2024-04-07 13:33
America has been blessed with some leaders of great nobility and vision. Washington and Lincoln stand out. Lincoln almost godlike in his depth of character and wisdom. It’s especial… Read More
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The Rational Optimist | Frank S. Robinson's Blog On Life, Society, Politics, And Philosophy Blog
rationaloptimist.wordpress.com
Frank S. Robinson's blog on life, society, politics, and philosophy
2024-04-03 13:23
In my coin dealing business, customers like to sell me stuff. Couple years ago a guy drove up with a rented U-Haul fully packed with coins he said he’d been collecting since 1949… Read More
2024-03-30 13:13
Nowadays people get their news not from Cronkhite-like broadcasts or newspapers but more commonly from the internet, mainly social media, like Facebook. Programmed to feed them stuff that… Read More
2024-03-26 15:14
Trump operatives aggressively screamed conflict-of-interest because Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, on his 2020 election crimes case, had an affair with a team-mate. How that could have prej… Read More
2024-03-22 17:48
The core shtick of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is writing, and it’s widely taking that over from humans. This was part of the story with the recent Hollywood writers strike. Amazon… Read More
2024-03-17 23:05
It’s not just in America, but burgeoning all over Europe. And it’s not your father’s “conservatism,” but transmogrified into something unrecognizably darker… Read More
2024-03-14 23:42
I was gifted with a 2022 book, Talent, by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross. Cowen is known as a Big Thinker. I hoped it might be a Malcolm Gladwell type book (in fact, his blurb is on the cover)… Read More
2024-03-11 17:57
In the “good old days” (they weren’t) economic progress was nonexistent. Most people lived in extreme poverty, generation after generation. You could only get ahead at s… Read More
2024-03-08 23:27
During rehearsals for a school performance, Catskill High schoolers were talking. Stop it or I’ll tape your mouths, Choral Director Michelle Storrs-Ryan said, brandishing some scotc… Read More
2024-03-05 01:28
“Well, he was president before and it wasn’t the end of the world.” Thus do many Americans complacently shrug at the prospect of Trump’s election.
Huge mistake… Read More
2024-03-01 14:16
I attended a 2+ hour presentation by an Israeli and Palestinian, discussing their peoples’ situation. The words “Hamas,” “October 7,” and “Gaza” nev… Read More
2024-02-26 14:56
On Election Night 2008, when Obama was declared the winner, TV showed a middle-aged Chicago Black woman jumping up and down, shouting “God bless America! God bless America!” I ha… Read More
2024-02-23 13:55
“Humanity is at a painful point in history. We’re between paradigms, between stories. In the Western world, the old story is largely played out — the tale of the monotheist… Read More
2024-02-20 02:52
My championing democracy isn’t just sappy sentimentality. Nor merely the principle of government accountable to citizens. Democracy makes for a better society with happier people. Fran… Read More
2024-02-17 13:21
Alexei Navalny, Putin’s top critic, was imprisoned under bogus charges and harsh arctic conditions cruelly calculated to destroy his health. Yet Navalny, 47, remained chipper, even… Read More
2024-02-15 17:01
Number Go Up — Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall — is a 2023 book by the aptly named Zeke Faux, an investigative journalist. The cover image is a coin with S… Read More
2024-02-12 14:58
Let’s talk seriously about this.
Old age used to be synonymous with decrepitude. Modern medicine has changed that. Eighty is the new sixty.
President Biden, at 81, does show hi… Read More
2024-02-09 14:09
“The past is a foreign country — they do things differently there,” wrote novelist L.P. Hartley.
My wife has been building a library of books by local poets. Someone g… Read More
2024-02-05 20:01
Democracy is at stake in this election, we’re told. But the word “democracy” does not even cover it.
It’s more than just elections and voting, it’s the kin… Read More
2024-02-02 23:52
“When the facts change, I change my mind,” said John Maynard Keynes. “What do you do, sir?”
That is the hallmark of critical thinking. Facts shaping one’s… Read More
2024-01-31 14:06
Coin collecting might seem a very solitary pastime; the coins themselves mere objects. Yet for me its rewards have been not just interior, intellectual (and financial), but also very human i… Read More
2024-01-29 00:45
Russia is winning its vicious war upon Ukraine — with no little help from its Republican bedfellows.
Ukraine’s 2023 offensive fizzled for lack of firepower. While President… Read More
2024-01-26 16:31
Inflation sours Americans about the economy — and President Biden. A January 14 Associated Press article by reporter Josh Boak examined this in depth. But failed to even mention a c… Read More
2024-01-22 14:22
Couples was a 1968 John Updike novel. I loved his writing, but it took me ages to finish Couples. It was about sex, and I was in my early twenties, sexually clueless. But rather than bein… Read More
2024-01-17 21:25
Here (slightly edited) is the text of my January 2 Albany Library talk, reviewing Mark Levin’s book, The Democrat Party Hates America.
