Category: Edgewise

  • Illegality of Marijuana May Cause Lung Disease

    A few studies now suggest that marijuana may increase the risk of lung disease–not the marijuana itself, but its illegality, which makes it expensive, causing people to hold the smoke deep inside their lungs. The DEA is all about Public Health. They will undoubtedly now campaign to make marijuana legal and cheap, so the smoking…

  • If Jews had met Budhists

    Great religious coincidence. Last week I wrote to a friend: “But mainly the sense of Jewish superiority was in relation…to the idol worshipers. It would have been interesting if there were strong contact between Jews and Buddhists, but it didn’t happen. So there were not other high religions [in their world] to [give] respect [to],…

  • New from Aristotle

    This came in this morning’s Aristotle message: “To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.” It came as news to me that he had said this. He never mentioned to me before. And if I am remembering the dates right, it must have come before Descartes’…

  • Sitting next to my father

    It could be a very curious experience sitting next to my father watching a bad movie. He thoroughly enjoyed anticipating the next line of a predictable dialog. This involved more than just getting the words right. There was also the timing. It had to be quick, and had to hit on the half-beat in the…

  • Sort of about Chanukah and Christmas

    Got this in the email today: The lasting achievement of the Maccabees was not that they won a war but that they rekindled the light of hope in Jewish hearts and saved the faith of monotheism from defeat. – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1997 [Background: Chanukah celebrates the victory in the…

  • Funundrum

    Nobody knows what the Sun really looks like. –DKo