Posted in Philosophy, politics on Jul 17th, 2008
People who use the 2nd Amendment to to argue for gun restrictions usually/always make the following two mistakes:
They confuse:
reasons for the government’s not “infringing” a right with
reasons the right is a right in the first place.
They confuse:
reasons for the government’s not “infringing” a right with
the negative conditions for the government’s “infringing” a right
The right in [...]
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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 [...]
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Posted in Culture, politics on Jul 12th, 2008
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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Posted in Culture, life, politics on Jul 10th, 2008
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 [...]
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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.
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Posted in Economics, politics on Jul 9th, 2008
Yesterday, some friends and us (The Wife and I) got into a discussion about Obama and McCain. I was the lone person who wasn’t going to be voting for Obama. They asked why.
Rush Limbaugh said it well:
It’s like the Super Bowl . . . . If your team isn’t in it, you root for the [...]
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Posted in Culture, politics on Jul 6th, 2008
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 [...]
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Posted in Culture, Philosophy, politics on Jul 3rd, 2008
My weekly article is up at The Free Liberal. You can read it here.
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Posted in Culture, politics on Jul 1st, 2008
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 [...]
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