Whoopi Goldberg made headlines recently when she stated that the holocaust was a terrible event, but not an example of racism. Joy Behar, who rarely disagrees with Whoopi, pushed back that the Nazi’s certainly felt that it was a race-based decision – pointing out that they publicly pushed the narrative that Jews were an inferior…
Continue ReadingLogic, Hate Crimes and Microagressions
Title 1 of the Civil Rights Act passed in 1968 and included provisions against willfully injuring or intimidating an individual based on their race, religion, color, etc. As personal and group identity has become more and more important in the national discourse over the past 50 years, it’s not surprising that the definition of hate…
Continue ReadingWhich Party Gets It Right?
CNN political analyst Joe Lockhart recently told Brian Stelter that “from the very first briefing the Trump spokespeople lied, they lied every day…” followed by, “Jen Psaki is in there telling the truth…” This is a classic example of illogical party loyalty. An impartial observer would find that Jen Psaki, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, et al…
Continue ReadingA Few Pet Peeves
I know the premise of More Spock is to use logic rather than emotion in analyzing societal issues, but I am human and I have my own pet peeves. Here are four of mine – feel free to share yours. People who abuse handicapped parking spaces. Once I was driving my father in his car…
Continue ReadingLogic and Progressive Solutions
America owes a lot to progressives. If not for progressives, women wouldn’t be allowed to own property, vote or possibly even drive. If not for progressives, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act would never have passed in 1964. If not for progressives, white males might be the only attendees at our nation’s colleges and…
Continue ReadingSome thoughts on Privilege
Privilege (n) a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group. We recognize our own privilege when the term is used in the positive: You would like for me to speak at the Fall Conference? It would be my privilege. I had the privilege of meeting Dizzy Gillespie…
Continue ReadingLogic and the Southern Border
The current border debate is confusing. Especially since the people who are most passionate about it seem to be on the opposite side of the debate from what logic might dictate. Democrats typically favor some form of open borders allowing thousands of people from Mexico, Central and South America to enter the U.S. each month….
Continue ReadingLogic and the Climate Change Debate
There is perhaps no issue that is more politicized than human influences on climate change. COVID-19 might be a close second. In most surveys I’ve seen, the number of people who believe the concept of global warming is a complete hoax is usually around 18%, almost 1 in 5. I wanted to learn more about…
Continue ReadingConstructs and Religions
In a previous blog entitled Logic and Human Constructs, we discussed the uniquely human ability and tendency to create explanations for things that we observe, especially when we are able to link observations in a cause-and-effect manner. For example, a child living on a farm in a rural area may conclude that a rooster crowing…
Continue ReadingConstructs and Systemic Racism
Some friends and I were engaged in a conversation about police shootings of unarmed black males that were leading to protests and in some cases, riots. I brought up a scenario I had read about where the police officer who fired the fatal shot was black, the police chief of that city was black, the…
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