Monthly Archives: April 2014

What, after all is the point of all this? Presumably the goal of pornography is the release of tension through masturbation. Yet religions, philosophers (Kant, Voltaire and Rousseau) and, until quite recently, scientists have condemned the practice. Doctors in the … Continue reading →

Have I got your attention? Are there any other one-syllable words in American English that can provoke such strong – yet mixed – emotions?  Some hear the word and anticipate private pleasure, immediate gratification or opportunities for male bonding, but … Continue reading →

In September of 2020, with the pandemic, the economy, the racial violence, the election (see my essay, “A Mythologist Looks at the 2020 Election”)  and (for Californians) the forest fires on our minds, it’s easy for us to shunt thoughts … Continue reading →

Psychologist David Feldman writes: …the tendency to blame the victim may be programmed into the human mind at a very basic level…(it) may originate, paradoxically, in a deep need to believe that the world is a good and just place…On … Continue reading →