Category: politics
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SIFT with WikiPedia and AI: Killings in Minnesota
The national and international events of the past several weeks have been positively dizzying and even disorienting. As I write this on January 27, 2026, we (as a nation) are recovering from the shock of two killings by federal law enforcement officials (ICE and CBP) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Incredibly, even though both shootings / killings…
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Inbox Alchemy via Vibe Coding
Back in September I wrote about my “DIY Federated Reader” experiment: a Gmail-to-Mastodon bot that turns my newsletter inbox into a public, federated news stream I’m able to read as a “feed” in Flipboard. This project is now featured on the “Trusted Voices” page of ResistAndHeal.com, a website and project I started in December 2024.…
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Creating YouTube Shorts with Descript.com
I recently created and published a series of shorts for YouTube (videos less than 60 seconds long, all formatted with a portrait (9 x 16) rather than landscape aspect ratio from the 8 minute video of my speech at the No Kings rally, in Charlotte, North Carolina, on June 14, 2025. In this post, I…
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Hijacked Minds and Broken Trust
In this wide-ranging podcast conversation, Scott Galloway discusses numerous issues of interest with Sam Harris, including how important it is that we rebuild trust in institutions across our society and culture, and the toxic power of Twitter / X in hijacking our minds for the worse. Listen to the original podcast episode on Pocket Casts.…
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Why Regulate AI?
Why should we regulate artificial intelligence? This was the question we tackled at the Thursday evening discussion group at Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 20, 2025. This presentation and conversation was shared by Wes Fryer of Charlotte, North Carolina, a 1988 graduate of Manhattan High School and current middle school and…
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Reading Wish List
Long form reading may be a relic of the past for younger generations in US society and culture for a variety of reasons, but I still believe in both the power of reading and its importance in our shared civic culture. For a number of years now, I’ve maintained a public aspirational reading list on…
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6 Things to Do
In today’s fast-paced world, it feels almost impossible to tune into any news—whether it’s from broadcast television or social media—without feeling overwhelmed. As of early February 2025, the sheer volume and intensity of current events have many people feeling either elated or deeply troubled. Regardless of where we fall on the political spectrum, navigating this…
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NotebookLM on Project 2025
At the risk of ruining your Thanksgiving holiday and throwing us further into a “psychological funk” as we approach the political uncertainties of 2025, I’d like to share a brief (and successful) experiment I conducted yesterday using the full PDF of Project 2025 and the artificial intelligence (AI) model NotebookLM. As you may be aware,…
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Ending Christian Nationalism
These are my notes from Amanda Tyler’s presentation about her book, “How to End Christian Nationalism” on October 22, 2024, at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. This was a conversation facilitated by Jennifer Roberts, former mayor of Charlotte. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS…
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Dehumunization is Wrong
Dehumanizing other human beings: Denying the essential humanity of other people, is ethically wrong and immoral at a basic level. It is also dangerous, because people who view other human beings as sub-human or “inhuman” are capable of horrific atrocities. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights embodies the aspirational values of our founding documents in…