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
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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
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
2022-09-29 13:28
The wanton, callous destruction, death, and suffering sear the soul.
Having denied that Russia’s Ukraine aggression is a “war,” Putin now denies that it’s going… Read More
2022-09-26 12:56
He now says he declassified the documents in his mind, just by thinking it, no sort of “process” being necessary. Also that the FBI, in its judicially authorized search, plant… Read More
2022-09-24 12:29
Last winter, New York State’s government bought 52 million Covid test kits for $637 million, or $12.25 each. Right after, California (with a bigger population) bought 10 million of… Read More
2022-09-21 12:33
So Governor Abbott grabs human beings — mothers and children, who have already suffered horrific ordeals fleeing nightmares in places like Venezuela — and puts them on a grueling… Read More
2022-09-19 12:34
For my recent 75th birthday — in a addition to a cake, a new cushion for my outdoor recliner, a mermaid sculpture, a piece of furniture, and a mess of chocolate — my wife Ther… Read More
2022-09-16 13:42
Inflation is a bad thing. The whole point of money is as a receptacle of value; fluctuating value defeats the purpose. The $10 you put in the bank a year ago has now lost you a dollar. Thing… Read More
2022-09-13 13:02
PBS’s recent Frontline documentary, Lies, Politics and Democracy, I thought would just be old hat. Instead it was a compelling and revealing eye-opener.
For six years my hair&rsqu&hell…Read More
2022-09-10 13:41
I’ve written about William Faulkner (1897-1962) as my favorite novelist. A Mississippian, his books were all set there, between Civil War times and the early 20th century. The chara… Read More
2022-09-06 14:58
When single, I jumped on a personal ad saying “interested in ideas.” But on our date, the gal seemed no intellectual. I asked what she’d meant by “interested in id… Read More
2022-09-04 02:45
Mikhail Gorbachev was the most consequential personage of the 20th century’s latter half. And in a good way.
Now that is really saying something. The 21st century’s biggest… Read More
2022-08-31 23:14
Senator Lindsay Graham, the on-again-off-again toady, foresees “riots in the streets” if Trump is prosecuted for stealing classified documents. Graham reflects a Republican pa… Read More
2022-08-28 13:14
“Well, he’s got the asshole vote,” I remarked to my wife early in 2016. “But are there enough assholes?”
Now I’ve read Aaron James’s book, Assh… Read More
2022-08-25 00:26
Kurt Andersen’s 2020 book is about “political economy.” He argues that ours went from being basically fair to unfair, the turning point around 1980. Achieved by his titl… Read More
2022-08-22 12:27
I am the least sports-minded person on Earth, but here’s a thing I can confidently say most soccer champs do wrong.
You’re about to take a penalty kick. The goalie is positi… Read More
2022-08-19 13:07
Liz Cheney’s politics are orthodox conservative. She believes in the Constitution, democracy, rule of law, and truth. But unlike almost every other Republican today, she really beli… Read More
2022-08-16 12:46
Trump cultists’ rabid reaction to the FBI search warrant is revealing. They don’t just see him under threat; they see themselves under threat. Columnist Paul Waldman quotes a… Read More
2022-08-13 23:29
Shanghai, 1940. The Japanese have ravaged through much of China; they’re in Shanghai, but don’t (yet) control its international settlement. Wherein a top nightclub is owned and o… Read More
2022-08-11 12:12
Trumpworld is foaming at the mouth in paroxysms of outrage over the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search, screeching that it’s an improper “weaponizing” of government against a… Read More
2022-08-09 17:50
David McCullough was a great American. Just weeks ago I read his little 2017 book, The American Spirit – Who We Are and What We Stand For. I did so because I felt in need of a boost… Read More
2022-08-06 12:54
Keenya Oliver Bemis, who teaches high school biology in Schenectady, gave a talk to my local humanist group based on Natalie Wexler’s book, The Knowledge Gap – The Hidden Caus… Read More
2022-08-03 12:21
I remember the Pecks’ first time at a local humanist gathering. Very ordinary looking dull folks, I thought. I remember that because deeper acquaintance has revealed remarkableness… Read More
2022-07-29 23:37
At the used book sale, I explained, “I’m buying this because I debated this author on this subject.”
It was David Gelernter, Yale professor and computer science guru.*… Read More
2022-07-27 23:13
Watching some TV show with my wife, we heard the words “full English breakfast.” And, just being goofy, I piped up, “I’d like a full English breakfast.”… Read More
2022-07-24 00:04
The story was too good to be true. South Africa’s white-minority “apartheid” regime, oppressing the Black majority, was long decried. Then F.W. de Klerk, a reasonable ma… Read More
2022-07-21 00:34
Sleep’s important role in health and longevity has grown increasingly apparent. Sleep well nightly and you put off the Big Sleep.
