The abortion issue is one where I am firmly in the undecided camp.  Not because I disagree with either side but because I agree with both.

The Libertarian streak in me bristles at the thought that the state should control what a woman can and cannot do with their own bodies when it comes to having babies.  What could be a more intrinsic and natural right than the right to decide one’s own reproduction?  So a part of me agrees that a woman should have an absolute right to abort a fetus if she so chooses to do so — it’s her body.  And there are ancillary arguments that are not without weight as well: 1) that if abortions aren’t legal and carried out by licensed doctors, they will be done anyway but by quacks with potentially fatal results for the woman, and 2) that if the pregnant woman is…

I must admit to have been a Trekkie — for the series with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.  But I’m not ashamed to admit that I never missed an episode, and still enjoy the reruns, although now I think some of the razzle dazzle technology a bit outdated, with the except of the tricorder (first smartphone?) and beaming people up and down and all around — no better way to travel.

Despite being popular culture, there were some episodes that had a real contemporary edge to them and a strong message.  I remember one where there were two races on this planet who hated each other with a visceral hatred that they could barely contain.  They were in mortal civil war at each other’s throats when the Enterprise showed up to mediate the conflict.  What was truly brilliant about this episode about racism was that the two races were in…

“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.”  Epictetus

Epictetus Quotations

My Story

Is there an afterlife?  Religious people always think so, and how you are treated in the afterlife is based on how well you behaved while alive, so for them there is even a kind of morality involved in death — good people are rewarded, while bad people pay a dear price — for an eternity no less.  Fine.

I know we can’t peek beyond the grave, but let’s just think about what is undeniable about death.  For one thing, you won’t have the 5 senses you have now to interface with whatever the reality is after death.  You won’t be able to see anything because you won’t have eyes; you won’t be able to smell anything because you won’t have a nose — in fact, all 5 senses are not going to be available to you.  Another thing that is certainly missing is the brain.  You won’t be able to think…

It is common now for the very wealthy to enter into marriages with a prenuptial agreement in order to protect the party who is extremely wealthy from being bilked by a would-be gold digger.  Given the fact that everyone knows how vicious and extremely  expensive divorce can be, prenuptial agreements would appear to be a very rational arrangement.

Today we have the so-called “Me Too Movement” where women who have been victimized by some kind of sexual transgression are coming forward and identifying the man who victimized them.  This is all to the good versus what happened in the old days where the victimized woman would just stay mum for a variety of questionable reasons — she felt she wouldn’t be believed, she didn’t want the blowback, she didn’t want the embarrassment of being victimized, she didn’t want the ordeal of a trial, etc.

But has the pendulum swung too…