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Can You Imagine?

Vote-On Vote-On “Until the late nineteenth century the question of woman’s ability to profit from or even survive higher education was controversial. Vassar College opened in 1865 was often described by its first president as an experiment.… as late as 1871 an MD at Harvard Medical School published a book on the dangers of higher…

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Development & Prosperity in Chatham County North Carolina

Does upgrading become more prevalent as a county gets richer? Welcome new developments? Continue to work on Haw River and Jordan Lake cleanup? Keep Kudzu out? Control Sevin dust and Coyotes? What development and prosperity did the first settlers have in mind when they came here around 1751? Apparently the Catawba Indians were friendly towards the colonists and later served side by side with them fighting the British in our Revolutionary War. How did it turn out for the Catawba? It’s easy to justify anti-development perspectives as long as one forgets that there’s probably not a single person contributing to this debate who would be here were it not for a long series of developers.

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War on Religion

Delete Religion An active constituency insists that civilization would be better off with no religion. This anti-religion constituency has grown in numbers. They claim religion is mumbo-jumbo. They remind people about centuries of dastardly behavior, violence against weddings and worshipers, pilgrims and patients, students and children committed in the name of some religious brand. They…

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ER writes: "why is it taking so long for men to become "real" people? or for that matter, for people to become "real" people?

ER writes: “why is it taking so long for men to become “real” people? or for that matter, for people to become “real” people? Allen responds: Who are the “real people”? I have choir rehearsal later this afternoon. One of the songs we’ll be performing on May 8 is Eleanor Rigby a part of a Beetles…

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“Why is it taking so long for women to become real people?”

When will humanity’s genetically all-mutt races move beyond global traditions of destructive prejudice based on cosmetic factors to more constructive common ground?
And when will the destructive consequences of violently imposed anti-education attitudes, implanted by whip and lynching, weaken their hold on victims and perpetrators? Simon Legree still haunts many lands today including our own. He says, “Boys, better not dream about bettering yourselves, quit dreaming and join my gang.” And he says, “Girls, know your place and do what you’re told or I’m going to beat and stone you!” Male violence against women is the Simon Legree of gender.

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Cherry-Picking the Hippocratic Oath

Cherry-picking refers to people’s practice of selecting information to justify their points of view, even as they ignore perspectives and data from the same or similar legitimate sources that contradict their positions.

For example, the Hippocratic Oath is sometimes quoted to justify a stance against abortion rights by the same people who are certain that faith in female divinity as expressed in this document is heretical. Indeed, this oath, from which anti-abortion advocates draw support, was created by people who worshiped goddesses. It states, “I swear by Apollo the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and judgment, the following oath and agreement.”

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Pascal’s Wager and Climate Change

Industrialists, politicians and propagandists in their employ dismiss reports of destructive climate change caused by human activity as mere speculation. If you can’t conclusively prove your claims, they say, your theories are worthless and should be ignored. In order to protect their own commercial and political advantages, they reject suggestions that civilization may be severely…

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Saved by the Sun

A Reuters exclusive posted by journalist Jim Wolf, “Orbital Solar Power Plants Touted for Energy Needs” http://blogs.reuters.com/jim-wolf, describes a fantasy project with the potential to provide civilization with energy for centuries to come. Indian and U.S. space scientists propose that power plants be placed in orbit to collect solar energy and beam it to Earth….