I was a sickly kid. But now, at 74, my health is gr… Read More
2022-07-17 23:18
Yes — another droplet spit into the vast ocean of verbiage on this topic.
We think shooters are nut cases. Obviously they’re not normal. But “mental illness” is to… Read More
2022-07-15 13:21
Ferdinand Marcos, elected president of the Philippines in 1965, became a vicious kleptocratic dictator ruling by violence and torture. Overthrown in 1986.
Now his son, Ferdinand Juni… Read More
2022-07-12 12:52
Daniel Sloss wished his girlfriend would just die.
Saving him the stress of a break-up. His 2018 Netflix stand up comedy show is very funny. Also very serious.
His basic theme: most… Read More
2022-07-08 13:31
(This was my July 5 Albany Library book talk; slightly condensed)
Steven Pinker is a Harvard Professor of Psychology; a 600-pound intellectual gorilla of our times; author of a strin… Read More
2022-07-04 22:30
Lies are as old as language. We once thought the internet would make us smarter, by providing access to a world of information. But it has weaponized disinformation. We’re having an… Read More
2022-07-01 23:27
Non-voting.
I used to think bemoaning low voter turnouts was misguided. Because non-voters are the less engaged, less informed, not likely to enhance the electorate’s collective wis… Read More
2022-06-29 13:28
Scrolling through Netflix, we stumbled on Servant of the People. A 2015 Ukrainian TV comedy series (with English subtitles).*
Vasya is a young high school history teacher, whose privat… Read More
2022-06-29 12:16
On Tuesday, July 5, at noon, I will present a review of Steven Pinker’s new book, Rationality, at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue. This is a live, in-person event!… Read More
2022-06-26 12:43
Just when the public is demanding, as never before, action to curb our gun violence epidemic, the Supreme Court does the opposite. Disallowing reasonable gun regulation for the sake of pu… Read More
2022-06-22 13:03
Now Mike Pence is called a hero — for shrinking back from the greatest crime in U.S. history. He’s credited with saving the country, which in a sense is actually true. Had Tru… Read More
2022-06-20 12:21
A proposed FDA ban on menthol cigarettes is being hailed as a victory for health and civil rights advocates both. Because methols are particularly favored by Black American smokers (85% use… Read More
2022-06-17 12:56
As a PSC staff lawyer, I got frustrated when an administrative law judge couldn’t make up his mind on a ruling. “It should be me up there!” I told myself. So I applied f… Read More
2022-06-14 22:38
Trump concocted his big “stolen election” lie because his sick psyche couldn’t face losing — and to help him overthrow democracy and retain office by coup.
Any s… Read More
2022-06-12 12:50
Denounce “capitalism” or the market economy all you want – but what’s your alternative? This system was not foisted on us. Rather, it’s the natural paradigm… Read More
2022-06-08 13:46
Hitler, Stalin, Mao. The Big Three. Greatest monsters of the 20th Century. Or GOAT? Well, Genghis Khan; Tamerlane; Ivan the Terrible; and others. But such figures lacked the scope to kill… Read More
2022-06-04 23:16
I’ve always considered myself basically libertarian. Recently I read Libertarianism: A Primer, by David Boaz. Published in 1997 — it might seem an artifact from a distant past… Read More
2022-05-31 12:09
Frank Spath was my one and only client in my legal career.
When I came to Albany in 1970 as a young lawyer, working for a state agency, I lived in a room (not apartment!) with no cookin… Read More
2022-05-27 16:51
I supported Biden from the start in 2020, strongly, as the candidate best positioned to save the country. I think events bore out that judgment, and I don’t regret it for a minute… Read More
2022-05-24 12:36
My wife and I visited the Benelux countries — our much anticipated first foreign trip in 2-1/2 years. My biggest takeaway impression: a civilization whose main business is living the g… Read More
2022-05-20 12:56
The “Great Replacement Theory” is yet one more thing making Republicans the Party of Crazy. A recent poll showed a third of Americans are drinking this Kool-Aid.
Believing t… Read More
2022-05-17 00:47
No, this is not about government spending. It’s galaxies.
PBS’s “Nova” science series recently had a program about the universe, with casual mention of trillions o… Read More
2022-05-07 12:37
The word “grooming” has exploded into our culture wars, a cudgel for the right to bash Democrats. The word has been used to describe a sexual predator (usually a gay male) cul… Read More
2022-05-05 12:35
As is typical for me with such books, I was far more engaged with the story of Michelle Obama’s early life, when she was an ordinary normal person, than with the too-familiar chronicle… Read More
2022-05-01 13:36
The backstory: In 2014 Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed through a constitutional amendment supposedly ending gerrymandering. This involves legislative district maps, with one party packing the o… Read More
2022-04-28 12:47
Hell of a Book — that’s the title — by Jason Mott — is actually two different novels coexisting uneasily within one cover.
One is a semi-comical first-person ac… Read More
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