A virus is a small collection of genetic code, either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein coat. A virus cannot replicate alone. Viruses must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of themselves. Often, they kill the host cell in the process, and cause damage to the host organism. … Read more
An important way to understand Trump and Trumpism is as an assault on reality. At issue is the attempt to control, to own, immediate truth along with any part of history that feeds such truth. Robert J. Lifton The desire to control reality is typical of authoritarianism, religious zealotry, and cultism. If you control a … Read more
I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters. Donald Trump, Iowa, January 23, 2016 Donald Trump’s approval rating among Americans has always been between 37 and 45 percent. Just over a third of our citizens seem to support him no matter what he says or … Read more
It has become clear to me recently that the reason rampant wickedness causes great civilizations to fall is because wicked societies allow selfish incompetents to take over the government. Then, when a crisis comes along, it gets mishandled and turns into a disaster. (Yes, the coronavirus pandemic is what helped me see this). In the … Read more
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. Upton Sinclair How could every Republican member of the Senate, save one, have voted to acquit Donald J. Trump of abuse of power in the January 2020 impeachment trial despite the clear evidence of his guilt? … Read more
We now live in a state of “malignant normality.” Lies, assertions, accusations, misinformation, and disinformation flow freely and routinely from the White House and from Fox News. They then get amplified by elected Republicans and through social media to a gullible public. The coronavirus pandemic is highlighting the danger of this situation. A few days … Read more
The Book of Mormon did not come to us easily. Nephi hand made a set of plates out of gold (which he had mined and refined) and engraved the record of his people upon them (1 Nephi 19:1-6). He even made a duplicate set of plates, for a reason he did not know, because the … Read more
The pandemic spread of the 2020 novel coronavirus, with its attendant “stay at home” mandates, has caused many adults to be more directly involved with their children than perhaps they were used to. In particular, the closure of schools has both kept the kids home and shifted a major portion of educating them to their … Read more