Category Archives: uncategorized

Progressive media are generally approving and maybe even right that it’s not a question of censorship. But Ophelia Benson is right about the offensive and dishonest wording of the Brandeis announcement. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s courage in the face of unspeakable … Continue reading →

While the predictable reaction to Brendan Eich’s appointment as CEO at Mozilla does make one wonder why they made it, it also raises the question of whether either that reaction or the response was appropriate. One could argue that publicly … Continue reading →

Middle that is. Why should there be only two choices? asks philosopher Barry C Smith in an article/interview at the Institute of Art and Ideas, and I agree that the binary nature of logic may be as much a reflection … Continue reading →

Oh dear! Both the number of people who share my view (and arguably express it better than me), and my inability to quickly convince everyone else, in the long discussion thread on this post at Ophelia Benson’s blog makes me … Continue reading →

ThinkProgress asking Is The Solution To Climate Change In Vancouver? is for me a sad reminder of how the political party that I supported totally misused my contributions. Thanks a bunch BillT and CarolJ

In a post On Returning the Lost | Talking Philosophy, philosopher Mike LaBossiere raises the question as to whether his habit of returning found wallets without removing the money is abnormal. I should hope not! but in fact one commenter … Continue reading →

In a post about the recent WhatsApp sale, Robert Reich points out what was obvious to everyone when I was a teenager (more than half a century ago!) – namely that the needs of billions can be provided for by … Continue reading →

Robert Kurland who self-describes as a “Retired, cranky, old physicist.Convert to Catholicism in 1995.”responded to a comment I made on an earlier post about his path to religion. My comment on his latest post was as follows: Thanks Bob for … Continue reading →

AGW denier and generally right wing oriented contrarian Matt Briggs thinks atheists have a “problem” with evil[1], but I agree with commenter lucia’s first sentence: Matt, Your very first claim is nonesense: “Evil is a problem for atheists because, for them, … Continue reading →

The original was so much better than what he forced onto the NYT Magazine's Crazy Cover.

Syria peace talks: live – Telegraph. This leaves me with more sympathy than I expected to have for the Syrian gov’t position – specifically with regard to the need for the terms to explicitly disavow terrorist Wahabi elements in the … Continue reading →

Kenan Malik starts the year with a preview of FIVE BOOKS TO ARGUE WITH. The best kind of book, to my mind, is the kind of book you can have an argument with. Not a book so wrong that I … Continue reading →

The Atlantic asks and ThinkProgress answers Why (according to a recent Pew Research Insyitute poll) Republicans Don't Believe In Evolution Anymore. But I am more interested in what this means for the future.

This article, like most of Le Nguyen Hoang’s work, brings together a wonderful mix of ideas and resources and is mostly great. But I am a bit worried that it might leave some readers with the idea that kin selection … Continue reading →

To a late riser like me it seems that the days are already getting longer even though is is still almost a week before the actual winter solstice. But this is not an illusion as the sunsets really are starting … Continue reading →

Last week we got several reminders of the significant roles played by women in what is often perceived these days as a rather male-dominated and even somewhat macho field. On Dec 6 Maria Popover’s Brain Pickings site pointed to a tribute video  about … Continue reading →

I hadn’t really been planning to read ‘God in Proof’ but this excerpt has me sufficiently engaged that I might actually do so.

In a post called A Refutation of the Undergraduate Atheists, David V. Johnson’s use of the silly undergraduate-level technique of mockingly mislabeling the contrary position has distracted many of his commenters from what could have been the start of a fruitful … Continue reading →

Newt Gingrich deserves  applause for standing up to some of his co-ideologues in defense of the strategy and tactics of Nelson Mandela and the ANC, both now and in the past. He, along with Brian Mulroney and others, is among the … Continue reading →