There’s a world of difference between skepticism and cynicism. Skeptics doubt and question in an attempt to get at the truth. Cynics doubt because they think that, by definition, every player has bad (or at least selfish) motives. What happens … Continue reading →
The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (which I supported, by the way, as the best alternative among all the lousy “choices among crazinesses” available to the Israelis at the time) has had some disheartening results. First we had the inevitable but … Continue reading →
Here’s a movie dealing with the subject of the departure of the Jews from Arab and Moslem lands in which they had lived for centuries–and, in some cases, millennia. If you scroll down, you will read an interesting piece by … Continue reading →
Just recently I received an e-mail from a thoughtful reader who asked: For most of my friends, being progressive is part of their identity. Changing their minds requires reevaluating who they are…Why do you think identity is so tied up … Continue reading →
I’m not particularly conversant with Japanese politics, but this seems like an important story. Japanese voters answered the call of Prime Minister Koizumi with a strong vote to return him to power on a platform of reforming and streamlining the … Continue reading →
[On this fourth anniversary of 9/11, I am offering the following post. It represents part A of a projected two-part segment about 9/11. Parts A and B together will be the sixth entry in my ongoing series about intrapersonal political … Continue reading →
There are so many excellent blogs and bloggers that I can’t even begin to keep up with all the ones I want to read, and still continue to do any writing myself. But every now and then I find a … Continue reading →
A while back, in the course of doing some research on World War II and the Holocaust, I came across a statistic that absolutely stunned me: the percentage of Jews in the population of Germany immediately prior to World War … Continue reading →
When I was in grade school, our entire class of thirty-odd marched more or less in lockstep from grades one through six. The community in which I was raised wasn’t very transient; people stayed put, and so we got to … Continue reading →
In my recent “sheep to sheepdog” post, the following question was posed here in the comments section: Richard, I hope NNC really thinks about your question: what do the sheepdogs think about the sheep? Because they prolly have some superior … Continue reading →
I don’t know which is more amazing: the fact that this is happening, or the fact that the article about it appeared in the LA Times. I noticed the story via this link from Big Pharaoh, my favorite Egyptian blogger … Continue reading →
Although it certainly comes as no surprise, it seems that the technique of the Big Lie is not dead. Here’s still another–and very convincing–debunking of the al-Dura blood libel, the story of the death of a young boy that was … Continue reading →