Baseball as a road to god?

The president of New York University John Sexton has published a book on how baseball can be used to come to an understanding of god. This practice of seeing some everyday activity as a window to god seems to be expanding and one can expect more such books because the possibilities are endless: “Cooking as a road to god”, “Cleaning the basement as a road to god”, “Cutting the grass as a road to god”, etc. The hackneyed idea behind this is that if you look deeply enough into anything, there you will find god. [Read more…]

Political language today

George Orwell’s classic 1946 essay Politics and the English Language makes the case that politics degrades language because when politicians want to look truthful while telling lies they do so by making their language convoluted and using big words so that the listener is not aware of what the speaker is actually saying. Orwell says that users of such language should be viewed warily and recommends that people who want to communicate truthfully and accurately would do well to adopt a straightforward style using simple and common words and vivid and accurate metaphors. [Read more…]

The pope race heats up

The conclave to select the new pope begins next week, perhaps as early as Monday. Apparently the pre-conclave meetings currently in progress are where the real politicking goes on, where informal chats take place and information and gossip is exchanged regarding the various possible candidates for the job, with subtle lobbying being part of the process. [Read more…]

Liberal patronizing

I have noticed a peculiar tendency on the part of what is commonly identified as the ‘left’ or the ‘liberal’ wing of American politics. It surfaced again in the filibuster by senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) of the nomination of John Brennan to be head of the CIA until he got an answer to his question of whether the US had the legal authority to kill a non-combatant US citizen in the US without due process. (Se Justin Raimondo’s interesting take on the what the filibuster and the response to it says about the realignment of politics in the US.) [Read more…]

Is discrimination un-American?

In the course of giving four reasons why the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is doomed, this article quotes Jay Michaelson, a gay rights advocate who has a JD from Yale Law School. who says, “Marriage has always been a matter of state law, and DOMA has been unconstitutional since the moment it was passed. Moreover, DOMA targets a specific minority group, and discriminates against it. Discrimination is un-American.” [My italics-MS] [Read more…]

The news that’s not fit to print

The death of Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez reminds columnist Ted Rall of the shameful role that the New York Times played in the 2002 US-backed coup that overthrew Chavez, with the US government and the Times quickly endorsing the change. Alas for them, there was a mass popular uprising, backed by some factions of the military, in favor of Chavez that enabled the wily leader to turn the tables on the coup plotters and get back in power within 48 hours. [Read more…]

Update on the drone strikes issue

The talking filibuster by senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and the sharp questioning of the Attorney General Eric Holder by senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) produced some positive results. Afterwards, Holder issued a letter that said that the answer to the question “Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?” is no. The White House press secretary Jay Carney was slightly less categorical at a later press conference, saying “The president has not and would not use drone strikes against American citizens on American soil” but then quoted Holder’s letter implying that the president agreed with it. [Read more…]

The differential treatment of women and men in the public sphere

I am not a natty dresser. I almost never wear a tie or jacket. My hair is usually ruffled. My clothes are inexpensive and off-the-rack from department stores that aim at the mass market. I never iron my clothes so they frequently look rumpled and I often wear them until they are so worn and frayed that there is a real danger of holes appearing. I hardly ever polish my shoes, with the result that they look scuffed all the time. I would not go so far as to say that people cross the street when they see me approaching but clearly I am not going to be on the cover of GQ magazine. Disheveled is the word that probably best describes me and I have little interest in putting in the effort to become sheveled. [Read more…]