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Ignorance is Bliss (2)
My previous post on this topic focused on Trump’s nominations for critical cabinet and other positions in the executive branch. But I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to point out that the expression in the title applies to many other situations as well, one of which relates to a recent and unfortunate encounter I…
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The Day After
So, we didn’t just lose the presidency, we lost the senate too. And chances are we will lose the house as well! 😟 Go project 2025. 😥 In his last term, he did what he promised (except for the wall): tax cuts for the wealthy (Reagan’s trickle-down economics) and overturning of Roe v. Wade (probably…
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The Election Night
With most polls indicating a very close presidential race -pretty much within their margins of error- I doubt anyone can confidently make a prediction about the outcome of the presidential election (please see How Reliable Are Election Polls for a more sinister view on the predictions made solely based on such polls in general). However,…
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Questions for Elon Musk
How much is a person’s dignity worth? or their pride and self-respect? in absolute terms, or relative to one’s current worth. What does it take for a well-educated, incredibly intelligent person to set aside all that intelligence and play dumb, pretending that they don’t understand or appreciate the absurdity of pretty much anything the former…
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Living a Contradiction
Warning: this post discusses some unpleasant and extremely sad thoughts; please return at a later time if you feel you do not currently have the emotional strength to handle such a discussion. Several of my friends have heard me talk about the following ad nauseam: “when a wolf eats a rabbit, the rabbit loses her…
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Absolute Immunity? Absolutely!
July 1st, 2024 will probably be recorded as one of the saddest days in the history of American democracy; the day the conservative majority of the Supreme Court of the United States acted as an extension of the defense team of a former president who had incited an insurrection among other egregious acts, each one…
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Fact or Opinion?
You look at the little display on the A/C thermostat at your home, which reads 78 degrees, and you think, “what a pleasantly warm day.” Your wife just gets back home from grocery shopping, looks at the thermostat, and says: “Oh my God, it’s 78, don’t you think it’s too hot here? Why didn’t you…
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How Reliable Are Election Polls?
I will provide, below, a brief and very basic introduction to the main concepts involved in the polling process, to setup the stage for the main point I would like to make in the last few paragraphs. If you are familiar with statistics and probability theory, you are encouraged to skip to the last few…