Failings of the Computer/Internet Industry

I sometimes can’t believe how utterly messed up the entire computer/internet industry is.  There is no industry in the world that has such an immense disparity between the amount of profit and the quality of the product. I constantly have something screwing up.  If it’s not my personal computer, then it’s my internet service provider.  [...]

Religion and Science: Middle Ground

I recently wrote (here) about Man vs. God.  Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkinseach wrote an essay, but it seemed to me that Armstrong was closer to understanding the larger context that would allow a middle view.  Dawkins is one of the New Atheists and these extreme atheists can seem as literal in their thinking as some [...]

John Bior Deng: R.I.P.

John Bior Deng (source for image: Gazette Online) Recently in my local town of Iowa City, there was an altercation that led to a death.  The man who died was a Sudanese refugee (see Wikipedia article about Lost Boys of Sudan) which just makes his death all the more tragic.  Even when you move to an entirely new place, [...]

Intelligent Americans?

The first video is commentary about Glenn Beck. Some people think this proves that Beck is a liar, but I think he simply is inconsistant.  It isn’t even that he is necessarily irrational but that his rationality is swayed by his emotions.  As such, it would be smart to not to rely too heavily on his [...]

Ann Coulter: Is she really that ignorant and bigoted?

I just watched about 20 random videos of Ann Coulter on Youtube.  That was the first time I’ve watched her for any extensive period of time. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but she was highly disappointing.  Her comments weren’t intelligent or even funny.  She just constantly repeated the same few ideological statements, and [...]

Glenn Beck’s “White Culture”

These two videos are examples of my confusion about Glenn Beck.  What exactly does he believe?  What is his agenda?

Antidepressants and Placebos

I’ve been diagnosed with depression close to 15 years.  Like anything my mind becomes focused on, I’ve studied to a fair extent the subject of depression and the issues related to it. Depression is a rather odd phenomena.  In some ways, it’s a socially acceptable mental disease.  Severely depressed people often look and act completely [...]

Glenn Beck: Left, Right?

I don’t know how accurate this description is of Glenn Beck.  My father who is a fan of Beck would, of course, vehemently disagree. I haven’t followed Beck’s career closely, but I find the theory being presented is quite interesting.  If his political view changes so easily, it would explain why I’ve had a hard time trying to [...]

Conservatism: is it dead yet?

“conservative intellectuals recognize no distinction between analysis and advocacy, or between the competition of ideas and the naked struggle for power.”  - from The Death of Conservatism, by Sam Tanenhaus     PBS Bill Moyers: Is Conservatism Dead? An interview with Sam Tanenhaus Video and Transcript   My Direct Democracy Conservative Revanchism By Charles Lemos [...]

Journalists and Bloggers

(Wikipedia) Michael Massing is a contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. Michael Massing received his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard and an MS from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He often writes for the New York Review of Books concerning the media and foreign affairs. He has written for The American [...]