Says Rick Shenkman. Well, okay, maybe you're an exception, but most Americans ignorance of history, civics, and political issues is absolutely appalling. Shenkman doesn't get into other areas, such as science -- actually Europeans aren't all that scientifically literate either but at least more than half of them believe in evolution. I'm having a hard time getting used to the finding that 25% of Am...

The other half of the system that controls our behavior is, of course, pleasure. Life would be a stone drag if we were only guided by aversion, but fortunately there are some things that positively make us feel good. Oddly enough, more than a few people subscribe to ethical systems which tend to condemn them, and if George Carlin were still alive I'd bring him in to discuss that oddity, but I'll ha...

This slightly odd article in PLoS Medicine got me to thinking. The point of the study was to try to assess whether the usual signs that an infant is in pain -- which would be, you know, grimacing and crying and stuff -- are necessarily going to happen whenever pain is present. That may seem like a dumb question, but I don't suppose it is. The neurological equipment is still getting hooked up in ver...

This was never mentioned in all those obituaries in the corporate media. (I'll bet Jean Valjean will really like this one.) Not safe for work, as they say.Let's not forget what Carlin was really all about -- and why there's a broad cultural conspiracy to remake and redefine him now that he can no longer speak for himself.Oh yeah, and this one too....

Otherwise it would be known as the teethbrush. (Before you start composing the hate mail, you should know that we have a tradition in Massachusetts and New Hampshire of insulting each other. It's okay, they're still Sox fans and we still go skiing.)I'm planning to have big fun this afternoon getting endodontic therapy, popularly known as a root canal. This will be my third, which leads me to reflec...