BC

That could very well be. If it is the unconscious mind that does all the work, it would need an interface. But then the question arises, Who uses the ...

Is religion good at maintaining social cohesion? Infrastructure? Services? Only a cautious "Perhaps" applied to the pre-Reformation church, when it ha...

King: "The people are revolting!" Queen: "Yes, they certainly are."

My son, we are prone to find evil interesting, and our God-given curiosity may want to investigate it. Beware of Darkness, though. It is seductive and...

Indeed. Computers are the very model of unimaginative idiot savants. Another huge thing the partisans of "brain as computer" do not account for is tha...

Exactly. I find the "brain as computer" metaphor as useful as everyone else. But a metaphor is "a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applie...

The brain receives a lot of input all the time, from internal and external sources. A lot of what passes through seems to be unexamined. Sometimes it'...

I sometimes daydream how my brain works. It's fun for a while. The thing is, we have no access to how our brain produces "us". Most of the brain's act...

Doesn't neoliberalism exist in European countries that have state operated/managed health care? Or are you saying neoliberalism is peculiarly American...

I can imagine a supernova, let alone imagine a lightning flash. I have curiosity. For instance, when I wrote this response, I wrote "lightening"; that...

I'm assuming you do not actually believe that.

well, lots of people believe that "private is better" "public is worse". The question isn't whether insured well informed care consumers can get good ...

There is nothing intrinsically worse about the quality of socialized health care. There is nothing intrinsically better about the quality of privatize...

a) it is national in scope b) it has the power to compel compliance c) it has law making authority d) it has great revenue-raising capacity Because it...

People living in a civilized state where they experience a reasonable level of community cohesion and enjoy good health, education, personal security,...

A healthy population (and healthy workforce) is essential to a strong economy. In most countries health care is either funded by, provided by, or mana...

Especially when this virus has produced fatalities quite close to the 1918 epidemic -- even over a similar length of time. I have not heard anyone dis...

I got the shots -- I was eager to get them. BTW, I definitely felt both of them, advances in technology or not. Was the injection a bad experience? No...

We both have made a similar point, perhaps not intending to: Corruption is something that other people are doing. Greeks, but not Germans. New York bu...

I didn't write clearly. By using the term "background" I meant that NW Europeans are the norm, not that they are invisible or hide their identity. If ...

Google supplies them. Search for "etymology swine" (or etymology in Google's search box, and Google will present a graph if appropriate. Some words ha...

Hail Hog! I am at this moment eating a pork chop. It is delicious. https://64.media.tumblr.com/ee227a85c9f9a62aff2665e1bbecf5f6/1e846093be05c691-19/s2...

Minnesota's largest immigrant source was German, followed by the 4 Scandinavian groups. Minnesota tends to rank towards the top of surveys of health, ...

It is an interesting study of how this group, but not that one, becomes loaded with negative meaning. My guess is that "Spaniard" has pretty much posi...

'Gypsy' seems to have been derived from: https://64.media.tumblr.com/17f104237791931da58092e083114e2a/4960e4d73f4ac146-35/s250x400/6c3fcb827dc487cc029...

If only that were so. True: American citizens have little say in what their nation-state does. This applies across the board around the globe. It's tr...

Indeed. I'm generally against war, but can't we at least start with an honest and frank cost-benefit analysis--beyond how much military suppliers will...

What do they want? Just a guess... They want a society that works for the benefit and wellbeing of its citizens food in the markets, clean water the a...

Streetlight needs the new catagory, "Philosophy of Hating the US", shortly to be added as his personal comfort station. If you need/want the latest ed...

I've been reading Climate Wars by Harald Welzer and Bright Green Lies by Jensen, Keith, and Wilbert. Depressing. Welzer notes, several times, that "Vi...

Their last test was the best so far, but it's much too soon to even shop for the Champaign, leet alone popping the cork.

hmmm, not sure I agree. The Soviet Union was there until 1989. Was the US responsible for the USSR being there for 10 years?

It means whoever is in charge of a war that has been won can expect a ticker tape parade with several marching bands. (ticker tape is kind of a rarity...

I'm not quite sure that I agree, either. One always has to remember that "The State" part of the United States, like "the State" part of any country, ...

Well, I don't have a "How To' book on curing religious fundamentalists. "Fundamentalist leanings" along with a number of other social diseases, seem t...

How long does it take for an invading power (like the British Empire, say) to accomplish a major cultural change in a colony? A lot longer than 20 yea...

It might be possible to fly 200,000 people out of Kabul, but that's not the end of the problem. The next thing is, "Where do they go?" Which nations w...

As dreary as I see the future being, I don't blame people for creating the conditions leading to global warming. It is our nature to be a material-man...

What sort of "higher form of civilization" do you have in mind? The usual human pattern is for things to start, peak, stay that way for a while, and t...

Mouse-human hybrids? Some varieties of mice have been bred with features of the human immune system, so they can better serve as test subjects. The im...

Yes, my understanding is that Pakistan created the Taliban for its own purposes in Afghanistan, but wasn't able to maintain control over it. But... Pa...

Maybe Afghanistan is not especially unique. There are numerous countries that could or will destabilize -- without any western help -- and be incapabl...

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

True enough, sometimes we have to fight for our interests. That would seem to apply to the Afghan government and military forces. Once we said we were...

In a pig's eye! Sorry, Shawn.

Politicians, especially, blabber on about democracy. Most people don't -- not because they actually prefer totalitarianism (they don't) but because "d...

How often was the year of jubilee? 7 years or 70 years? Can't remember. Every 50? 40?

NEW PET PEEVE: Morning Edition (National Public Radio) has been referencing pregnant women as "pregnant people". Who, pray tell, is getting pregnant b...

A scene fromI Claudius, where Mrs. Caesar Augustus gives a pep talk to the gladiators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xldcuyl4xRY

Was your DMT plant derived and for your purposes, an entheogen. noun: entheogen a chemical substance, typically of plant origin, that is ingested to p...