If the heavenly host is so numerous, why don’t we see cherubim, seraphim, and all the other divine orders mingling with us at Walmart and Costco every day? — For at least a thousand years in Europe the dominant mythology of Christianity led people to see angels and various other manifestations of the divine. Statues that moved or wept blood were commonplace. Sightings of angelic beings, always at a convenient distance and witnessed helpfully by a single person, were…

Has the UN ever performed any useful function, and should we continue to pay for it? — Anyone familiar with the British TV series Doctor Who circa 2005–2010 will likely have gained an impression of the United Nations as a powerful international body that not only is wise and all-knowing but which also has its own military by means of which to address existential threats. Anyone familiar…

The answer is not to get bigger biceps or flatter stomachs — If Oscars were awarded for acting, this year Emma Thompson would have received one for her lead role in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande. This achingly poignant film is about a widow in late middle-age who hires a young male sex worker in order to experience for the first…

Why lefty-trendy wokists are mostly a source of harmless amusement while howling populist zombies are a fundamental threat to civilization — It is unfortunately the case that politics is increasingly a game of extremes, with cynical politicians pandering to the least intelligent and most bigoted among us in order to garner essential edge-case votes. This is possible only because everyone else votes for “their team” regardless of the inadequacy of individual…

History hinges on such critical moments — Thanks to a mixture of ordinary human stupidity and persistent Russian propaganda, hundreds of thousands of Europeans regularly turn out for street protests against Western support of Ukraine and in favor of “negotiated peace” which in reality means simply appeasing Putin today in order to permit Russian forces to regroup…

Equality does not mean equivalence — We humans spent nearly all of our evolutionary history in conditions of scarcity. Consequently, we’re evolved to prefer indolence to activity whenever possible, as this conserves precious calories. We’re not only adapted to be physically indolent; as the brain burns a lot of blood sugar on the rare occasions we…

We need to stop believing we can lump people into groups and then treat them all accordingly — More than a decade ago, back in the days when I still listened occasionally to the USA’s nearest thing to a radio channel for people with a measurable IQ, there was a radio show recorded in San Francisco and hosted by Michael Krasny called Forum. It’s your classic liberal West…

How ever-more-impressive technologies enable us to be crazy on a global scale — As people slowly become aware of the drawbacks associated with massive over-use of plastics, we’re encouraged to recycle — even though nearly everything put into recycling bins is either dumped in Western landfills or sent to poor countries where it’s dumped on landfills. We could cut back on the amount…

Why our modern fashion for playing the victim robs us of agency and leads to poor outcomes — Anyone who uses United Airlines’ in-flight entertainment system and selects either a TV show or a movie will be presented with a message that says, If you think the contents of this entertainment may offend you or offend another passenger, please choose a different option. Welcome to the wonderful world…