As a white person, I feel like any opinions I voice on race need to be heavily discounted. As a white person, I’m not sure I have the right to say much of anything at all. The thing is, because of the social circles I’m in and because one of my jobs is at Capital…
Philosophy Phridays is a series where each Friday, I go to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, click on “random entry,” and then write about whatever comes up. This week’s random entry is Tense and Aspect. As someone who tutors English and frequently works with students for whom English is a second language, I find myself…
You know how people say that peoples from the arctic have fifty words for snow? They say it because it’s supposed to seem impressive, but it never struck me as impressive. And apparently it’s not true. That’s too bad. While not impressed, I like the flexibility of language, and it saddens me that arctic peoples…
There was another mass shooting yesterday at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. I was going to write about it yesterday, but I was too sad and angry. I read that this is the 45th school shooting this year. That is shocking to me. I had only heard about a few of those. Apparently school shootings…
Yesterday Hartford, CT decided to get in on the Moral Monday phenomena. A group of protesters blocked the Hartford side of the Founder’s Bridge just before rush hour. Their stated goal was to spread the “black lives matter” message. This wasn’t a smart way to spread that message. Like anything else, protests can be done…
Lyrics don’t normally matter to me. I barely even notice them. But one set of lyrics I find myself thinking about quite a bit is “If I Fell” by The Beatles: If I fell in love with you Would you promise to be true And help me understand ‘Cause I’ve been in love before And…
Update: Wendell Holmes died today from complications due to pulmonary hypertension. This isn’t surprising since he posted this open letter a few days ago. In honor of his life, I thought I’d re-post the piece I wrote in January when we lost Popsy. Willie “Popsy” Dixon died on Friday of bladder cancer. For those who…
There’s a new Star Wars movie out. You might have heard about it. I saw it and I can say that it is easily one of the top ten best Star Wars films. But this post is not about the new film. Leading up to the new film, I re-watched all six of the old…
By Jamil Rashad Ragland Only after Tania saw the bone protruding from the man’s leg did she feel bad. It hadn’t punctured the skin, but the unnatural bulge below his knee was unmistakable. He was curled up into himself on the concrete, wailing in agony as his hands hovered near the broken leg. She watched…
After reading Joe Biden’s unimaginative, business-as-usual op-ed in the New York Times, I wondered, “How has the progressive left come to this?” In the end, it was Bernie Sanders as the progressive representative against Biden, and to be honest, I disliked both of these candidates equally. My dream candidate, Stacey Abrams, didn’t run, and my…
