Monthly Archive: April 2013

Questioning Faith

Asking questions is dangerous business.  I have friends and acquaintances who, after completing an inquisition into their own religious beliefs, forsook their religion, kicked the dust from their feet, and hit the road for...

A Terrible Starting Point

From today’s Boston Herald (via memeorandum): The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance — a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section...

Collins Comes Out

NBA center Jason Collins has become the first major American male team athlete to come out as gay while still competing.  He had this to say on the decision: “I didn’t set out to...

“You don’t ‘seize’ the center, you create the center”

When I learned it, I thought the motion for this month’s Intelligence Squared U.S. debate – “The GOP Must Seize the Center or Die” – was simply dreadful.  How could the opposing case possibly be made without fighting a losing battle with the proposition itself?  Of course the GOP needs to win more votes from the center; of course they’ve been successfully characterized as out-of-touch with centrists.  And indeed, the pre-debate poll showed a staggering 65% in favor of the […]

Judging FIRST

by Mad Rocket Scientist During the last weekend in March, I was able to once again participate as Judge in the Seattle Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.  This was my second year doing so, and...

Taking Sides

A recent petition to stop using the terms “illegals” and “illegal immigrants” generated the following response from the New York Times (emphasis mine): On Tuesday, The New York Times updated its policies on how it...