ratiocinations out of thin air and elsewhere
WARNING: This is where all the really political things are found. Know that I am so liberal that I don't mind at all that others are conservative—as long their your opinions are based on facts. While I have mellowed considerably with age, I still suffer fools poorly.
As Artemus Ward reputedly observed: “It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us into trouble, it's the things we do know that just ain't so.”
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WHEN I WAKE IN THE MORNING, the first thing I do is make a mug of Cafe Bustelo coffee. I don’t wake up with my brain/mind functioning at 95 percent as I used to—more like 75 percent. As I sip my coffee, I warm up the ol’ ratiocinator for the day’s writing by perusing Quora and answering a few questions. [Continue reading]
TRUMPOLYTE! Did I just coin a word? It combines the surname of the current President of the United States with the word acolyte. Originally, an acolyte was “one who assists a member of the clergy in a liturgical service by performing minor duties.” [Continue reading]
RESPONDING TO A QUESTION on Quora, I used my answer as the basis for a short article that I titled, “Conservatives Not Exactly Enthralled by Trump Are a Problem.” I was addressing what I assumed was a conservative individual who posted that some conservatives “aren’t exactly enthralled” with Trumps’ presidency. [Continue reading]
THIS ONE IS A DOOZY! The question on Quora was, “Would liberals be surprised to learn that conservatives aren’t exactly enthralled with Donald Trump either?” One must make some assumptions when engaging other Internetally, so I assume that the person who posted this question is politically conservative. [Continue reading]
MY SEVENTEENTH YEAR of this life-cycle opened with the Viet Cong launching the Tet Offensive, in which they put the lie to everything our government, our military, and our media had been telling us about the war “over there.” [Continue reading]
I SKIPPED “MONSTER TALK” with Blake Smith as he prepared for CryptidCon in the latest Skeptic newsletter. The question “What does science have to tell us about monsters” didn’t attract my interest. Nor did common misconceptions about the origins and development of identical and fraternal twins. [Continue reading]
I RARELY PAY ATTENTION to the letters written into the local newspaper. Too many letters are from misinformed individuals who almost always vote Rep*blican and actually believe that Limbaugh and Beck and O’Reilly are sources for actual “news.” [Continue reading]
I HATE BULLIES and I see internet trolls as bullies. So I hate internet trolls. But aside from Facebook, where I can keep them curbed by excluding them from my comment thread, I have little interaction on social media platforms on the internet. [Continue reading]
“SO YOU THINK YOU’RE RIGHT and everybody else is wrong?” I heard those words from my father many times while growing up. Of course, the rationale behind those words is sound: most of the times we hold an opinion that differs with that of 99% of everybody else, then 99% of the time we will probably be wrong. [Continue reading]