Tag archives: Roberts Big Questions
As a secular humanist, I don’t do Christmas. But I enjoy the end of year ritual of sending “holiday” cards. A few dozen people get real cards, and a larger circle get emails. Some of these people are close friends. But some are family and friends with whom I rarely have contact. Sometimes for years […]
You have probably heard of educator Salman Khan and his Khan Academy. I recently attended a talk he gave for UCSB. Khan had been a hedge fund analyst. A good family man, he wanted to help his cousin Nadya with her math back in 2004. He tutored her over the phone and was able to […]
There is no single explanation for the popularity of Trump. But one thread is that he can “get stuff [sh-t] done.” Supporters (MAGAs) don’t care about his long history of cheating people out of their money, his talk of “grabbing pussies”, or even that he violently tried to overthrow an election. “He gets stuff done.” […]
Reflecting on this election involves both Big Questions and smaller thoughts. Some of my friends offer conspiracies of how the election was rigged. For weeks we knew that this election was too close to call. Statistician Nate Silver predicted the election had a 40% chance of being a blowout for either side. In short: I […]
Almost five years ago I was honored to be hired by MoJo CEO and Executive Editor Gwyn Lurie. “What is Truth?” was her recommendation for my first article. Neuroscientist/podcaster Sam Harris raised a related point: “There are an infinite number of facts one could choose to focus on. And the act of focusing changes how […]
As I finish this, dock workers have paused their strike in the East and Gulf Coast. Workers have won a bigger cut of the massive profits of the shipping industry. But they are still demanding a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucks used for loading and unloading freight. Two years […]
For over 30 years, we worked to get bicycle lanes and safe pedestrian crossings in Old Town Goleta. Endless meetings, hearings, studies, surveys and public input. It was never enough. Seven lanes were devoted to motor vehicles: Four traffic lanes, a center turn lane and two lanes for parking motor vehicles. But no room for […]
How can we use behavior science to persuade people to solve the Climate Crisis? I recently attended a UCSB Psychology talk on this subject. To me, facts and evidence should be enough. It takes a lot more than that for most people. It turns out that people who are most environmentally aware are often worse […]
“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it.” This menacing threat came from Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. This is in reference to their Project 2025. Last year I wrote “Conspiracy Theories Not What They Used to Be?” contrasting real conspiracies with muddled paranoid […]
In the 1980s I was Action Coordinator for the Central America Response Network. We were a small group of very dedicated volunteers who worked to stop Reagan’s terror campaign of rape, torture and murder in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. We did direct aid to the victims, public education, political lobbying, organizing rallies and […]
The U.S. is all about freedom and the automobile is a key symbol of that freedom. “See the USA in your Chevrolet” was sung by Dinah Shore on our old RCA TV. In reality, Americans spend hundreds of hours a year stuck in traffic. Very little driving involves seeing the Rockies or wheat fields that […]
Today was an interesting news day. The Supreme Court just ruled that “bump stocks” cannot be banned. Even though these devices effectively turn legal guns into machine guns. And even though the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 banned civilians from owning any machine guns manufactured after that date. The bump stock ban was a […]
I recently had lunch with a former coworker friend. He doesn’t like talking politics, but I had to know if he was still a Republican after Trump. He agreed with most of my positions on most issues. And he agreed that Trump was not a good president. But he could not ever imagine voting for […]
Star Trek is my religion. I grew up imagining a future of contact with alien beings who we could learn from. Back in 1950 physicist Enrico Fermi asked, “But where is everybody?” If our galaxy is teeming with planets and our planet is nothing special, why haven’t we encountered any evidence of aliens? We have […]
Campuses are in turmoil across the U.S. with protests. I won’t discuss the substantive issues they are protesting. But I will raise this Big Question: How does an issue become a protest issue? I claim that it is not based on what is most important or on what is most urgent. Clearly, some issues are […]
Merlie and I have just returned from three weeks in Japan. Very fortunate to catch the cherry blossoms. It is risky to offer impressions after such brief exposure, but I will try. Many things are exactly as you would expect. Things are orderly. There is no trash or graffiti. People are extremely polite. But guess […]
My wife and I came out of a party recently just in time to catch a rocket launch in the sky. I took some photos of the beautiful colors and patterns and posted them on Facebook. A Facebook childhood friend “Bill” replied, “The rockets that go nowhere under the firmament.” Was he pushing the bizarre […]
Jerry Lettvin was one of several treasured mentors in my life. He was an MD and an electrical engineer, holding positions in biology and electrical engineering at MIT. I was a student in a most unique program he ran at MIT called “Concourse.” We did the usual classes, but we were in a smaller group, […]
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) gained attention recently, due to some of its employees participating in the atrocities of October 7, including kidnappings and murders. It was not the first time U.N. workers were accused of atrocities. U.N. workers caused a cholera outbreak in Haiti. They committed sexual abuses […]
Back in July 2006 I watched a BookTV interview with Francis Collins, talking about his book The Language of God. At the time, Collins was Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; the massive government project to map the human genome, initiated by President Clinton. Privately funded projects actually reached much of the goal […]
