A marine mammalogist and former teacher of “science communication” at U. C. Santa Cruz, Pieter Arend Folkens exposé of climate controversy (Benicia Herald Forum, Sunday, 12-19-10) opens by alluding to Don Quixote. Let’s see if his choice of figure reflects back upon him. He feels that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is an idea on its way […]
Far-right Radicals show a fundamentalism that strongly resembles fundamentalism in religion. Both are insular with a narrowness of view that accompanies the closure of being shut off from balanced, honest understanding of outlooks other than their own. Radicals can feel sharply for an injured dog in the street but cannot empathize deeply with the homeless […]
In Benicia Herald’s Oct. 20 Forum feature, “Burning bridges,” old Col. Jam Pew, USMC, ret., invokes old Murphy’s Law to enforce Jam Pew’s Law on burning Barack Obama out of office before his term ends. Jam’s britches are burning behind him to get this done by anything he can say to make it look inevitable. […]
Dear ____: A note on Lund’s deliciously pseudo-literate asininity. It’s absolutely clear he’s never read word, one, by George Lakoff, having no information on him but what I provided in my Forum features. He parroted me, and in his usual snidely malicious style, went on to kick a few trouble-ridden Democrats whose bad judgment has […]
People of far-right, Republican persuasion care nothing for bipartisanship now because they have lost all memory of the public philosophy which motivated our founders (as described in 1955 by Walter Lippmann) nor do they give a fig for it if reminded. Too many people high on the ladders of property and income have regressed both […]
In The Tyranny Of Words, Stuart Chase tells us, “People are not dumb because they lack mental equipment. They are dumb because they lack an adequate method for use of the equipment.” Again, “Without knowledge of the correct use of words most of us are defenseless against harmful stimuli. Those who deliberately teach people to […]