Category: philosophy
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The defining feature of modern Republicanism
It’s not small-government. It’s not anti-tax screeds or culture war crusades. It’s not being pro-big business or pro-gun. It’s not being anti-choice or anti-gay. It’s not suport of “traditional marriages” or of non-traditional “special interrogation”. It’s not being pro-Gitmo or anti-drone or pro-Keystone or anti-FEMA. It’s not even being sexist or being racist. It’s a…
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Time to put away childish things
Update (2013 Feb 4): Noah Smith has an awesome response to the attack on Prof. Krugman, too. Paul Krugman today discusses a post on “How to Debate Paul Krugman”, which by all appearances is a serious piece. The answer can be boiled down to “Ask questions like a child”: This seems to me to be…
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The Better Nation We’ve Become
In his post today (“Seneca, Selma, and Stonewall“), Paul Krugman links to a graph showing growing acceptance, over time, of interracial marriage in the United States: I like this for the chart that indicates that 86% of the country agrees that it was OK that I married my wife. That trendline — and all the…
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De-tuned
I wrote this nearly five years ago. I was mad then; now I’m more or less just resigned. The intellectual commons is being fenced off, now more than ever. I think we’re losing more than outlets for creativity or profit; we’re losing the shared language to remember who we were, who we are. ============== De-Tuned…
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My philosophy of education
Edited to correct some grammatical mistakes. The new school year is about to start, and it’s customary to take a moment and philosophize. But I’m really busy, so I’m going to dust off something else and let that stand in. Back in 2010 December, I was nominated for a prize offered by Princeton University Teacher…
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Can seeing a US flag turn you Republican?
And if so, what can be done about it? A study referenced in Discover has the provocative conclusion that seeing a small American flag while completing a political questionnaire can induce the respondents into being more Republican, even up to 8 months later. Is our society doomed by our optic nerves to surrender to the…
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Published in the Hun Review
This is just a list of things I’ve managed to get published in the Hun Review, my school’s literary annual: 2010: The Memory of Pain 2009: The Walking Man 2008: From Arizona to Missouri 2007: Somewhere Beyond the Bitter End 2006: Takings and Leavings 2005: The King Lies Dying; The Burning Moment 2004: A Tide…
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National Constitution Center endorses torture
Well, by extension. They’ve invited John Yoo to participate in a forum on “A Conversation on Civility and Democracy in America” — apparently without a blink of irony, too. Yoo, you might recall, is the author of the infamous Torture Memos, that said the United Stated could and would abandon its obligations under the Geneva…
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Currently Reading: First Quater 2011
American Scripture by Pauline Maier Consider Phlebas by Ian Banks Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowel
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Information in Action: What is a parent?
I was just watching a season 2 episode of Castle called “When the Bough Breaks” and it annoyed me, by going along with a societal convention that annoys me. In it, a young Czech immigrant is murdered and, after a convoluted investigation, it’s revealed that a doctor had switched his baby for hers in the…