Monthly Archives: September 2013

Tunisia’s Islamist party to step down after talks – The Hindu. If only the Egyptians had waited to see how the Tunisians do it they might have been a lot better off than they are now.

Richard V. Reeves, in The Glass-Floor Problem – NYTimes.com concludes with: This is delicate territory. Nobody wants parents to stop trying hard for their children. But nor do we want a society in which the social market is rigged in … Continue reading →

Ever since whatever happened at the Obama/Putin meeting at the G10 it’s been an amazing time for optimism regarding the future of humanity. But of course the election of Hassan Rohani actually precedes that meeting.

Ophelia Benson. quoting Stephen Pinker in paraphrase of Stephen Jay Gould to the effect that “Science gets the empirical universe; religion gets the questions of moral meaning and value” struck me as identifying the key point on which Gould’s idea … Continue reading →

Sam Harris has issued a “public challenge” to those who think his book is silly. To wit: “Anyone who believes that my case for a scientific understanding of morality is mistaken is invited to prove it in 1,000 words or less. … Continue reading →