One of the Republicans being touted as a candidate for the Republican national ticket in 2016 is Florida senator Marco Rubio. Hence I was interested to read that his religious background was not simply Catholic as I had assumed but that he has been quite the religious chameleon. [Read more…]
As expected the Supreme Court has decided to consider, but not necessarily decide, two of the ten cases dealing with same-sex marriage cases that had been submitted to it. These cases will likely receive the greatest interest, most anticipation, and thus the largest amount of unbridled pointless speculation during this term, similar to what accompanied the Affordable Care Act in the last term. Like the last time, the verdict may confound many observers because the court has many options, ranging from the very narrow to the very broad, from technical issues of standing to sweeping verdicts on the nature of marriage. [Read more…]
If one is disabled in any way, the US is among one of the best countries to live, as long as one is not poor. Thank to the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990, it is much easier for disabled people to work and live productive lives here than in many parts of the world. [Read more…]
While Obama’s fans are basking in the glow of his re-election victory, Glenn Greenwald describes his continuing war on political dissidents in the US and his determination to create a climate of fear so that people will hesitate to speak openly, a technique perfected by authoritarian regimes. [Read more…]
My post yesterday on the coming death of free will generated some interesting comments, with some questioning what I meant by the term ‘free will’ and whether the descriptor of ‘free’ added anything to the discussion or merely confused it. So I thought I would clarify my stand and elaborate on what I think is going on. [Read more…]
Every year I recommend that people forget the standard Christmas films and check out instead the 1994 film The Ref. With great performances by Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, and particularly Judy Davis, it is a hilarious story of a burglar on the run from the law who takes a seriously dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas eve and then has to keep them from fighting with each other while trying to make his escape. I discovered that the full film is available in one stream on YouTube in good quality. [Read more…]
Some time ago, I linked to videos taken by cameras mounted on the dashboards of Russian cars that show crashes and the like. It seems like dash-cams are popular in Russia. I don’t know anyone in the US who has one though there are increasing demands for police cars in the US to be equipped with them so that there is a video record of what happens following a stop that can be produced as evidence, especially when allegations of police brutality and tasering are involved. [Read more…]
After being ridiculed for dancing around evasively in response to a question on the age of the Earth, in a new interview, the senator from Florida and prospective candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination decided he had better revise his answer, and tried to hitch himself to Barack Obama’s similar answer. [Read more…]
The idea of human beings having free will is so powerful that it would seem to be impossible to dislodge. Having free will seems to be so essential to the way that we view ourselves that denying its existence seems like denying our very humanity, transforming ourselves into mindless automatons, and thus we are loathe to relinquish it. Isaac Beshevis Singer captured this struggle well when he said, “We must believe in free will. We have no choice.” [Read more…]