Mar 6, 2018The Firebrand Moderate: Thoughts from a Gun OwnerThe Firebrand Moderate: Thoughts from a Gun Owner Many gun owners are among the 75 percent of Americans who want stricter gun laws. They recoil from the NRA’s political messaging. [Notes as of 8/5/19: Since I wrote this essay more than a year ago, America has had many more mass shootings, by far the worst of which have…Guns12 min readGuns12 min read
Apr 19, 2017Liberal or Conservative: Who’s Fittest for Survival?It’s not like lion versus zebra. More like squirrel versus squirrel. It seems likely that everyone is wired to be either right or left of dead center. How far right or left depends on a lot of sensitivities, all of which seem to be sorely inflamed in America today. …Politics5 min readPolitics5 min read
Mar 25, 2017The Firebrand Moderate: Notes from the Middle of the RoadI often think it’s comical — Fal, lal, la! How Nature always does contrive — Fal, lal, la! That every boy and every gal That’s born into the world alive Is either a little Liberal Or else a little Conservative! Fal, lal, la! - Gilbert and Sullivan Iolanthe, 1882 It’s…Politics6 min readPolitics6 min read
Mar 24, 2017The U.S. Invasion of Iraq: Swatting a Hornets’ Nest with a BatThis was written in September, 2004, recalling a debate with a friend in the spring of 2003, just before the U.S. vote to invade Iraq. It is now 2019 and we are still fighting in Iraq. About a week before the US invasion of Iraq, I got into a heated…ISIS9 min readISIS9 min read
Feb 7, 2017How Bannon Wins: Scare the ModeratesThe psychological operations practiced by Bannon, whether by instinct or guile, are the kind that undermine the faith of good people in their fellow citizens. Almost beside the point now is Mr. Trump, an impulse-driven gasbag, braggart, and bully, thoroughly unqualified to be president. Now that he’s in office he…Politics3 min readPolitics3 min read
Mar 25, 2016American Gridlock: Sometimes a Feature, not a BugI have a friend, a smart and ironic Dutchman who like many Europeans regards American culture and especially American politics as a sort of reality-based absurdist tragedy — impossible to ignore, often pathetically amusing, but also worrisome and dangerous to all. We agree on most things, but often by the…Politics3 min readPolitics3 min read
Jan 31, 2016Devout Muslims and the Separation of Church and StateDevout Muslims and the Separation of Church and State Are Muslims out to get us? On the scale of Ridiculous to Imminent, the discourse needle on that question seems to hover closer to Imminent, which is ridiculous. So it helps when someone brings the conversation just a bit closer to earth. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is not…Religion2 min readReligion2 min read
Jan 8, 2016And God Said, “Leave Me Out of It, You Blithering Idiots!”I was thinking about some of the problems caused by religious fundamentalism, from the challenges of Muslim assimilation in America to Jon Krakhauer’s take on the absolutist background of anti-government whackadoodles like Ammon Bundy. …Religion3 min readReligion3 min read
Jan 4, 2016Get Off Our Land, Ammon BundyYou have to wonder if Ammon Bundy feels any sensation as he shoots himself in the foot. What he and his pals are doing is so illogical and counterproductive and downright goofy that it would be laughable if there weren’t guns involved. …Bundy2 min readBundy2 min read