Back in September, I wrote a blog post titled… Read More
2024-01-13 19:45
My humanist society recently hosted a talk by Abhijit Chanda, founder of “Rationable,” a YouTube channel. (The name does not refer to things subject to rationing, but rather r… Read More
2024-01-09 13:58
The stakes in Ukraine could not be higher. Threatening our plunge into a much darker rule-of-the-jungle world where might makes right. Empowering and emboldening an evil dictator murderou… Read More
2024-01-05 14:45
Charles Murray’s book Human Accomplishment is a historical examination of all the developments and advancements, in the arts and sciences, that have propelled civilization. He writes o… Read More
2024-01-01 14:00
Nikki Haley is a good person. Pity she got mixed up with that Republican party. And, like so many, couldn’t summon the moral clarity to get out. So now she’s trying to run for… Read More
2023-12-28 14:50
That heading is not some clever shtick. It’s the literal truth. I am writing a blog post with nothing to say.
I just love writing, playing with words and ideas, it’s an itch… Read More
2023-12-24 15:07
I’m very moralistic. Not a claim of personal morality; rather, another applicable word is judgmental.
Some decades ago, non-judgmentalism was the thing. We weren’t supposed… Read More
2023-12-23 22:14
On Tuesday, January 2, I will critique Mark Levin’s book, The Democrat Party Hates America. In the context of our whole political landscape, I promise a rock-‘em sock… Read More
2023-12-19 14:33
“We should do this,” I told my wife, watching a Netflix documentary about psilocybin and other psychotropic substances, their growing therapeutic use, and mind-expanding capab… Read More
2023-12-15 00:15
Free trade is bad — for some people — but good for most. Protectionism is good for some, bad for most. But those profiting from it know it, and reward politicians catering to… Read More
2023-12-11 13:42
Here’s a letter to the editor I sent the local paper yesterday:
First, criticizing Israel is not necessarily anti-semitism. I’m of Jewish ancestry, my mother was a refugee fro… Read More
2023-12-08 15:15
I’m not one to take anything for granted. That includes existence itself.
It’s been observed that if some physics parameters, like the precise strength of gravity, were even… Read More
2023-12-04 01:33
A movement’s afoot to block Trump’s candidacy. Based on a 14th Amendment provision barring from federal office anyone who “engaged in insurrection” against the Uni… Read More
2023-11-30 22:31
Trolling Netflix, my wife and I stumbled upon David Lynch’s 1984 film, “Dune.” I’d read the Frank Herbert sci-fi novel in the ’70s; hadn’t remembered t… Read More
2023-11-27 03:39
In all my years of blogging, I’ve barely touched upon my life’s central thing: my marriage with Therese Broderick. (I’ve eschewed boastfulness, humility being one of my gre… Read More
2023-11-24 17:17
Predictably, the Middle East horrors bring out, too widely, not humanistic responses, but their antitheses. Ideological pathologies.
The hard left (to borrow a Middle East trope) never… Read More
2023-11-20 14:10
Our democracy is in deep trouble. A big part of that is people unable to tell truth from lies (indeed, reality versus downright crazy) and which news sources to trust. A big part of that… Read More
2023-11-16 00:43
A recent major poll showed Trump leading Biden in five of six key swing states. Many people won’t vote for Biden because he’s old. But will vote instead for a depraved comic-b… Read More
2023-11-11 01:44
Sarah Vowell is a living contradiction to the notion that history is dull. She writes history books almost as comedy routines. Yet still they’re full of real history.
Her book, L… Read More
2023-11-06 13:09
This is a “philosophy contest” advertised by the “World Roundtable Association of Amateur and Professional Philosophers.”*
It solicits a list of humanity’s t… Read More
2023-11-02 12:27
What does the Artificial Intelligence (AI) explosion mean for our future? That’s the Great Topic of the day.
Back in 2013, my seminal Humanist magazine article, The Human Future:… Read More
2023-10-29 12:50
Gaza is a godforsaken place. (Why do most residents still worship that god?) Two million people crammed into an overcrowded ghetto. A prison camp. Long a wretched hell-hole, now even basi… Read More
2023-10-26 14:52
The Republican crazies got their way in the end after all.
It had seemed the party was completely MAGA-gaga, with little left of its sane wing. But then during the House speakership rucku… Read More
2023-10-23 12:54
Peter Frankopan’s 2015 book, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World reveals much not known before — by the many who, as the song said (almost proudly) “don’t k… Read More
2023-10-20 13:34
Saratoga Springs is a nearby town originally famed for its waters; then horse racing. Is something now in the water turning town officials into horses’ asses?
