Links on "Big Think"
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The publication of Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue,” is the latest
skirmish in the fierce ideological battle among Republicans. This week's series asks: who will
fill the GOP power vacuum and lead the conservative movement?
First guest is former Majority Leader Dick Armey, who argues that Palin was "everything that Hi...llary Clinton pretends to be: an independent woman making her own way on her own terms," but had her political career sabotaged by the McCain camp.
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Dick Armey: Well, there are a great many opportunities for that leader to emerge. And by the way, when the Republican Party has itself embraced this concept, it has prospered with the voting electorate.
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Will Phillips, the 10 year old student in Arkansas who is refusing to pledge allegiance to a country that discriminates against gays, is in good company.
As a boy, Cornel West also refused to pledge allegiance to a country where his uncle could be lynched, and wound up punching his teacher over it:
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Cornel West: Well, one, of course, I'm my momma's child and my daddy's kid. Irene and the late Clifton West. That West family is just so precious. I was saturated with love that's beyond description; I ...
Big Think
Another day of free stuff! We're giving away a signed copy of John Irving's newest novel to a lucky commenter as well some Ben & Jerry's ice cream coupons (compliments of our recent guest, the company's CEO).
We're also bringing you the final installment of our 11-part series on female sexuality--enjoy!
bigthink.com
Our eleven-part series looks at female sexuality in all its glorious diversity, from women who have touch-less orgasms to women who choose not to have sex at all. We spoke to psychosexual therapists, gender experts, and research psychologists.
Big Think Still ambling about with the vague intention of finishing that big project? You might take comfort in Jonathan Ames' creative schedule, who punctuates his time in front of the screen with periods of "messing around," lying down, coffee drinking, and efforts to feel a bit less afraid.
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Jonathan Ames: I don’t have much of a routine. I’m a slightly disorganized person. I tend to resist routine. It’s been a while since I worked on a novel. When I did and let’s say ...
Big Think Today, Big Think kicks off the first part of a series examining the age-old question: What Do Women Really Want? This first section brings together the woman who popularized the G-Spot with a scientist who believes that you can "think yourself to orgasm."
bigthink.com
We've interviewed six experts on female sexuality and will be posting their ideas over the next three days. Today, we hear from two scientists who study the nature of female orgasm.
Big Think As the prominent professor Cornel West explains, the great musicians—like John Coltrane, Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan—understand life in all its bristling glory: find your passion, never leave it, and become a prisoner to the hope that it matters.
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Cornel West: Yeah, but the thing about indifference is that it's always a choice that we make, you see. So that if you choose to have an iciness of soul and a hardening of heart and a coarsening of conscience, that leads towards indifference. ...
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As the legendary evolutionary biologist explains, human intercourse is far from a basic fact of life as the act throws away half of our genes and is therefore entirely irrational from an evolutionary perspective. Read More
Big Think
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently opened a
major research university, KAUST, with an endowment to rival Harvard's.
Will it help lead Saudi Arabia to Western-style modernism?
bigthink.com
Robert Lacey: A few weeks ago I went to the opening of King Abdullah’s new university. It’s called KAUST, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and it’s supposed to rival MIT. ...
Big Think Nixonland author Rick Perlstein wonders if any U.S. President will be able to be truly post-partisan given the nature of movement conservatives.
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Rick Perlstein: Well, the problem with Obama’s post-partisan agenda is that he came into it. He came into his presidency at a time when millions of Americans, perhaps even tens of millions of Americans don’t consider a democrat president legitimate. ...
Big Think Carrie Battan wonders who likes Facebook more: the British or Americans?
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When news comes out of Twitter using its social networking dominance to market its own brand of wine, it’s easy to get the sense that people might be ushering out Facebook (and everything else, for ...