The only real conflict between “tribes” of people that has any significance is the conflict between the tribe with a moral compass and the tribe that lacks one.
Stupid-ism
by Cyril Landise
“That’s really stupid of them”, is still a perfectly acceptable thing to say in modern society. However, insert virtually any other group descriptive in that sentence instead of stupid and you will be driven out of the village with pitchforks and torches. Try it: white, black, Arab, Jew, gay, short, fat, male, female … ad…
Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean you’re not being followed.
Do You Believe in Evolution?
by Cyril Landise
There are more people in America who say they don’t know the name of the Vice President than who believe that dinosaurs watched the pyramids being built or that border collies existed from he beginning of time. (This may be literally true. See Pew Poll) So why is it that conservative politicians are routinely asked if they believe in…
there are only two kinds of people,
those who see the point and those who see only the pointer.
Vegetarians and Cannibals
by Cyril Landise
Twenty-two years into vegetarianism, I had an epiphany that I was being hypocritical. I lived thru the winter with the benefit of modern grains and imported vegetables while self-righteously eschewing the consumption of the flesh of grazing animals raised five miles from my home. My organic shiru miso was direct from Japan, broccoli from the Imperial…
A Nation of Immigrants – Which nation isn’t?
by Cyril Landise
Immigration has been a timely topic for a while now. Everyone seems upset. Everyone seems polarized. As usual, there is little entertainment value in a moderate, reasoned approach. Thus, we appear doomed to a media circus pitting the “Free-them-all-ers” against the “Off-with-their-heads-ers.” The polarization, this time, seems to have swung a little to the left politically, since any…
Fluoride is medicine’s greatest success … or a mind control conspiracy.
by Cyril Landise
Fluoridation hysteria rears its head whenever the topic of adding fluoride to the water supply is broached. It seems that a few people are rabidly against it, and about an equal number are rabidly in favor of it. Most folks seem to be in the middle, if they care at all. Where the fluoridation controversy veers off…
Another New Normal – Are you biased?
by Cyril Landise
Is it normal to win the lottery? Well, yes it is … for someone. But does that make it abnormal to not win? Our dualistic nature seems to like nice, neat opposites. If it’s not good, it must be bad. Beware of false opposites. Plain M&M’s are not the opposite of peanut M&M’s, they are just…
“I’ll have the cod.” – status and food choice
by Cyril Landise
There is nothing like earning a spot on the endangered species list to elevate a trash fish to haute cuisine. For centuries, the codfish was the protein of peasants: the salted baccalà of the Mediterranean and its immigrants, the pennies per pound, frozen bricks of cod fillets, broiled while still rectangular, topped with a touch…