You may never have heard of the philosopher Diogenes Laertius. Some of the heavies e.g. Hegel and Nietzsche dismissed this third century wanna-be as a lightweight (or worse) when it came to philosophical reasoning. Yet by some quirk of fate, his "Lives of Eminent Philosophers," newly translated from the original Greek (see Lovers Of Wisdom), serves as the remaining link to a great portion of Greek and Hellenic philosophy now that much of the primary source material has been lost to antiquity…
Read MoreGarrett Matthias had it all figured out. The five-year-old boy from Iowa co-authored his own obituary just before he died of a rare cancer a few weeks ago. He wanted "to be burned and made into a tree so I can live in it when I'm a gorilla." Lest you think he was some soft sentimentalist, the piece ended with his own brand of existentialist machismo, "See ya later, suckas!" You go, Garrett. You were dealt a bad hand but you checked out on your own terms.
Read MoreInvest even a modest amount of time and effort in this remarkable twenty-four page essay (Click here to read “The Fate of Empires and the Search For Survival,” by Sir John Glubb) and you will be rewarded with a renewed appreciation of history, presented not as discrete and disconnected segments but as the sweeping, interconnected story of the dynamics powering the rise and fall of empires over the last four thousand years. This wide-angle lens captures ten such representative empires -- Assyria, Persia, Greece, Roman (pre- and post-Augustus), Arab, Mameluke (Egypt, Syria), Ottoman, Spain, Romanov Russia, Britain -- each served up not so much for individual analysis but as exemplars of the organic flow characterizing human development.
Read MoreOur Member Monday (7/16) topic is a look at probably the most dramatic transformation of the twentieth century from the perspective of the people who experienced it. Our focus article (It Can Happen Here) is a tight synopsis of three highly credible works that depict Germany's rise into an authoritarian state through the lens of its citizens. A follow-on Member Monday (7/23) session will apply the lessons learned from that earlier era to pose the question: Could it happen here? The spirit of that question is that its very asking might help us to maintain our own guard.
Read MoreOur Member Monday (7/16) topic is a look at probably the most dramatic transformation of the twentieth century from the perspective of the people who experienced it. Our focus article (It Can Happen Here) is a tight synopsis of three highly credible works that depict Germany's rise into an authoritarian state through the lens of its citizens…
Read MoreEight years ago I received a phone call from my son saying two detectives were at his fraternity house seeking a cheek swab. As neither of us had any idea what this could have been about I suggested he politely decline the opportunity and maybe we'd look forward if necessary to a follow-on chat with the authorities about the meaning of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches. Well, that was that, until we discovered a number of my son's kindergarten classmates similarly had been approached even after all those ensuing years. Another classmate happened to have been JonBenet Ramsey…
Read MoreJoining us again for this third and last installment of "the making of a Congressman" series is Mark Williams, one of two lead candidates on the literal eve of the Democratic Party primary for the (Boulder) Second Congressional District. The other lead candidate, Joe Neguse, who participated as Charlotte Sorenson's guest in this past Member Monday session on education, was invited to join us for this next one as well but declined due to another commitment…
Read MoreThe broadside indictment by Bryan Caplan in his recent book "The Case Against Education" is the equivalent of an academic calling in an air strike on his own position. Yet it's the response to his work that will frame our discussion. Rather than dismissing Caplan's thesis as challenging his own profession, the reviewer, a fellow academic, largely endorses it as based upon a) common sense and b) the data. And, one might add, personal experience. The Case Against Education…
Read MoreThe dilemma known as the tragedy of the commons is so straightforward as to be almost self-evident i.e. the exploitation of any limited resource by individual parties in furtherance of maximizing their own self-interest which collectively serves to deplete or even exhaust said resource to the ultimate detriment of all. What is the tragedy of the commons? - Nicholas Amendolare - YouTube. That resource could be anything that represents a finite limit, from fish in a pond (the simple YouTube example), agricultural land, building acreage, neighborhood park, access to education, roads/parking, or even pollution/climate warming at the global (yet still finite) level…
Read MoreMarcel Marceau, the famous French mime, danced a revealing truth in his parable of the man and his mask. A little man playfully tries on a series of masks. After cavorting about exhilarated by his disguises, he grows tired of the novelty and tries to remove the mask. Horrified, he discovers that he cannot. The mask is fixed to his face. A terrible struggle follows; his body writhes in agony while his face remains frozen in a grin. At last the false face is wrenched off, but the real face behind it is now simply a blank Marcel Marceau - The Mask Maker (1959)…
Read MoreNew Era Colorado has figured it out: the immense potential political power represented by the youth contingent. Perhaps, though, the youth contingent first needs to be awakened Young people say they plan on voting in November ... - Washington Post . Or, in this post-mortem on the “tired radicals” of the First World War era, Walter Weyl wrote, “Adolescence is the true day of revolt, the day when obscure forces, as mysterious as growth, push us trembling out of our narrow lives into the wide throbbing life beyond self.”…
Read MoreAs our nation threatens to pinwheel into identity politics — too much Pluribus and not enough Unum — perhaps it’s a good time to take stock of the unifying myths that have defined America in the first place…
Read MoreWho knew?: Title 40 of the U.S. Code makes it a federal offense to take your bicycle into the National Institute of Health building, not because any legislative body ever deliberated on that subject but because it's one of the wholesale regulations (this one by the DHS) automatically incorporated into that criminal statute…
Read MorePerhaps a big story, such as this one about “illegal” immigrants, is best told as the mosaic of little stories like the one we discussed years ago as portrayed in the novel Tortilla Curtain: Mexican illegal Candido Rincon is left as so much road kill after having been accidentally struck by Delaney Mossbacher's SUV on a southern California highway. Candido…
Read MoreStep one is the acknowledgment of its pervasiveness. It’s the call of the all-night FM disc jockey taking requests all the while beseeching, “Is there anybody out there, anybody at all?”..
Read MoreMember Monday (4/16)/The Making Of a Congressman II is the second in our series with Mark Williams, examining the realities of participatory politics. The series centers around providing us — armchair "everyman" wannabes — a glimpse of the nuts and bolts involved with running for political office…
Read MoreWe once discussed the delicious book Night Train To Lisbon (discussion intro 9/26/10, attached below) with the question: given that we can only live a small part of what there is in us — what happens to all the rest?…
Read MoreAsk the owner of a sick or seriously injured pet about capping the anticipated vet bill and you may learn something about animal connection. “Whatever it takes.” But the dog in any case is nearing the end of its natural life. Whatever it takes. But the poor thing is suffering from advanced arthritis, incontinence, and a horrendous case of halitosis. Don’t refer to him as a thing and, yes, Whatever It Takes...
Read MoreMental illness. The very term conjures up . . . . what, exactly? First impression, maybe: the guy talking to himself on the bus; the depressed shut-in; the alcoholic on the street; that hyper-focused Aspergers guy featured in The Big Short who made a fortune; or any other of the afflicted representing one of the 297 personality disorders listed in the DSM-5…
Read MoreSome years ago a provision was added to the Boulder Municipal Code declaring Boulder to be a nuclear free zone. The City Council followed that up with a mayors-for-peace initiative to exempt Boulder (and other cities) as a nuclear target. Whew, with that threat now reduced, we can move on to other matters…
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