By Joel Bowman, on April 1st, 2018 In one way or another, everyone thinks, “God’s on our side.” This has always been the case. In the religious wars between Protestants and Catholics in the Middle Ages, both sides thought that God was on their side. In the U.S. Civil War, both Tap water catches fire and earthquakes multiply. As a rule, those who own and run oil and gas companies do not explore for fossil fuels in their own backyards.
Is it worth ruining our environment to exploit fossil fuels when we are currently able to get the power we need from wind and solar energy? . . . → Read More: God’s On Our Side
By Joel Bowman, on March 28th, 2018 If you are old enough to have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, you doubtless remember the computer, the HAL 9000. HAL malfunctions and does everything it can to kill off the crew. The last astronaut standing is appropriately named “Bowman,” perhaps foreshadowing my own difficulties with artificial intelligence. At least I wasn’t in space….
My challenges were more down-to-earth. My DVR had started making an annoying buzzing sound when I paused and restarted something I had recorded, and the “cable” button on the remote had become extremely difficult to use. I requested new ones from my local provider, Charter . . . → Read More: Artificial Intelligence
By Joel Bowman, on March 24th, 2018 Back in 1994, Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray wrote a book, The Bell Curve, pointing out an inconvenient truth: half the population has below average intelligence. While much of what they said was considered controversial for a variety of reasons, the basic concept is incontrovertible. Half the population is below average when it comes to intelligence. George Carlin said, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
In and of itself, that isn’t a major problem, as intelligence does not account for the main differences in human behavior. It . . . → Read More: The Bell Curve
By Joel Bowman, on March 18th, 2018 If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you already know about the conflict between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. While the Trump administration seems to be setting a new record for corruption and other “dishonesties” in the White House, this isn’t the first time in U.S. history politicians have yielded to temptation and the abuse of power. As Lord Acton pointed out, power corrupts, and that has certainly been true for U.S. Presidents.
As is true today, our Founding Fathers tended to be the rich and powerful. One of the ways they used their wealth and power was . . . → Read More: Stormy Weather
By Joel Bowman, on March 16th, 2018 The title is based on the song about the “Big Muddy” written by Pete Seeger in 1967. See for a summary of the circumstances. The Vietnam War was in full swing. I was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas, in 1969 and was able to hear him perform that song and others at that time. Not too long after that, I received my orders to head to what was then the current “Big Muddy” of Vietnam.
Once again we seem to be waist deep in the Big Muddy, in part because the world as . . . → Read More: Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
By Joel Bowman, on March 7th, 2018 What would people do without clichés? One of the current favorites is, “at the end of the day,” which seems to be a replacement for “When all is said and done” or the more academic, “In the final analysis….” Most people speak—and think—in clichés most of the time. That has two advantages: it’s easier to spout a cliché than to find a new way of expressing the idea, and everyone knows what it means. Your friends will forgive you for using clichés and probably won’t even know that you are using them. Clichés, however, at best indicate lazy thinking and . . . → Read More: At The End of the Day
By Joel Bowman, on February 28th, 2018 Steven Pinker’s new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress is a beacon of hope in what I have been considering “dark times.” If you’ve been reading my blog awhile, you know that I haven’t been happy about Trump’s presidency. Pinker’s book has convinced me that there’s a lot more “ointment” than there is “fly.” Things in general will continue to get better in spite of Trump’s efforts to return us to the “dark ages.” Progress is not guaranteed, of course, but the long-term trend of history is increasing well-being for humans based on advances in . . . → Read More: Enlightenment Now
By Joel Bowman, on February 19th, 2018 A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
When it came to the Second Amendment, those who wrote the Constitution had this in mind:
Given their concerns at the time, it’s easy to see their reasons for including the Second Amendment in the Constitution. They were not sufficiently prescient to envision the AR-15. It’s cousin, the M-16, was the weapon U.S. soldiers carried in Vietnam. The M-16 is fully automatic (pull the trigger, and it fires several rounds), whereas . . . → Read More: Second Amendment Blues
By Joel Bowman, on February 12th, 2018 Food often comes with a label that says a product is “Best Used By” a certain date. We take the label for granted on many food products, but everything has a “best used by” date even if it does not come with a label. Anyone who has been married and later divorced knows that relationships often have a “best used by” date. Everything does, but some things—including relationships—can extend the date when that’s worth doing. Old automobiles can be restored and are often worth a great deal more money than when they were new. Classic cars are an example. Back . . . → Read More: Best Used By….
By Joel Bowman, on February 10th, 2018 I borrow my title from one of my favorite science fiction authors, Robert Heinlein, whose books captivated me during my adolescence. A number of them have been made into movies (including The Puppet Masters, Starship Troopers, and . . . → Read More: Future History
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