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
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The Rational Optimist | Frank S. Robinson's Blog On Life, Society, Politics, And Philosophy Blog
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Frank S. Robinson's blog on life, society, politics, and philosophy
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
2023-04-15 12:43
The Biden administration has released a report blaming the 2021 Afghanistan disaster on its predecessor.
Well, sure. Trump, the great deal maker, had negotiated to give the Taliban the… Read More
2023-04-11 15:11
Long called “the world’s largest democracy,” India is becoming a DINO — democracy in name only. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, electe… Read More
2023-04-08 12:56
What makes nations enemies?
The Soviet Union aimed for Communism’s ultimate global triumph. The free world, led by the U.S., strove for containment. That was the Cold War.
But… Read More
2023-04-04 13:01
Loud protestations allege government prosecutorial abuse, and FBI misconduct, improperly targeting a former president, a political hit job; a “witch hunt.” In fact, it’s th… Read More
2023-03-31 15:51
People can be perfectly rational in everyday life, even while holding some goofy ideas. Such occasional lapses are natural and normal. But what if they become comprehensive in extent?
T… Read More
2023-03-26 23:30
Why Trust Science? — a book by Naomi Oreskes — was reviewed at the Albany Library by Sherrie Lyons, herself a science author.
Ours is the age of science. Yet the book&rsquo……Read More
2023-03-22 22:33
Adrienne Buller is a thirtyish British think-tanker. Her 2022 book, The Value of a Whale, is subtitled On the Illusions of Green Capitalism. Referring to tackling climate change through m… Read More
2023-03-18 14:07
The Judges of the International Criminal Court in the Hague have issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. For a crime against humanity (only one of his many), abducting thousands of U… Read More
2023-03-14 18:53
We’re often told religion provides “comfort.” It’s understandably comforting to imagine death isn’t death. Though a more authentically meaningful life can be… Read More
2023-03-11 14:39
As a writer, I love language, the challenge of putting ideas into words. To find just the right words to convey something.
Hyperbole is extreme language. The last seven years have prese… Read More
2023-03-08 20:54
I heard a radio report about Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Cal.) declaring her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Asked why she’s running, virtually the first word in reply was “LGBTQ.&rdqu……Read More
2023-03-04 14:46
Elon Musk said he was taking over Twitter in the name of free speech. Twitter was faulted for trying to keep a lid on harmful craziness. Notably, its banning Trump (as did Facebook) in th… Read More
2023-02-28 14:04
Firstly regarding the train derailment, it’s a sickening cheap shot for Republicans to fault President Biden for being in Europe, not Ohio. The derailment affects one community; the wa… Read More
2023-02-27 21:21
I will talk about my new book —The American Crisis: Chronicling and Confronting the Trump Shitstorm — on Tuesday, March 7, at noon, at the Albany Public Library, 161… Read More
2023-02-24 17:01
I’ve written about “lookism”* — discrimination against the less attractive. Graduating law school in 1970, I wasn’t ugly, but short, which didn’t help… Read More
2023-02-19 18:47
Sam Harris was one of the famous “four horsemen” of “new atheist” writers (along with Dawkins, Dennett, and Hitchens). He’s actually not materialist enough f… Read More
2023-02-15 14:09
Long war or short war? That seems to be the question. Putin apparently had fantasized a very short war, Ukraine a pushover — believing it’s not really even a country, its peop… Read More
2023-02-11 19:40
I heard a talk by Dr. Caleb Lack, a clinical psychologist and author. His topic: Why You Can’t Trust Your Brain.
Well, whose brain can you trust? Actually, the brain is an extreme… Read More
2023-02-04 19:52
Christopher Hitchens died of cancer in 2011 at 62 — a stupendous loss. He was best known as one of “new atheism’s” “four horsemen” for his book God is… Read More
2023-01-31 20:26
“Look, life is nasty, brutish, and short, but you knew that when you became a caveman.”
“Nasty, brutish, and short” was Thomas Hobbes’s descriptor for life in… Read More
2023-01-27 13:49
I wanted to scream, hearing a recent radio panel discussion about voting rights legislation. The talk was all about “politicians” not caring enough to pass it.
I’m so fe… Read More
2023-01-23 14:07
People on America’s right are in thorough reality denial. Headlined of course by the 2020 “stolen election” lie. False beliefs about Covid and vaccines cost many lives, per… Read More
2023-01-19 14:17
When Covid began three years ago in Wuhan, China’s regime acted ruthlessly to contain it, with draconian lockdown, testing, and quarantining rules. This did succeed — in China &m&hell…Read More
2023-01-16 14:30
Promoting my “Trump Shitstorm” book has been an interesting experience. When I show it to someone, the cover usually provokes a strong reaction. And most responses are positiv… Read More
2023-01-13 13:55
Governor Hochul has nominated Brooklyn Judge Hector LaSalle for New York’s Chief Justice, headlining this as the first Latino in that post.
Such ethnicization is cringeworthy. It… Read More
2023-01-09 21:13
President Biden has now made a show of visiting the southern border. The one promise he made to me personally in 2020 was to end Trump’s cruel war on refugees and immigrants. &ldquo……Read More
2023-01-08 22:38
Hi,
You’re invited to a talk and open discussion on my new book, THE AMERICAN CRISIS: Chronicling and Confronting the TRUMP SHITSTORM — 3 PM, next SATURDAY, Jan… Read More
2023-01-06 14:51
I kept warning that voters giving Congressional power to these Republicans would be insane.
