Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Etc.
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 16th, 2008
Thanks to Mr. Stevens for the inspiration for this week’s article over at The Free Liberal.
In it I develop the discussion from this post, reformulating some points, adding others, and accusing all nonvoters of being noncitizens (among other things). *grin*
We’ll see what people think. And we’ll see what I think after we see what people [...]
Any potential leader who attempts to convince you to take him/her as your leader because you have a problem he/she can solve should be treated cautiously, as I discussed below.
It could be that the person in question will solve your problem and then give up her/his power. But given human nature, this should not be [...]
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 12th, 2008
. . . Then what?
In yesterday’s class, my lecture was on Plato’s description of how governments decay from one form into another (Republic, Book VIII).
It’s pure genius, especially his description of how tyrants rise out of democracies (564a-end of VIII). In the midst of that description, Plato says of the tyrant:
[Socrates:] At first, in the [...]
Posted in Culture, Linguistics on Jul 11th, 2008
The other day, someone got to my blog through a search for: “American pronunciation of the word actually.” So — I figured — why not provide said pronunciation? Here it is:
actually = ac-tu-al-ly = AC-tyoo-uhl-lee
First syllable: “ac“
. . . is stressed or emphasized
. . . uses the short-A vowel sound
In British English, a’s are often [...]
That’s a question I’ve been pondering for a long time.
Mr. Stevens claims voting — at least as things are now — is irrational. And it’s hard not to agree, even if you don’t want to.
But all a decision’s being “irrational” means — sometimes — is that you can’t blame it on logic, and therefore you [...]
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 10th, 2008
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, my weekly article for The Free Liberal was posted.
This week I prove that Obama is the Philosopher King Plato prophesied about, and that Ralph Peters is wrong about the sword being mightier than the pen.
I was just listening to C-SPAN while washing dishes (as I often do on Sunday afternoons) and they happened to be re-airing Fox New Sunday. (On Sundays they re-air all the major Sunday TV politics talkshows, that I know of).
The “panel” was discussing Jesse Helms, who died on the 4th. Mara Liasson (I think) said [...]
Posted in Aesthetics, Culture on Jul 5th, 2008
The world was so ugly. The cars, the color schemes, the clothes, the hair. The graphic design! The interior design!
20 years without beauty.
Maybe the music was what kept the world from going mad? (Though even a lot of the music was terrible. All those classic rock and metal songs whose first minute [and every verse] [...]
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 3rd, 2008
My weekly article is up at The Free Liberal. You can read it here.
Another link added to that post.
Wehner:
With each passing day, it seems, the original conceit of the Obama candidacy–that he is an agent of “change” who will “turn the page” on the “old politics” and act as a uniquely unifying figure in American politics–looks more and more absurd. He turns out to be an exceptionally skilled [...]
WEeding Awards
