Quote of the Day
“When many remedies are proposed for a disease, that means the disease is incurable.”
-Anton Chekhov
Similar Posts
Revolutionary Thought
Byadmin“It’s not a revolution if nobody loses.” -Clay Shirky (Click here to view comments)
Remember: Suicidal Killers Are Suicidal
ByadminIn the book review section of the New York Times, Andrew Solomon poses a reflection on Adam Lanza, the deranged elementary school shooter in Connecticut: “If we want to stem violence, we need to begin by stemming despair.” How we will stem either of these problems I don’t know. But what a great sentence!
Before Anesthesia
ByadminIn an article from the Atlantic last January, Joshua Lang wrote a wonderful article about the challenge of deciding whether surgical anesthesia actually makes people unconscious, or whether people remember parts of their surgery and are traumatized by them later. In the article, he quotes George Wilson, a Scottish chemist who had his foot amputated…
Jeremy Bentham Rejecting the Idea of Human Equality
ByadminIn many ways, Jeremy Bentham was all about equality. As the father of utilitarianism, he believed that all social policy should be designed to maximize the happiness and pleasures of humans’ experience while minimizing the pains and miseries. And in espousing this theory of justice, he didn’t distinguish between upper class and lower class and…
Insane Soccer Dads and Vitriolic Presidential Campaigns
ByadminHere in the final stretch of the presidential campaign, things are getting even uglier, with the other side lobbing misleading verbal attacks while our side tries to remain above the fray. With this kind of negativity and distortion, it is hard to imagine the winning candidate being able to pull the country back together. But…
Offensive Statements about Progressives from David Brooks of the New York Times
ByadminDavid Brooks is a pretty solidly moderate conservative, and one who is a big fan of behavioral science. But that doesn’t mean he can see beyond his own biases, especially when describing the differences between conservatives and liberals. He was particularly offensive on May 7, in an article titled “Beyond the Fence,” in which he discusses…