Placebo Effects: More Than Medical
It’s “resolution reset” season already. At least that’s what an ad I received yesterday proclaimed. And it set me to thinking …
Book Review: Bound by Faith by Mark Alsip
A lightly edited version of my review was published in the Freethought Society’s January–February 2025 newsletter.
In Which I Play the Prediction Game
Not being a person tightly tied to the Gregorian calendar, I have little use for new year’s resolutions and predictions, etc. Yet here I am, in the uncomfortable position of offering a prediction that could perhaps reach a tipping point as early as 2030.
Is US Electoral Politics Irreparably Broken?
In which I try to think and write my way through a bunch of stuff [really, there’s no better noun] in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.
Rereading a Classic Revealed Older English Syntax Hidden Behind Punctuation
It was a little embarrassing to discover recently—after multiple rereadings—that one of my favorite English novels contains clues about the language’s syntax in the late 18th–early 19th centuries.
Happy Fucking Blasphemy Day
To be precise, it is International Blasphemy Rights Day (BRD). How did I not know of this earlier?
“Only” Words?
Today I want to honor a person whose words have immeasurably changed my life for the better. If he were alive, today would be his 72nd birthday.