Category Archives: Music

Son of Dispatches from Reality

How morality changes and can be used to build a better world, with tips about improving your moral technology; How choices and options may or may not have made us free; Music: Now on to Shostakovich; here’s Symphony #10. – … Continue reading

Posted in Morality, Music | Comments Off on Son of Dispatches from Reality

Dispatches from Reality

Taking a day off from political posts, for posts about reality. Or at least, the exploration of reality. Mathematicians solve a 125-year-old problem, perhaps; OnlySky’s Dale McGowan about the evolutionary mismatch between the world we evolved in, and the modern … Continue reading

Posted in Evolution, Mathematics, Music, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Dispatches from Reality

The Usual Villains

A passenger plane and a military helicopter collide over the Potomac, killing 67, and who does Trump blame? Trump’s vile plane crash press conference; David A. Graham on how Trump is just watching, not taking charge; Allan Pettersson’s Symphony #8. … Continue reading

Posted in Lunacy, Music, Politics | Comments Off on The Usual Villains

RIP Wordpad

Windows has deprecated WordPad, which makes my life more difficult; David French on a German thinker, Carl Schmitt, and the friend-enemy distinction, and how it informs current American politics; Latest thoughts from Heather Cox Richardson, about the cancellation of foreign … Continue reading

Posted in Human Nature, Music, Politics | Comments Off on RIP Wordpad

As Things Fall Apart

How Trump’s war against DEI isn’t actually about merit; How despite claims of merit, those executive orders were shoddily written; How Trump prioritizes white Christian patriarchy; Comments from Heather Cox Richardson, Paul Krugman, and Robert Reich; How conservative response to … Continue reading

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Lunacy, Music, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on As Things Fall Apart

What Our Time Will Be Remembered For

Doing next to nothing, while the world burned. Our time will be remembered for nothing else than our inaction on climate change; David Wallace-Wells searches for a silver lining; A book I’m reading recalls similar conservative resistance to action on … Continue reading

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Music, Politics | Comments Off on What Our Time Will Be Remembered For

Human Nature and Existential Crises

Yesterday I had an item and some comments about how the inability of many people to recognize existential dangers like climate change may in fact doom the species. (And explain the Fermi Paradox.) Too many people live in fantasy cultural … Continue reading

Posted in Human Nature, Music, Politics | Comments Off on Human Nature and Existential Crises

Political Retributions, and Values

Three and a half years after my heart and kidney transplants, I’m doing fine; About Biden’s pardon of his son, and the impending takeover of the FBI to pursue retribution; Robert Reich understands why he did it; Yet another essay … Continue reading

Posted in Lunacy, Music, Narrative, Politics | Comments Off on Political Retributions, and Values

Stories Are Not Evidence

How the right “creates stories” to support their worldview (i.e. they’re all about motivated reasoning); Paul Krugman on Trump, tariffs, Stalin, and Lysenko; Items about DeSantis cheating and which party is the party of violence; Items about a brain fever … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Lunacy, Music, Narrative, Politics | Comments Off on Stories Are Not Evidence

Today’s Examples of Tribal Antics

Sometimes the antics of the tribalists are on the front page of the New York Times, two days in a row. Though that shouldn’t be surprising, given that they’re half the population. Today’s topics: Trump’s latest attacks against Harris; How … Continue reading

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Music, Politics | Comments Off on Today’s Examples of Tribal Antics