The public debate around American society’s response to the novel coronavirus is beginning to reach an incomprehensible crescendo. As the number of cases in the US spikes to record-highs and daily deaths begin to creep back up toward levels not…
Category: Hypothetically Speaking
Letter to My Unconceived Child on the Occasion of Your Shooting Death
Dear Child, In the wake of your untimely and altogether regrettable death by firearm in the United States of America, the question must certainly occur to you, as it does to your mother and I, whether this tragic ending was…
They Showed Us Our Past
When we found them, we were not thinking of our history, even while we were watching theirs. We were thinking of visitation, of proof of life, of how similar or different they were from us. We were thinking of little…
It’s Not Fermi
The other day, I was talking online to someone with whom I disagree about everything about the Fermi Paradox. “Talking online” here, as used, is a euphemism for “commenting on each other’s Facebook posts”. The Fermi Paradox wrestles with the…
Zero Sum Games and Conservativism
I’m working on the budding theory that, if you can afford to quit your job, it may be at least a little immoral to keep it. Unless, I guess, you’re much better at it than someone else would be and…
Children of the Future
They will grow up. And they will log in. The ages will vary and often be the result of a fair amount of debate. For the more liberal parents, it may be five or six, or eight at the latest.…
Elegy for AC
The first month I lived in New Jersey, Fish and I went to see Counting Crows play at the Borgata and then stayed up most all of the night playing poker. I wrote about it here, at the time. The…
Engaging Alex Zhao on the Irrationality of Atheism
Alex Zhao, former debater from the University of Chicago, was the first to take up the mantle of refuting yesterday’s post on what I would (and did) call the irrationality of atheism. So consider this part two of what may…
The Irrationality of Atheism
Atheism is the prevailing theory of the universe among most intellectuals below a certain age in this country. Many people are ardent atheists, while others acknowledge at least a passing uncertainty, but the avowed belief in God is increasingly becoming…
The Limits of Surveillance
The videos taken of apparent/alleged/possible/probable chemical-weapons attacks in Syria got me thinking. No one, at least as of this morning (I haven’t heard updates later in the day) seemed to know what to think of them. Are they trumped up…