Phase two of the presidential election process begins

Now that it is widely conceded that Mitt Romney will be the Republican party nominee, we enter phase two of the presidential election cycle.

It may be the scientist in me but I tend to favor theoretical models that enable some predictivity in events, rather than the idea that we are totally at the mercy of idiosyncratic factors. This is true even in the world of presidential elections, despite all its seeming unpredictability. As I wrote earlier, strip away the surface turbulence and you see the steady flow of a predictable current. [Read more…]

The last warrior for Jesus bows out

What does it mean that the four people who entered the race suggesting that it was god’s idea in the first place (Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachman) have now all been eliminated? God’s power seems to have waned quite a bit from the days when he created the universe and parted the seas. Now he cannot even get his people the Republican nomination. Perhaps appearing on pieces of toast is the best he can do now. [Read more…]

What is going on here?

Here’s a puzzle that more internet savvy readers may be able to help me with.

On March 7, I received the following email with the subject line “Broken link on your page”.

Hi Mano,

I came across your website and wanted to notify you about a broken link on your page in case you weren’t aware of it. The link on http://www.case.edu/provost/UCITE/learning/general.html which links to http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm with the anchor text of “teaching tips is no longer working. [Read more…]

Are we serious about talking with Iran?

Stephen M. Walt wants to know, since he is confused by the mixed signals sent by the Obama administration, first saying that they want to talk and then putting forward proposals that were blatantly unacceptable to the Iranians, who predictably rejected them.

Justin Raimondo poses similar concerns, saying “For all this administration’s alleged attempts to “engage” the Iranians, there were never any serious efforts to come to any kind of agreement: unconditional demands, exemplified by this latest ultimatum, were always at the core of various Western “peace” proposals. Now that the Iranian drama is coming down to the wire, virtually all pretenses at real negotiations have been rapidly discarded.”

US policies towards Cuba must be condemned

Is there anything that symbolizes the absurdity of US attitudes towards Cuba more than the fact that Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team, was suspended by team owners for remarks he made about Fidel Castro? What did he say that was so outrageous? “I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but (he) is still there.” How horrifying! This is despite the fact that even pope Ratzo just had a friendly meeting with Castro and called for an end to the embargo. There goes the pope’s chance of ever being made manager for the Marlins. [Read more…]

What atheists want

There can be, of course, no single agreed-upon answer to this question but it makes for a lot better title than the real point of this post, which is what do I, as an atheist, want.

What I want is what I imagine most people want, a world in which there is peace and justice and freedom from hunger. So what has atheism got to do with those goals that have no connection with religion per se? It is that I see religion as breeding sectarianism and tribalism and conflict, all major obstacles to achieving them. So getting rid of religion would be a major step forward. [Read more…]