Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

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  1. Wynship W. Hillier, M.S.'s avatar

    I first met Professor Hoy when I returned to UC Santa Cruz in Fall of ’92 to finish my undergraduate…

  2. Justin Fisher's avatar

    To be worth using, a detector needs not only (A) not get very many false positives, but also (B) get…

  3. Mark's avatar

    Everything you say is true, but what is the alternative? I don’t think people are advocating a return to in-class…

  4. Deirdre Anne's avatar
  5. Keith Douglas's avatar

    Cyber security professional here -reliably determining when a computational artifact (file, etc.) was created is *hard*. This is sorta why…

  6. sahpa's avatar

    Agreed with the other commentator. It is extremely unlikely that Pangram’s success is due to its cheating by reading metadata.

  7. Deirdre Anne's avatar

Glenn Reynolds Pimps for Perpetual War

A reader from Ohio alerts me to the fact (who would have guessed?) that Glenn "no bit of right-wing sliminess is beneath me" Reynolds is an advocate for perpetual war:

Assuming Glenn Reynolds speaks for most crazed nutters, it’s not a question of if or even when, but merely where the next war will be launched. Mr. Reynolds lays out the possibilities in this brief but stunning post.

Glenn wonders where the troops will go once they leave Iraq. Iran and Saudi Arabia just two tempting possibilities, Glenn says. Apparently "home" isn’t an option for them. Glenn also seemingly praises the Bush administration for not letting our countless enemies, or the American people, in on its plans for endless war – better to keep us all guessing, Glenn says while licking the boot attached to his face.

I think this post encapsulates the war-crazed right rather well: the assumption that more wars – anywhere, everywhere, doesn’t really matter where – must be forthcoming. The eager submission to authoritarianism and fascism. The ignorance (Iraqis need to be told, gently but firmly, that we won’t be able to stick around forever, Glenn says). The barking madness. It speaks for itself.

I’m beginning to wonder whether "InstaIgnorance" isn’t too gentle a nickname:  certainly Professor Reynolds is an ignorant buffoon (as my delightfully acerbic colleague Scot Powe likes to quip:  "Why is the blogopshere full of so many second-rate right-wingers?").  But he’s also a venal (dare we say "morally depraved"?) man.  "InstaDepravity" hasn’t quite the same ring, of course…

UPDATE:  Tad Brennan (Philosophy, Northwestern) usefully suggests "InstaFascist." 

AND ANOTHER:  More insight into Professor Reynolds here.

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