“Today’s Democrats are what used to be called moderate Republicans. The Republicans have just drifted off the spectrum. They’re so committed to extreme wealth and power that they cannot get votes … So what has happened is that they’ve mobilized sectors of the population that have been around for a long time. … Trump may … More Quote of the Day
For years I worked out three times a week at the University of Alberta gym. My workout partner was a history professor who specialized in Eastern Europe and had done extensive research on the Holocaust in Ukraine. While we were working out, we talked about everything under the sun. Once a woman who was working … More Discourse, Violence, and the Balance of Power
“As one becomes aware of the decline of violence, the world begins to look different. The past seems less innocent; the present less sinister.” ― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
My father died when I was four. A few blurry memories I have of him and stories I heard from my sisters years later paint the picture of my father I have now. My mother never denigrated him, and although she never talked about him much, she always told me how much he had loved … More Moral Parameters in the 1950s
“Above all, the thrall in which an ideology holds a people is best measured by their collective inability to imagine alternatives.” ― Tony Judt
When I was about 15, I was living alone with my single mother. My sister Evie had married and left home long before I was born. My sister Carol had married and moved out when I was 13, and a few years earlier my sister Shirley had moved to California to live with our brother Bill. … More Memories of My Brother Bill
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” ― Primo Levi
I’ve tried my best to write beautiful verse To seek my muse and don the poet’s hat But meter and rhyme go from bad to worse Look, just for the rhyme, I throw in a cat Reading great poets doesn’t help at all Or make writing verses less of a slog Their talent for writing … More Writing Poetry
“Washington couldn’t tell a lie, Nixon couldn’t tell the truth, and Reagan couldn’t tell the difference.” ― Mort Sahl
“Folkloristic [Popular] religion makes God the functionary of human society, performing for it the tasks of Minister of Health, Minister of Justice, Minister of the Police, Minister of Welfare, and Minister of the Economy.”–Yeshayahu Leibowitz
No Harm Spilt 