Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan). We are ready for the big one that is coming!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2018

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Works Volume 1 (1977). Mind-blowing. Breathtaking. Words fail.

Here.

Here.

Here are highlights from Stage 16 of the Tour of Spain.

People are saying that this cartoon (click to enlarge) is racist. But why? The cartoon depicts Serena Williams acting like a petulant child. If the cartoon is racist because Serena Williams is black, then any mockery of a black person is, by definition, racist. Serena Williams is also a woman. Is the cartoon sexist? I don't hear anyone saying that. Serena Williams is able-bodied. Is the cartoon making fun of able-bodied people? Again, I don't hear anyone saying that. Serena Williams is (by all accounts) heterosexual. Is the cartoon making fun of heterosexuals? Serena Williams is overweight. Is the cartoon making fun of the obese? I wish philosophers would publicly condemn such shaky logic, but that would be to expect philosophers to be courageous, and they are anything but. Socrates would be appalled.

Addendum: Here is the shaky logic:

1. The cartoon makes fun of Serena Williams.

2. Serena Williams is black.

Therefore,

3. The cartoon makes fun of Serena Williams because she is black.

The conclusion does not follow from the premises. The only way it would follow is if Serena Williams had no other property than being black, which is false. She has many properties, among which are (i) being a petulant child, (ii) being a jerk, (iii) being a sore loser, (iv) being classless, and (v) being a loudmouth. If you were a parent, would you want your children to act like Serena Williams?

By saying he fell asleep during President Barack Obama’s speech, President Donald Trump showed not only meanness but ignorance. He would have done better to have listened closely to Mr. Obama’s perceptive remarks and learned something from them. Reading Mr. Obama’s words as quoted in your article (Sept. 8, “Obama Issues Scathing Critique of Trump, ‘Politics of Fear’”), I felt a breath of sanity and patriotism return to the national dialogue.

However, I think Mr. Obama thought long and hard before he reluctantly spoke out because of the long-held tradition for a past president not to discuss the current president, and he finally felt compelled to do so because our politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, for the most part, haven’t shown the courage or will to speak truth to power. I find that very disheartening. We need heroes.

I’d like to add that I wish Mr. Trump would stop saying “drain the swamp,” and “witch hunt.” Swamps are environmentally necessary for the planet’s well-being, and draining them was, and still is, usually done for profit by big businesses. “Witch hunts” were a horrible practice of mob rule. In many cases, they were caused by men wanting to cheat widows out of their land, by someone wanting to get even with someone for a perceived insult or from fear of a harmless person who was eccentric, none of which applies to Mr. Trump.

HELEN WILSON

Squirrel Hill

New Strzok-Page texts reveal “Media Leak Strategy.” @FoxNews So terrible, and NOTHING is being done at DOJ or FBI – but the world is watching, and they get it completely.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2018

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Lizard (1970).