October 2004
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“Reject This Failed Statesman” or the Case for Bush-Hating
This pointed opinion piece from the Times of London is worth reading, especially by those beknighted souls who think it is their primary mission in life to lecture Bush opponents about their tone and manners. The world, including tens of millions of American citizens, hates Bush and the Bush Administration because of what these criminal…
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The Derrida Industry…
…has been working overtime to salvage the reputation of their man. Things are so bad that Joan Scott–whom I’m told is a substantial historian, but apparently not much of a philosopher–actually wrote the following to The New York Times: “[Your obituary writer] is embarrassingly illiterate in the history of philosophy. His obituary is also terribly…
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Another Real Libertarian (and former Bush Voter) Comes Out for Kerry
A sharp column, yet again, from Charley Reese; an excerpt: “Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush’s re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war – Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers. “I have sadly come to…
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“100,000 Excess Civilian Iraqi Deaths Since War”
So the New York Times sums up the results of a recently concluded study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health: “Civilian deaths have risen dramatically in Iraq since the country was invaded in March 2003, according to a survey conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public…
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The Frat Boy Who Never Grew Up
Professor Muller pegs it–and he pegs the response of the right-wing morons. UPDATE: This is a priceless piece of hypocrisy: look at Ann “Miss Manners” Althouse‘s rationalization for this performance.
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Brief Hiatus…
Kevin Toh, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University at Bloomington, will be a guest of the Law & Philosophy Program, with a busy schedule of events tomorrow. Don’t expect much new here before the weekend.
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“How Do Octopus Suckers Work?”
I had no idea, but Pharyngula, of course, does. Your kids will enjoy this.
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The Problem with Telephone Polls (Again)
This from a veteran poll watcher and manipulator of public opinion.
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Rhetorical Tricks of the Ruling Classes, or False Consciousness 101
Sharp analysis here; an excerpt: “Ever since formally democratic governments have replaced monarchies, one of the main rhetorical tricks of conservatives of various stripes–including what are called liberals in Europe and are now called Republicans in the US–has been to continually invoke the image of the free individual versus the authoritarian state. Freedom and state…
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Gazing at the navel again…
Thanks, no doubt, to kind links from Orin Kerr and Larry Solum, my lecture on “The End of Empire: Dworkin and Jurisprudence in the 21st Century” was downloaded more than 550 times in the first 24 hours it was on-line. Wow! I wish all my articles got this much attention. UPDATE: This is even more…
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BBC Breaks Story on New Plan by Republicans to Harass Black Voters in Florida
Details here: “A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan – possibly in violation of US law – to disrupt voting in the state’s African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals. “Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign’s national…
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Two New Guest Bloggers Coming the Week of November 15th
The philosopher of language Jason Stanley (Rutgers University, New Brunswick) will be well-known to my philosophy readers, and his brother, the labor economist Marcus Stanley (Case Western Reserve University) will be familiar to longtime readers who have benefitted, as have I, from his astute comments on earlier postings (for example). The Professor Stanleys will take…
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Petitition in Support of Middle Eastern Studies Professor Under Attack
Details about the attack on Professor Massad of Columbia University (whom a New York Congressman has called on Columbia to fire) are here. The allegations of misconduct vis-a-vis a student are serious, but not grounds for termination. And these allegations, so far unproven, are simply not the primary focus of the attack, which is on…
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“The End of Empire: Dworkin and Jurisprudence in the 21st Century”
A revised version of my keynote address (from the inaugural conference of the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy last May) is finally available at SSRN. It’s a relatively short paper, and entertaining (or so I was told by members of the audience), so I hope many who do not work in legal philosophy will…
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More on Fascist Tendencies on the American Right
Another sharp piece by David Neiwert. It would be interesting to see someone on the right respond intelligently to these points. But I’m not holding my breath.
I never met Alan, sadly, but his work leading the charge in making philosophy of sex “a thing” in contemporary…