Opinion

Name-calling is a personal assault designed to intimidate, humiliate and debase in order to make the target/victim powerless.
It’s about shaming.
It’s often correlated to sex.
When an insult contains a sexual inference, it’s psychological rape.
In the broad culture, the worse thing one guy can call another is a “pansy,” which makes him feminine, less than a man. That taunt operates on the premise, though, that being a woman is inferior to being a man.

There’s nothing wrong with being ignorant about a subject. It’s holding forth and pontificating on it when one is woefully unlearned that ought to cause embarrassment.
In his vile comments about not only Sandra Fluke but also every woman who has practiced contraception — I won’t debase myself or you by repeating them — Rush Limbaugh strips himself intellectually naked before the world.  

Final installment of a three-part series on the polarization of American political parties.

In his interview with Bill Moyers, University of Virginia professor of social psychology Jonathan Haidt comes across as a cerebral type, not given to baseless claims or emotional outbursts. His research and analysis of it will be published this month in his book, “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.”

As you have no doubt concluded from the many recent GOP presidential debates, it’s an election year. And it’s a watershed year for Colorado politics, in many ways.
Colorado voters will be casting ballots in races that range from county commissioner to U.S. Congress. And nearly all the voters in our coverage areas find themselves electing U.S. House members and state legislators in redrawn districts that will be game-changers for candidates and voters.

Part 2 of a series on the polarization of the American political process.

I concluded last week’s column on the reasons people arrive at diametrically opposing political positions with University of Virginia social psychology professor Jonathan Haidt’s declaration that compromise has become a “dirty word.”

An old saw says it’s best to avoid politics and religion at social gatherings. Jonathan Haidt, author of the soon-to-be-released “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion,” now says politics is religion, a curious conflation on the surface.
In a recent interview with Bill Moyers, Haidt, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia, offers insight into his research on the reason people of good intention and intelligence arrive at polar-opposite perspectives.  

On Feb. 15, young men ran through the streets of ancient Rome wearing only goatskins to celebrate Lupercalia. We have goatskins in Clear Creek but all occupied by original tenants. Not being a great white hunter, my preference is to allow them to continue being comfortable in their own skins.  
On Feb. 15, 1950, I was wearing not a goatskin, but a birthday suit, the last time I was so underdressed in public.

Thanks for sports coverage
Editor:
As always, I can’t thank the Courant staff enough for the great support and coverage of CCHS sports.
We hosted a silent auction/fund-raiser evening at the Hamill House on Saturday, Jan. 28. We had a great turnout and raised more than $4,000 for the CCHS ski team.
Funding had been greatly reduced due to budget cuts the last few years, and coming up with the money to pay for transportation, equipment, fees, etc., has become a challenge.
Trish Kintzele

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, making a heroic recovery after an attempted assassination, resigned from Congress last week. Her priority is correct: focus on healing.
Gabby, as she is called, serves as a model for the rest of us in courage, integrity and civility.  
In his State of the Union address, President Obama talked about how the team that eliminated Osama bin Laden worked collaboratively to ensure the mission succeeded.