Globally Rational

You are browsing the archives of 2008 April.

People often tell me that Muslims deserve the treatment they get because we tend to produce more extremists than other religions. Let’s disregard all other factors (for example, the fact that Christian extremists have been common in the past, just not today) and take a look at one of the many incidences where a Jewish rabbi calls for extremist action. I don’t have a problem with every Israeli just because a few of them call for atrocities… so why do people have a problem with all Arabs just because a few of them do the same?

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//This is the third article in my View From Above series. Click here to see the first two: the first one covers Kuwait, London, New York, and Boston; the second one covers Missouri and Indiana.
Off in the distance, I see the lights emanating from Pittsburgh. Compared with the rest of the areas along […]

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//I recently put up a guest post on another person’s blog about my perspective on global warming, as one of the rare scientists who actually enjoys writing about issues. Click here to check it out.
Popularity: 78% [?]Rate this: 2.5If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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//I just posted a new entry in the essays section; it’s called “Thank-you Cards”. It is my story as the first son of the first son of the only son in a culture driven by pride and success. I wrote it a few years ago (before I decided to go to medical school in […]

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//This is the second post in my View From Above series. Click here to see the first, which covers Kuwait, London, New York, and Boston.
As I write this, I’m flying over central Indiana as part of my trip from Kansas City to Baltimore. Out of one corner of my window, I can see […]

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//I’ve been asked questions like “where are you from?” many times. Every time, it’s clear to me that the inquisitor wants to know what country I was born in. I refuse to succumb; it’s not that I have any lack of respect for my background, but I just don’t understand why the person […]

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//Today is the day that many Americans will rush to the post office to get their taxes filed right at the deadline. Personally, I got a refund this year from the federal government, but I owe a couple of hundred dollars to the state government… which means that I filed my federal taxes early […]

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//For those of you who haven’t been following the US election, Obama recently said the following (click here for the full transcript); some are calling it “Bittergate”:
The truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go […]

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//I often hear country music songs that try to convince people to support certain political issues without actually presenting any real evidence. Their purpose is just to appeal to your emotions. Today I present the first two stanzas from Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” (the whole song would be […]

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//I think we can all agree that the advancement of science, especially medical science, is of paramount importance. So why is it that the National Institutes of Health, among other similar institutions, are always low on manpower and money?
I think that the NIH needs to establish a nationwide (or, preferably, global) network of peer-reviewed […]

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