Monthly Archives: February 2015

Impossible but true: a city without traffic lights

One of the most striking things about this small city of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is that there are no traffic lights or stop signs in the whole city. How can that be? By what we know and how we live traffic-wise in el norte, such a thing is impossible. Traffic lights and signs […]

February 26, 2015 – 3:11 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Opiates, anti-depressants, soma

Everybody knows that opiates such as heroin are evil, life-ruining drugs, while anti-depressants such as Prozac are good drugs, gateway only to mental health and reasonable happiness for many millions. An article in the professional journal “Psychotherapy Networker” ( Mary Sykes Wylie, “Falling in Love Again,” July/aug 2014) provides an illuminating historical perspective, pointing out […]

February 18, 2015 – 4:28 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The limits to “ protected speech”

In the wake of Charlie Hebdo we are hearing a lot about “protected speech,” the sort we congratulate ourselves on having in this and other “free, democratic” countries. (And deplore the lack of in, say, Castro’s Cuba.) The term is commonly held to apply to a wide variety of speech but to exclude the sort […]

February 9, 2015 – 11:21 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

JUNKING JUNK MAIL?

In a world with so many big and possibly insoluble problems (cancer, climate, income inequality, religion), this seems a little thing. But it has the advantage of seeming doable, and probably has a connection to the big things. I hereby nominate junk mail reform for my short list of no-brainer improvements in the quality of […]

February 2, 2015 – 2:25 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)