Douglas Whaley

Today the President announced that Joe Biden has his “blessing” if he decides to run.   I’m a steady (but not exclusive) Democratic voter, but I could never support Joe Biden for president.   Joe has many good qualities, and I suspect if I knew him I’d think he was a hell of a nice guy, but his past makes it clear that (1) he has a big mouth that he can’t control, (2) he says things he regrets almost immediately, and (3) he’s a compulsive liar.   Those are not good characteristics for a President of the United States. Biden has often embarrassed President Obama by blurting out things without clearance that put the President in awkward situations, but he’s been forgiven over and over (“That’s just Joe!”).   One of these (that much benefited the gay community) was Biden’s support for gay marriage months before Obama was ready to give such an endorsement, forcing the President’s hand and making him act earlier than planned, embarrassing the president ...

All my life I’ve been an optimist—a character flaw in the eyes of many of my friends.   But a confluence of a number of things has turned me into a major pessimist when it comes to the fate of the human race.   I’ve been reading the bestselling book “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari in which he traces the history of our species from its beginning to now, with an emphasis on how—as we’ve developed—we’ve shaped our planet, with results that are not encouraging.   At the same time Free Inquiry Magazine published an issue (June/July 2015,issue 35, number 4) devoted largely to article after article (written by experts) about the population boom, with the depressing message that unless something is done immediately to stop it civilization will collapse, and collapse soon.   Add to that the PBS show “Humanity as Seen From Space,” [YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcShYFoajz0 ] which gives us videos taken from the space station and satellites demons...