Written by Alex Dunn After over half a year of living and dying with the COVID-19 virus, a new form of tribalism has appeared. The human capacity for finding opposing sides on any conceivable topic, now extends to how to survive a global health crisis. Whereas a reasonable person might expect that when all of…
W.J. Astore Investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, physicist Richard Feynman reached a famous conclusion: “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.” The COVID-19 virus is not going to be fooled with lies. It’s not going to be fooled by a denial of medical science. You…
Michael Gallagher The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced on January 23, 2020 that its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” has moved forward to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest to catastrophe that the scientists have judged the world to be at any point since its creation in 1947, at the outset of the Cold War. My…
Gregory Laxer For some time now, a towering irony has tickled my brain, though at root the topic is not at all amusing. This is the paradox that the regions of the United States that are suffering the most devastating effects of the climate crisis appear to be home to the greatest concentrations of those…
Stuart Lyle Just how catastrophic is climate change for humans, and for all living things on Earth? There are plenty writers, like the independent journalist Dahr Jamail, who are now beginning to document the full impact of climate disruption. If you swipe away the climate-change deniers as nothing more than self-serving toadies to a generation…
Robert W. Morrow, M.D. Are you ready for industrial medicine? Profit-driven chains looking to sell candy, cosmetics, and your personal healthcare? Ready or not, the transformation of US healthcare is underway. Retail chains are ready to make policy and provide our health services. And they know the best legislators and regulators that money can buy.…
Peter van Buren Protocols exist allowing the president to select American citizens, without a whit of due process, for drone killing. Only overseas, Obama says, but you can almost see the fingers crossed behind his back. Wouldn’t an awful lot of well-meaning Americans have supported an aerial drone killing in San Bernardino, or at the…
W.J. Astore. Also at Huff Post. America’s thinking about military action is impoverished. The U.S. military speaks of precision munitions and surgical strikes, suggesting a process that is controllable and predictable. Experts cite Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz for his axiom that war is a continuation of political discourse with the admixture of violent…
P.J. Sullivan The controversy over health care in America misses an important point, that the human body is a self-healing organism. Americans think that doctors and medicines are the only options for the sick. They are not. There will always be a role for doctors, but the majority of illnesses are preventable and curable without…
W.J. Astore Twenty-five years ago, I wrote the following paper for a class in the history of technology. Back then, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and acid rain as well as global warming were issues highlighting the drawbacks of technology. CFCs were damaging the ozone layer, acid rain was poisoning our lakes and streams and damaging trees, with…
The Contrary Perspective 