Looking at both sides of an argument becomes a trap when both sides are right — Fifth in a Series In 1984, PBS aired a ten-episode series called The Constitution: That Delicate Balance. It was created by CBS News legend Fred Friendly, who had been Edward R. Murrow’s producer during the McCarthy hearings. (George Clooney played Mr. Friendly in Good Night, and Good Luck.) The premise…

The right’s comparison of Trump’s impeachment to the infamous Cadaver Synod has it completely backward — In 897 A.D., a proceeding that has been called the strangest trial in history, the Cadaver Synod, took place in Rome. The late pope Formosus, the first and last of that name, was disinterred from his crypt, dressed in the papal vestments, strapped to the papal throne, carried to the…

How to sustain artists during COVID, and how to help them thrive when COVID is gone — In conjunction with BeAnArtsHero.com and The Dramatists Guild, playwrights and other artists were invited to submit a letter to the incoming President and Vice President about our “hopes, dreams, and vision for what America can become with the arrival of a new administration.” This letter is one response to that…

It’s Okay to Have an Opinion. Really. — Fourth in a series “Opinions,” the vulgar like to say, “are like @$$holes. Everybody’s got one.” As with everything vulgar, the implication is that opinions are every bit as nasty as the thing to which they are being compared. That’s the point of vulgarity: to sully, to make dirty. To…

There’s More Common Ground Than You Think — Third in a Series My wife is smart. When another driver on the road does something that I find objectionable, when the blood tide of testosterone rises, my wife is fond of reminding me that the other driver may not have seen me before cutting in front, or whatever; that…

The opportunity that Joe Biden missed in Tuesday’s debate: compassion — Donald Trump is an IV bag full of rage. In the hospital, after certain procedures, you are sometimes given a morphine drip to ease the pain. This IV bag is attached to a machine that does two things: it provides a clicker so you can self-administer the relief you need…

Bad faith arguments are everywhere — here’s how to spot them, and call them out — Second in a Series The McConnell “Rule” In the political arena, perhaps the most outrageous bad-faith argument in recent years has just leaped back into the news: Sen. Mitch McConnell’s blatant theft of a Supreme Court nomination in 2016. In February of that year, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly…

Learning to argue better is the only escape from the inescapable — First in a series There is No Safe Space When the Coronavirus lockdown began in March, the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation started a clever promotion: three free months, to anyone who wanted them, of their FenderPlay music-instruction program. I was working from home like so many others, and I had…

Why the right wing is trying to silence your activism before it starts — Says Hamlet to his wayward mother: Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery, That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night, And that shall…