Category Archives: Politics

The Mosque in Murfreesboro

Posted on August 15, 2012 by hessd

I tried to find a picture of Dan J. Qualls.  Here’s the way the New York Times described him Only one opponent of the mosque came to voice his concerns at the opening [of the local mosque], a former auto … Continue reading →

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Conscientious Objections to Instruction in Biology

Posted on August 10, 2012 by hessd

Somewhere, I read about a small political kerfuffle at the zoo in Topeka, Kansas.  Some religious conservatives took offense because the signs and displays at the zoo all took “the theory of evolution” for granted and they wanted “creationism” to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Politics | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Chik-fil-A

Posted on August 8, 2012 by hessd

So here’s an interesting question: “Do we really want our political lives and our commercial lives to be so wholly intermeshed?”  It turns out that some do and some don’t.  Here’s an answer that is closer to what it looks … Continue reading →

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Guns and Politics

Posted on July 25, 2012 by hessd

A gunman stood up at a Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado and killed 12 people and injured 58 others–as many people as he could with the time he had and the arsenal he brought into the theater with him.  David Brooks’s … Continue reading →

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Public Porn

Posted on July 23, 2012 by hessd

The two most common responses I have heard to protests against pornography are these: a) it doesn’t hurt anybody and b) what they (the consumers of pornography) do in the privacy of their homes is nobody’s business. The New York … Continue reading →

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Supreme Court Agrees that Congress Has the Power to Tax

Posted on June 28, 2012 by hessd

All of the opinions, concurring and dissenting, run to 193 pages.  That’s a lot of pages.  But you have to read only as far as page 20 to get this from Chief Justice Roberts: “Every day individuals do not do … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Robots are “better than nothing”

Posted on June 10, 2012 by hessd

Back in the old days, when there began to be science fiction fantasies about robots taking over the world, reassurance came with the line, “You can always just unplug them.”  And, with a quibble occasioned by robotic security measures, that … Continue reading →

Posted in Paying Attention, Politics, ways of knowing, Words | Tagged | 2 Comments

Colleagueship at the The York Times

Posted on May 25, 2012 by hessd

Probably, the New York Times doesn’t have meetings where the columnists they publish sit down around a table and talk about how things are going at the paper.  Maybe they never did.  But if they used to do that, I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Who Will Be Left Behind?

Posted on May 7, 2012 by hessd

I heard a new word this week: senilicide.  A lot of words that are based on the Latin senex, “old” are familiar to me.  I have taught about this root for many years, pointing out in the process that Senate and … Continue reading →

Posted in Political Psychology, Politics | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Hunger Games

Posted on May 1, 2012 by hessd

I finally saw The Hunger Games.  I had to wait until the initial furor passed so Bette and I could get adjacent seats.  I have read all three books of the series—of which I thought the first was by far … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Paying Attention, Political Psychology, Politics | Tagged , , | 4 Comments