New York Times (September 19)
“No sensible person can dispute that Covid-19 is a great tragedy for humanity,” And yet measured, “by the cold logic of evolution: The career of SARS-CoV-2 so far is, in Darwinian terms, a great success story…. Bad luck for us. But evolution is not rigged to please Homo sapiens.”
Tags: Cold logic, COVID-19, Darwinian, Dispute, Evolution, Homo sapiens, Humanity, SARS-CoV-2, Sensible, Success story, Tragedy
The Guardian (July 29)
“Ireland’s place in the global hierarchy appears on the rise, and the UK has continued marvelling at the shrewd cunning of their plucky little neighbour.” But some of the praise seems unwarranted. “Ireland hasn’t turned into some 24th-century futurist utopia so much as installed sensible public policy that should seem unremarkable in a modern democracy.” It’s simply that Ireland’s “mild competency… can appear to be stone-cold genius compared with the UK’s blundering mess.”
Tags: Competency, Cunning, Democracy, Genius, Global hierarchy, Ireland, Mess, Praise, Sensible, Shrewd, UK, Utopia
Washington Post (April 2)
For weeks President Trump “talked nonsense….. The failure to prepare and the foot-dragging that has followed will mean … more people will get sick and die. Yes, those deaths — the losses that could have been prevented by sane, sensible decisions his own advisers were urging — are on Trump’s head. No amount of spin will absolve him of that responsibility.”
Tags: Absolve, Deaths, Failure, Foot-dragging, Losses, Nonsense, Prepare, Sane, Sensible, Sick, Spin, Trump
Houston Chronicle (November 7)
“With due respect to the faith and beliefs of every person, especially the grieving residents of Sutherland Springs, the rote statements of politicians were almost blasphemous in their repetition and meaninglessness. From Japan, President Trump’s ‘thoughts and prayers’ riff was so stale and scripted that it conveyed all the sincerity of a robocall offering an extended warranty on a kitchen appliance. The irony no doubt escaped the president that he was speaking to tortured souls in small-town Texas from a nation with strict and sensible gun laws. A nation where gun violence is almost unheard of.”
Tags: Blasphemous, Faith, Grieving, Gun laws, Japan, Politicians, Sensible, Strict, Sutherland Springs, Thoughts and prayers, Trump, U.S., Violence