When Trump first entered office in 2017, he was a political neophyte, but his challenge was even starker with seemingly no awareness that a resistance in the very body he was supposed to lead would soon be actively plotting against him. By now, everyone knows that President-elect Donald Trump is only the second Chief Executive… Continue reading Trump in Paris and a presidential transition unlike any other
Month: December 2024
King Lear and the primal genius of Kenneth Branagh
It’s a credit to Shakespeare’s genius that he was able to craft one of the greatest plays ever written from such an unbelievable beginning, but it’s also his genius that the opening is the very heart of it all. Despite his protestations, Lear has broken one of the bonds that protects civilization from the lawlessness… Continue reading King Lear and the primal genius of Kenneth Branagh
Hunter’s pardon, pardon power generally, the media’s stupidity, lies, excuses, and penchant for blaming everything on Donald Trump, revisited
After blithely accepting an obvious lie with no skepticism at all, even those who are now critical of the President focus their fire primarily on Donald Trump, fearing he may use the same power exactly as he promised on the campaign trail. Personally, I can’t really blame President Joe Biden for pardoning his son Hunter. … Continue reading Hunter’s pardon, pardon power generally, the media’s stupidity, lies, excuses, and penchant for blaming everything on Donald Trump, revisited
How Kenneth Branagh changed a fantasy geek’s life and transformed him into a Shakespeare fanatic
The British actor and director released his first film, Henry V in 1989, when I was a tender thirteen years old. It passed without notice for me during its theatrical run, but the video rental store, that monument to entertainment, where most families made at least a weekly pilgrimage before the rise of streaming, was… Continue reading How Kenneth Branagh changed a fantasy geek’s life and transformed him into a Shakespeare fanatic
The evolution of consciousness and the omnipresence of sentience
Based on the latest research, we can continue to maintain that sentience, and the higher order consciousness that springs from it in humans, is the most widespread accident in the history of life, completely unnecessary, but somehow omnipresent, or we can reject that view and assume it serves a deep evolutionary purpose. Thought experiments can… Continue reading The evolution of consciousness and the omnipresence of sentience