Kevin McCarthy is a reprehensible character, totally self-serving and dishonest. But that&rsq&hell…Read More
2023-01-03 13:57
“Go Back to Africa!” the marchers chanted, shaking their torches. “Go Back to Africa!” their signs declared.
One small detail they overlooked. Black Americans&r……Read More
2022-12-30 13:59
I’ve been rebutted by an Artificial Intelligence bot.
My nephew, Ben Broderick Phillips, works for Microsoft, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) within his wheelhouse. For Christma… Read More
2022-12-26 13:45
His tax returns have finally been made public, after a years-long legal battle. What was he hiding? The New York Times already reported in 2020 that he’d been paying almost no incom… Read More
2022-12-22 14:21
Germany had long been divided, by a physical wall. It was opened, on November 9, 1989, and I’ll never forget seeing East Germans literally whooping with joy to finally pass through… Read More
2022-12-18 16:10
The way to stop racial discrimination, Chief Justice Roberts has said, “is to stop discriminating by race.”
The Supreme Court will yet again revisit affirmative action this… Read More
2022-12-14 01:40
No word triggers more nonsense thinking than “capitalism.” For centuries, when Christianity reigned, the ubiquitous bogeyman was Satan. As that superstition wanes, now it’s… Read More
2022-12-11 00:48
“The Road Not Taken” is a film (created on an iPhone) by Ko Pauk, of Myanmar (Burma), illustrating the country’s situation. My wife and I were invited to a screening at… Read More
2022-12-07 21:09
My wife was intrigued by a statistician’s writing that if you go back 3400 years, we’re all related. Not actually surprising if you think about it. After all, you’ve got tw… Read More
2022-12-01 14:12
At a humanist meeting there was some pamphlet including a list of worthy thinkers. My friend Peter Delivorias remarked upon the omission of Epicurus. A strange omission indeed; Peter’s… Read More
2022-11-27 14:24
The American Crisis: Chronicling and Confronting the Trump Shitstorm, by Frank S. Robinson; Verity Press International; 247 pages; $12.95 (+ $4 shipping in USA). Payment by credit card; P… Read More
2022-11-25 13:58
Who could resist that book title found at a yard sale? More, the authors were Penn & Teller — renowned magicians and outspoken advocates for reason against superstition.
We&r……Read More
2022-11-19 23:54
I’ve written about the Western world’s witch burning craze during the 15th-18th centuries.* Recently I’ve read more on the subject in a book by Martin Harris, Cows, Pigs, W… Read More
2022-11-16 17:01
What a shocker. And with a meandering stream-of-consciousness speech predictably full of lies and howlers.
After January 6, it almost looked like Republicans might break from Trump. Did… Read More
2022-11-13 16:21
Like the proverbial frog in the pot whose temperature slowly rises.
Yes (sigh) this is about climate change. But please read it anyway, it may provide some clarity.
There’s an… Read More
2022-11-10 16:56
Well, the worst was averted. Hailed as a victory by Democrats and President Biden, now suddenly politically rejuvenated. Sanity prevailed — in a lot of places at least — but e… Read More
2022-11-08 13:25
When America’s descent into idiocracy is chronicled, there will be a chapter on political advertising.
We keep seeing laments about campaigns growing costlier. Most of that spendi… Read More
2022-11-06 13:25
An old Arab parable: In Baghdad’s marketplace, a man’s servant finds himself eyed ominously by a figure he recognizes as Death. To escape his fate, he’ll ride immediatel… Read More
2022-11-04 13:18
Decrying Iran’s tyranny, and rooting for the women protesters, is facile. But two points:
One, Iran is seemingly a special case among the world’s dictatorships — a the… Read More
2022-11-02 12:50
The 2006 film Idiocracy’s premise was dimbulbs procreating like rabbits, producing a dumb population. Imagine the kind of people they elect. Our average IQ is not in fact falling; yet… Read More
2022-10-31 12:35
Okay, one swallow does not a summer make, nor one nutjob’s violence a holocaust. But it’s one more signpost on our downward road.
David DePape was a Trumpian conspiracy driv… Read More
2022-10-29 13:18
I lied, to a pollster. Asked the iconic “right track/wrong track” question, I said America is on the right track. Because my truthful answer would redound against the Biden ad… Read More
2022-10-26 13:06
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has warned that Ukraine will use a “dirty bomb.” That’s a conventional explosive that spews radioactive contamination. And… Read More
2022-10-23 13:24
Xi Jinping has started a third term as China’s ruler.
Not “elected.” While democracy has achieved such moral cachet that even the worst dictators (like Putin) pretend… Read More
2022-10-19 15:01
“Trump derangement syndrome” is invoked by his fans gleeful at his driving opponents nuts. Of course, those opponents are entirely rational; it’s Trumpers themselves who ar… Read More
2022-10-16 23:25
Calling London an international city is inadequate. It’s like a city with no nationality at all; no native tongue, everyone speaking their own.
“Does anyone speak English in t… Read More
2022-10-14 15:02
Bad parent memoirs are a big literary genre. Recently I read a very different kind of book, about guided psychedelic experiences. Many who undergo them have problems to work through. Most co… Read More
2022-10-06 13:08
What does it really mean to be morally good? Michael Schur actually created a TV show exploring this question — a comedy in fact! His personal quest for answers also produced this book… Read More
2022-10-03 13:21
Crime is rising! People always think this. But in fact crime rates hit a peak in the early ’90s (though nowhere near earlier epochs), and then fell inexorably and dramatically. But… Read More
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