Kim
They’re alw… Read More
2023-10-18 12:52
One panel at the New York State Writers Institute’s Albany Book Festival pitted an atheist against an Evangelical Christian. There was blood all over the place. No, actually, it was no… Read More
2023-10-14 22:23
In an old Laurel and Hardy film, the pair drive up to a man’s house, and get into an argument with him. Angered, he breaks something on their car. So Hardy marches over to the house… Read More
2023-10-12 12:28
Upstate New York school sports teams have commonly borne names connected with Native Americans (or “Indigenous Peoples,” or “Indians”). Who of course used to totally… Read More
2023-10-09 14:54
(This (slightly edited) appeared as a commentary in today’s Albany Times-Union)
By most measures, for most Americans, our economy is doing quite nicely — growing strongly, w… Read More
2023-10-06 19:52
Kevin McCarthy was unprincipled, dishonest, contemptible. It’s a rich irony that he lost the House Speakership because for once he actually did the right thing, working with Democrats… Read More
2023-10-03 15:45
Went to the New York State Writers Institute’s shebang with Richard Russo on his new novel. Proud of finding my way directly through the labyrinthine State University campus, to the… Read More
2023-09-30 14:28
New York has made Lunar New Year a state school holiday. In case you’re from Mars — or, in fact, from most of America or Planet Earth — it’s something celebrated i… Read More
2023-09-26 14:24
Matthew Desmond previously wrote about our housing crisis in Evicted. His 2023 book, Poverty By America, is a broader examination of socio-economic dysfunction. Life for the poor is harde… Read More
2023-09-23 20:33
Most days I run to the post office for my mail; about a mile; ten minutes. Music helps. Not long ago I happened to run a similar distance but found it puzzlingly hard going. Then I realiz… Read More
2023-09-20 22:55
My humanist group hosted J. Anderson Thomson, a psychiatrist, speaking about his book, Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith.
Everyone knows religion reflec… Read More
2023-09-17 21:08
Ken Paxton is the Republican Texas Attorney General. Flaunting his blizzard of litigation against the Biden administration. He’d also spearheaded the legally absurd lawsuit after the 2… Read More
2023-09-14 13:08
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has announced a presidential impeachment process, as the “next logical step,” based on “serious and credible allegations” of Biden’… Read More
2023-09-11 14:45
Child porn cases are often in the news. It creeps me out that anyone could get their jollies from that. But human sexuality is very varied. Even if only 1% of men (it’s virtually all m… Read More
2023-09-08 19:00
Heard a radio report about California’s Shasta County switching from automated to hand counting of election ballots. Ditching their Dominion equipment. The estimated cost is $1.6 mi… Read More
2023-09-04 22:53
At the last Albany Book Festival, I stopped at a local writers organization table, being manned by poet Mary Panza, a powerful personality. She ordered me to take a free book. I picked Ha… Read More
2023-09-01 23:49
Democrats will “destroy” America. They want to. This is now a staple of Republican rhetoric.
Democrats supposedly want to destroy America because they hate it. But don&rsquo&hell…Read More
2023-08-29 00:49
Okay, now the internet will blow up demanding my banishment from humanity, civilized or otherwise.
For readers on Mars, Spanish Soccer Federation President Luis Rubiales kissed player J… Read More
2023-08-25 23:18
My local humanist group hosted a presentation by Ryan Cragun, a sociologist with a flair for statistics, talking about studies purporting to find correlations between religion and happine… Read More
2023-08-23 00:13
“Social media influencer” Kai Cenat, 21, recently caused a big riot in New York City. Ever heard of him? Me neither. But he’s got 6-1/2 million followers on Twitch. Ever… Read More
2023-08-18 23:50
John Bolton’s book, The Room Where it Happened, chronicles his time as Trump’s national security advisor. Not pretty.
Bolton had wide-ranging foreign policy experience, and… Read More
2023-08-14 23:45
Flew to Pittsburgh for the American Numismatic Association convention — big annual coin show. Would have preferred to do just one full day, but the flights didn’t work, so I s… Read More
2023-08-11 13:10
An Xmas gift from a family member was Andy Borowitz’s 2022 book, Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber. Easy to see why they thought I’d l… Read More
2023-08-08 00:44
We first meet the narrator of Ishiguru’s 2021 novel, Klara and the Sun, on display in a store window. She’s an “AF” — Artificial Friend. A robot.
The arti… Read More
2023-08-04 12:51
Trump calls his latest indictment, for January 6, a political hit-job, with a “deranged” prosecutor trying to interfere with the 2024 election. The reality is Trump himself tr… Read More
2023-08-01 12:21
In an Ursula LeGuin sci-fi tale, the inhabitants of Omelas all live very nicely. All except one: an innocent child in a cell suffering torture. That’s the price for all the others&rsqu&hell…Read More
2023-07-28 00:00
Once upon a time I advocated for a centrist third party, as a way out of our polarized partisan impasse. Even suggested a presidential candidate (Bill Gates). That was in a different Univers… Read More
2023-07-23 13:03
In David Brooks’s 2018 book, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, climbing a mountain is his metaphor for living. You build a career, a family, a place in the Sun. Howev… Read More
2023-07-20 18:01
Senator Tim Scott, who’s Black, seeks the presidential nomination of what has really become the White Nationalist party. I want to say, Good luck with that.
