December 2003
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More on the Saddam Capture
I’m surprised the thought police didn’t catch this one, easily the most wickedly funny of them all.
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More Right-Wing Sliminess…
…is described here: “the Washington Post this morning reports the White House is actively scrubbing government websites clean of any of its own previous statements that have now proven to be untrue.” This must be a full-time job.
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Thus Spoke Hugh Kenner
“The style of your own time is always invisible.” –Hugh Kenner
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Victory for the Rule of Law
Larry Solum has a useful summary of the 2nd Circuit’s decision in the case of Padilla, the U.S. citizen spirited away to a military brig on the say-so of the President, denied access to a lawyer, and held incommunicado. This brazen and lawless assertion of power has been rebuffed by the 2nd Circuit. Amazingly, one…
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Pure politics
If you haven’t visited Jessica Wilson’s site recently, please do so now! Lots of good links and info on matters of political importance.
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Columbia Law School Dean to become new President of Rice University
David Leebron, Dean of Columbia Law School since 1996, will become the next President of Rice University in July 2004. The Rice press release is here. Leebron, by all accounts, got along very well with people with a lot of money, which is always an attractive attribute in a university or law school leader. He…
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Yet more philosophy offer news
Brian Weatherson (philosophy of language, philosophical logic, decision theory, epistemology…well, everything but ethics and history it appears!), currently at Brown University, has been voted an offer by Cornell University. Go to the “Philosophy Updates” category for the other recent postings about faculty moves to watch for, or scroll down. UPDATE: Brian, who is of course…
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Good legal news!
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has held significant portions of a 1996 anti-terrorism act unconstitutional. More information here. Let us hope other Circuits follow suit before long…otherwise the West Coast will be the only free part of the country left!
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Very funny–on the Yale Law School
My friend and former colleague Tom Smith has a wickedly funny commentary on the annual holiday letter from the Yale Law School here. If you know anything about YLS, you’ll be rolling on the floor…and even if you don’t, you may still get a good laugh at this send-up of their pretense.
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Luc Bovens to LSE
Luc Bovens (epistemology, decision theory, philospohy of science, ethics/political) at the University of Colorado at Boulder has accepted a senior post at the London School of Economics, where he is currently visiting. He does still have a counter-offer outstanding from Colorado until next fall, and so there is some prospect he might return to Boulder.
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Freedom of the Virtual Press
Philosopher Peter Ludlow is being censored in Cyberspace…Brian Weatherson has the details and links.
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Three Cheers for the Secular French
Story here. UPDATE: More here.“Secularism is one of the great successes of the Republic,” Chirac said in an address to the nation. “It is a crucial element of social peace and national cohesion. We cannot let it weaken.”
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On Lawyers and Philosophers
“Compare a law professor’s presentation and a philosopher’s, and you’ll usually notice a striking difference. The law professor speaks without notes, or from a sketchy outline; the philosopher reads a paper. I think the difference results from something distinctive about the philosopher’s professional orientation. Precision–getting a point exactly right–matters more to philosophers than law professors,…
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The Sociology and Psychology of Blogopaths
Some questions for my interdisciplinary readers with knowledge of psychology and sociology (this will not be of any interest to those of you who have not spent time “surfing” blogs–which I don’t recommend [I have tried to link to worthwhile items and blogs]): Is there any pertinent literature yet on the psychology and the sociology…
I would be interested to hear more about the assumptions that would imply climate change ends civilization within your lifetime.…