Renaissance Pundit's Posterous

Confronting The Beautiful Mess of Adult Life

Error is as Human as Intellect itself

Excellent analysis of how our analytical arrogance of "superior natural selection" has led to unnatural rejection of error as a cause for self-defeatism and demonization of others. If we can embrace our very much human propensity toward probabilistic reasoning, which leads as much to truth as to error, we will be able not only to decrease legal expenses (damned lawyers are to blame, as always - as if WE never make mistakes ;), but also to solve some of the greatest societal challenges, such as adverse drug reactions and economic crises (just maybe, yeah right).

Moral of the story: cast not the first stone at yourself or at another for erring. We're just built to be wrong, and there's nothing shameful or dammit about it. Just gotta deal.

http://mobile.boston.com/art/21//bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/06/13/the_br...


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Yuri Kruman

Posted June 18, 2010

The lost Jews

The profligate flouting of the law by Israeli Haredim (both the letter and the spirit) is almost as egregious as their trampling of Ahavat Israel to the ends of what could rightly be called idolatry of Ashkenazi "cultural superiority." An Israel where Haredim will soon be the majority promises to enter not just a demographic crisis in the absence of much higher economic participation in civil society, but also a crisis of democratic and inherently Jewish values. This last bit is by far the most troubling, as it should be for all of us, whether Ashki or Sephardi, religious or secular. I hope that Israelis of all stripes will stand up against the bigotry of these protesters. The Rabbis who promote this perverse worldview and refuse to compromise are also to blame. Let's put an end to the madness and name- calling, and co-exist, guys. The Chabad model is really the best for all of us.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=178801

Posted June 18, 2010

Op-Ed Contributor - The ‘Learning Knights’ of Bell Telephone - NYTimes.com

What a brilliant idea, this Institute of Liberal Arts for Executive Education! I wish This should be standard for eveyone, in general.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/opinion/16davis.html?hp

Posted June 16, 2010

The Smart Set: The Explorer - June 2, 2010

A new and fresh look at what Jacques Cousteau gave us - not just beautiful moving pictures of the sea and an explorer's perspectives on difficult life questions, but also a child's fascination with human civilization and an ultimate conclusion that the Earth (and by extension, the universe) is too elegantly complex to understand, just as we are, to ourselves, in the end...

http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article06021001.aspx

Posted June 14, 2010

How Erdogan overplayed his hand

Spot on. Erdogan has been unmasked by his own arrogance. It won't be long before his ship of fools capsizes. I just hope that Turks will want their country back from the brink of creeping Islamism come to bear in an axis stretching from Iran through Syria. Decline for the country isn't far off, otherwise.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=178022

Posted June 11, 2010

Studies Show Jews’ Genetic Similarity - NYTimes.com

This proves once and for all that Ashkis and Sephardim are basically the same people, at least certainly in the genetic sense. There was obviously a ton of "intermarriage" between the two groups over the centuries of exile.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/science/10jews.html?hp

Posted June 9, 2010

Our World: The plain truth about Israel

Glick, with a simple, boldly forthright and critical restatement of why the U.S. must back Israel to achieve its strategic goals in the Middle East, contrary to it's current goals of effectively empowering the radicals in the region.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=177762

Posted June 7, 2010

No Holds Barred: Open season on the Jewish state

Let's not allow the intellectual laziness (and sometimes, vocal Israel- bashing) of self-hating Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere come to represent our collective voice, folks. Feet of the rulers to the fire, so goes the whole democracy idea.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=177764

Posted June 7, 2010

Too Broke To Be This Stupid - To A New Social Compact

Mark Steyn lays out why the middle class in Western democracies won't forever continue subsidize social welfare and other egregious avenues for waste and stupidity that we've gained from an increase in overall societal wealth and the attendant illusions of grandeur and exculpation of guilt by throwing away public money. I definitely agree - the rope is coming to an end. We really are much too broke to be this stupid.
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> http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/05/27/were-too-broke-to-be-this-stupid/

Posted June 1, 2010

Anti-Socialist Realism | The New Republic

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> Solid primer on Vassily Grossman, one of the greatest writers of the > 20th Century. Highly recommend "Life and Fate" as well as the book > reviewed, "Everything Flows."
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> http://www.tnr.com/book/review/actually-existing-social-realism

Posted June 1, 2010