History is Calling
An Open Letter to Republican Senators and Representatives
Conscience compels me to write you on this day called Good Friday to humbly and earnestly implore you to consider certain matters in a different light. The eyes of the world, and the eyes of history are upon you. Make no mistake—history is not mere dead letters on the pages of old books but a living, unfolding process in which we all participate, and in which you, as representatives of the People of the United States of America, have the noble honor of playing a central role. With such an honor comes a great weight of moral responsibility, and the tide of events now calls upon you to exercise this responsibility.
Transgender Brains and Mad Scientists—A Question of Identity
Few topics within the contemporary culture wars have generated as much controversy, confusion, and even outright rage, than topics surrounding transgender individuals. From the proper characterization of their gender identities, to their workplace rights, to their place within sports, it seems virtually every facet of their social existence becomes fodder for debate and rife with discord. A perpetual characteristic of the debates surrounding these topics is just how confused everyone seems to be on all sides. Their foes tend to have a childishly simplistic view of sex and gender, which they wrongfully and arrogantly believe is plain fact supported by biological science, and think that anyone who thinks otherwise must be more concerned with feelings than facts. Their would-be friends often seem equally oblivious to the science behind transgender biology, instead preferring to be ecumenical to all perspectives of marginalized LGBT groups, with the result being a way of speaking surrounding these topics that is linguistically clunky, often confusing, and sometimes flatly incoherent.
The Animal Holocaust
It was once said that a single death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. How much less morally comprehensible is the statistic of more than a hundred billion deaths? How do you even make something like that real to the mind? Current best estimates have it that humans slaughter over 70 billion land animals per year, not including marine animals or male chicks slaughtered by egg-laying hen hatcheries. This number is an order of magnitude greater than the total human population of Earth. With marine animals and chicks included, the yearly kill count easily exceeds the sum total of humans who have ever lived on Earth at any time in history—over 120 billion.