The “Hero’s Welcome” editorial cartoon by Canadian artist Pia Guerra.
Continue ReadingNo More Crocodile Tears
There is only one way to stop gun violence. Take away the guns. Anything else is pure bullshit. I won’t even bother to quote all the studies that show this is right. Nor will I enumerate the outrageous statistics on the prevalence of guns in the United States. It’s a simple matter of systems dynamics, but a very complicated matter of politics. For those not acquainted with systems dynamics, it’s a method for describing the behavior of complex systems, especially ones with human actors. The most common pattern (or archetype) is fixes-that-fail. The name tells all we need… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Importance of Truth
What do I mean by truth? The answer is not as simple as you might think. My definition is an understanding of the world as it really is out there. A corollary to this comes in the criterion for establishing that we have discovered the truth: things have turned out the way we thought they would. Having said that, this kind of truth is very hard to establish, which fact means there is always some possibility that our actions will not turn out the way they should. When we are sloppy in efforts to unearth the truth (it is always… Read More
Continue ReadingWhere to Begin?
It has been such a long time since I posted my last real entry that I hardly know where to restart. I have two main streams of attention going on right now: getting my book done and the mess the US is in. They are closely tied together. For those who have followed my blog previously, you might have seen a bunch of entries about Iain McGilchrist and his divided brain theory. Rather than recapitulate his work, my understanding of it is available in a series of posts starting in June 2017 listed under the archives menu. His basic finding… Read More
Continue ReadingSurprise
Welcome to my newly redesigned blog. After relying on my son-in-law, Tim Swan, to keep me out of trouble since my blog started just about 10 years ago, I have set out on my own. But not without his help in getting me through the transition. This move has involved a switch in the platform I use to run the website and a major overhaul of the appearance of the blog. The older posts, prior to July 28, 2017 are still available on the site archive, although the format may be a bit messy due to losses in translation. The… Read More
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