea […]
A Return to Capitalism is Impossible, Even if it Were Desirable
Definitions are important. Without correctly defining what the problems are, we can’t offer a workable solution. This is so obvious and yet despite enormous effort, there is no consensus on what kind of economic system we have right now. Do we have a capitalist system, the bane of the left for as long as there […]
Selling the American Dream is the Biggest Market of All
In America, people believe that a house is who you are, while a car is who you want other people to think you are. If you have no house and you have no car, by extension you are nothing, and you want to be nothing. Many have modeled their lives around this belief, taking on […]
Seven Reasons Bernanke’s Failure to Taper Portends Doom
Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that the government would not slow its bond purchasing (money printing) because the economy had not yet improved sufficiently. The magnitude of this decision is still being absorbed, but may have negative effects on the entire world in the coming years. How exactly? This might be a bit […]
How Do You Deal With a Dying Culture?
Superheroes are the modern versions of classical mythology. They offer answers to philosophical questions about morality, what it means to be human, our responsibilities to each other, and more. Most importantly, they reveal our culture’s inner values. Put simply, they are a legitimate part of our cultural heritage, but in recent years superhero movies and other […]