Today's sobering thought comes courtesy of the Teafaerie - one of the good folks over at the Vaults of Erowid: Really stop and think about this:  it has been absolutely impossible to get elected president of the United States without at least professing to believe that intelligent demons are ou . . . (More)

 Chrysippus, a favorite and very quotable Stoic, once said that poverty teaches by force those lessons that philosophy tries to teach by persuasion.  In this I am inclined to agree with him.  Recently, the American news media have been much agitated over reductions in consumer spending, for exa . . . (More)

 I was going to wait until after the election, but now that it seems like a foregone conclusion, I would like to express my relief at the likely Obama victory. For the record, this is the first time I have ever felt any sincere enthusiasm for a presidential candidate for whom I have voted. Ob . . . (More)

  Five things Barack Obama could safely do upon taking office without risking his significant advantage over the incumbent in credibility and public support: Sit motionlessly for four years. Hold a press conference at which he admits that he hung out with Bill Ayers because people who hav . . . (More)

 I remember, shortly after 9/11, the TV was on.  And wasn't it always on?  No airplanes, but plenty of TV.  Apparently, that is what we do.  I don't say that it's bad or good; I say that it is what we do, now that we are the people that we have become.  An off-screen announcer said, behind plain . . . (More)

 It's not really my style, and it's sort of a cheap shot, I suppose, but what with the election becoming closer than it should be (except, perhaps, on Bizarro World), I think it bears mentioning that John McCain is on record for unapologetically referring to his Vietnamese captors . . . (More)