Yet more than a token… Read More
2023-07-17 18:50
Carol Quantock’s recent talk (to my local Humanist group) was for the birds — or, rather, “For the Birder: Identification, Observation, and Protection.” She’… Read More
2023-07-13 12:16
The Albany Times-Union this morning published my letter-to-the-editor (slightly edited). Here is my unfiltered text:
Jay Jochnowitz’s 6/25 commentary*, “Let’s reclaim… Read More
2023-07-08 22:34
I am WEIRD. You probably are too. WEIRD is an acronym for Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. This is explored in Joseph Henrich’s 2020 book, The Weirdest Peopl… Read More
2023-07-03 12:12
On Bullshit is actually a serious book, by a serious philosopher, Harry Frankfurt, published in 2005, by Princeton University Press, no less. Or at least it purports to be a serious book… Read More
2023-06-29 12:46
The question of this book’s title grabbed me; as someone congenitally impervious to religion, to understand its appeal and etiology has been a lifelong quest.
Pagels is a Princet… Read More
2023-06-24 12:28
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced, with ferocious verbiage, a big crackdown on illegal cannabis sellers. Upon which the legislature has tightened restrictions. Penalties will be e… Read More
2023-06-21 12:45
I used to be guilty of looking askance at fat people, sharing the common idea that they just overeat. While that may sometimes be true, I’ve increasingly learned how obesity is more… Read More
2023-06-19 12:11
WordPress sends me a notificationOf every new blog subscription.The latest one was kind of odd:My newest follower is God.
That really made my day.Although you might sayHe actually reads… Read More
2023-06-14 13:01
The 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death prompted an essay in The Economist pondering how his lousy treatment of women should affect our response to his art.
Which no longer has u… Read More
2023-06-09 13:03
ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program, was launched in November 2022. My techie nephew, as a Christmas gift, asked ChatGPT to summarize one of my blog essays, then to rebut it… Read More
2023-06-05 21:10
A recent article in The Economist addressed global warming’s effect on India and Pakistan. With discussion of “wet-bulb” temperatures, a more complex measurement of heat… Read More
2023-06-02 02:28
A French court decreed that a teenaged boy was entitled to compensation for having been born. Medics had failed to detect conditions resulting in severe birth defects, leaving the child d… Read More
2023-05-27 00:12
When “Florida Man” appears in a news headline, cue some real crazy shit going down.
A Florida Man, Governor Ron DeSantis, has declared his presidential candidacy.
Call m… Read More
2023-05-23 23:18
Steve Glew was a Michigan machinist. A job he hated. Hated. But he loved his wife, a ’60s “flower child.” And his hobby, collecting old cereal boxes, which he found real… Read More
2023-05-19 00:52
The Coddling of the American Mind is a great 2018 book by Jonathan Haidt, an NYU social and cultural psychologist, and attorney Greg Lukianoff, head of the Foundation for Individual Right… Read More
2023-05-14 12:48
I vividly remember when Obama’s 2008 election victory was declared, and TV showed a middle aged Black Chicago woman jumping up and down shouting, “God bless America! God bless… Read More
2023-05-11 12:45
This is the biggest foreign affairs crisis of my post-WWII lifetime. Shattering a world order which had seemingly eliminated the age-old curse of major power wars.
Some “peace adv… Read More
2023-05-08 17:00
The 1970s through ’90s saw a great democratic floodtide. Since greatly receded. Many wonder whether its authoritarian antithesis is really the wave of the future.
I’ve writt… Read More
2023-05-05 00:16
Never a man of the left, I’ve always envied how they have all the good tropes when it comes to the arts. Poetry, songs, paintings. It’s so easy to create such stuff: anti-war, an… Read More
2023-04-30 13:50
This is an enduring conundrum. “Math,” of the 1+1=2 sort, is straightforward and obviously reflects how reality works. However, “mathematics” builds upon that to s… Read More
2023-04-26 13:06
We’ve been there, done that: Republicans try to hold hostage the Congressional vote to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, with maybe too a government shut-down, to extract some concession… Read More
2023-04-22 16:47
Richard Rothstein’s 2017 book, The Color of Law, concerns U.S. residential segregation. He says we have a myth that it’s de facto segregation, meaning mainly a result of peopl… Read More
2023-04-19 13:10
First there was Pac-man.
Anyone remember Pac-man? A computer game where you guided a little nothing to swallow other little nothings. Big whoop. Then came Oregon Trail, where you faced… Read More
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