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I have wondered about conspiracy theories for quite a while. Why do people believe them at all, and why do they believe what they believe. Today a believer sat down near me at Starbucks and started running off at the mouth. It is usually a mistake to try to silence such a person, so I listened in the hope that I might learn something. That particular person seems to believe that Jews are the root of all evil (he is one himself, so he should know), and there are persons controlling or overseeing ...

Ever feel lost after Christmas? I'm feeling a bit lost. This won't be up to my usual standard. I don't have Word to type in so I'm using Notepad. No spellcheck or paragraphs. I'm trying to get to grips with a new PC and, I have most of what I'd usually do sorted out. But now the thing that's really bugging me is that I don't have Word on it yet. I'm really starting to get that writing itch for my mad scientist project but I'm lazy. I like to have word to spellcheck and look up better words, it's ...

It's been a long time since I last read Stoic philosophy. I think the last work of this type that I read was the brief Handbook of Epictetus as an undergraduate. I didn't like it much. Mostly because my girlfriend at the time (who was a major repair-job) loved it. She was using the emotional detachment ideas to get over this jerk she dated before me. Nice. As a result, I thought that stoicism was just a mask that emotionally weak people wore to hide the honest and hard-earned scars on their souls. ...

We just finished final presentations in my classes. I teach -- community college, English & Philosophy (picked up Masters Degree #2 in Philosophy a couple years ago; this enables me to teach the love of wisdom to American CC students). I think of Sara's presentation of whether American Literature matters: it was expertly organized and focused on emotional intelligence. Sure, she picked up on a thread that I was communicatin' to them: that one of literature's practical uses is to train us emotionally. ...

"Bats of the Republic" by Z.T. Dodson (a gift).