Category Archives: Politics
Diversity Explosion
In 2011, more minority babies were born in the United States than white babies for the first time. In 2015, 24 of the largest 100 metropolitan areas in the US were already minority white. By 2040 there will be no … Continue reading
Fast Train to Mordor: Trump v. Hawaii
Reading through the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Hawaii – the Muslim travel ban case – is like drifting off to sleep on an ordinary commuter train headed for home and then being jolted awake when it shudders to … Continue reading
Carpenter v. United States
Today, instead of a book review, I’m going to take a plunge into law review. I want to look at the decision of the United States Supreme Court in a case called Carpenter v. United States announced on June 22. … Continue reading
Fascism: A Warning
Fascism: A WarningBy Madeleine AlbrightHarperCollins, New York, 2018 When she spoke to an adoring, packed house at Seattle’s Paramount Theater on the evening of April, 24, 2018, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated clearly that she was not accusing … Continue reading
Enlightenment Now
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and ProgressBy Steven PinkerViking, New York, 2018 We seem to be living in a time of perpetual crisis. It feels like the whole world is going off the rails. Everything decent seems … Continue reading
Video: What the Future of Energy Means for Canada
A link to this panel discussion cane across my FB feed and I wanted to share it here in a brief post. http://singularityucanadasummit.org/event/debate-future-energy-means-canada/ The context is Canadian but the perspective is definitely global. Really intelligent, though-provoking discussion about the energy … Continue reading
Crosscut Festival
I spent yesterday attending the Crosscut Festival at Seattle University. I’ve gone to so many conferences through work that I can’t seem to break the habit of taking and writing up notes. So here they are. The conference was organized … Continue reading
Post-Election Reading
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in CrisisBy J. D. VanceHarperCollins, New York, 2016 The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott WalkerBy Katherine J. CramerUniversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2016 Before … Continue reading
State-wide Blackout in South Australia
Yesterday the entire state of South Australia, about 1.5 times the area of Texas, suffered an electricity blackout due to a severe storm that knocked out major transmission lines. Photo: Electranet Network Services Here’s an interesting report on the causes … Continue reading
Supreme Court puts Obama’s Clean Power Plan on hold
On February 9, the Supreme Court issued a “stay” blocking implementation of the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan rules that aim to cut CO2 emissions from the nation’s power plants until challenges to the regulations can be heard by the … Continue reading
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