Category Archives: Uncategorized

And Remember to Breathe

Posted on November 4, 2020 by

I am writing this on the morning after the election.  You might think that a blogger like me would want to talk about politics this morning.  Not really.  I want to write about adjusting the balance between my life, taken … Continue reading →

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Bo Knows Politics?

Posted on October 15, 2020 by

There comes a time when, as the logic of a movement plays out, it just goes too far.  In this essay I want to say that I have reached that point myself, so far as the self-righteous political left is … Continue reading →

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Just Enough Evidence for Now

Posted on September 16, 2020 by

I have one model of persuasion I would like to explore today and one I would like to reject.  I am sure these models have names that are known to people who study persuasion, but I don’t know what they … Continue reading →

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Victory Lapse

Posted on September 4, 2020 by

I am hoping that title will arouse your curiosity.  I know it will only make my kids roll their eyes.  “Oh no.” they will say, internally, and then to each other, “Dad’s at it again.” For everyone else, let me … Continue reading →

Posted in Getting Old, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Racism, Non-Racism, and Anti-Racism

Posted on August 27, 2020 by

Do you remember “the non-aligned nations.” [1]  We used to hear about them all the time.  We don’t hear that designation anymore although we still hear about the nations.  Why is that? You wouldn’t know it from reading the newspapers … Continue reading →

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Chico and the Man

Posted on August 23, 2020 by

  A lot of attention is being paid these days to racial and ethnic slurs.  I’d be happier about that if I thought it was helping the situation, rather than just being a justification for complaining about it. But in … Continue reading →

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Boredom: A Sermon to Myself

Posted on August 18, 2020 by

Since this is a sermon and since I come from a tradition where sermons are, nominally at least, based on texts, I have a text to offer.  This comes from Neal Stephenson’s Anathem and it is said to be a … Continue reading →

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Parables: The Power of What Is Not There

Posted on August 4, 2020 by

If the irony weren’t too heavy, I would  say that I love reading the work of scholars because it gives me a chance to ask really simpleminded questions. I think of “scholarship” as digging ever more deeply into the technical … Continue reading →

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Turn the Other Cheek

Posted on July 15, 2020 by

The controversies over this text abound, very likely because following out the literal meaning is quite often inconvenient.  But there are worse things than inconvenience to say about the literal compliance with such a text.  We might say, for instance, … Continue reading →

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Racial defensiveness

Posted on July 12, 2020 by

The topic for today is “racial defensiveness.”  I’m against it.  The Russian spy (Mark Rylance)  who was captured and tried in the movie “A Bridge of Spies” had a recurring line that made me like him immediately.  In the first … Continue reading →

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