October 2005
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The best way to get a good price on London theater tickets is…
…I know some of you folks know! Thanks.
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Biologist Ayala on the “Intelligent Design” Scam
These are notes taken by someone else based on a talk at UCLA by the distinguished biologist Francisco Ayala at UC Irvine; they provide a nice summary statement of the case against the ID nonsense: 1. The fact of evolution — species change over time — had been established by paleontology and was common currency…
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Those Funny Linguistic Philosophers
This story concerns Zeno Vendler, late of the University of California at San Diego: Bela Szabados, who received his M.A. under Zeno in 1968, recalls an incident in the late 60’s during a rally organized by the students’ union to protest the Vietnam war. There was a small group of speakers from the US to…
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John Marshall Law Dean Mell Steps Down After only Three Years
The law school’s press release is here.
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Friday Poem: “Halloween”
Halloween These small ones’ parrotings defy decodingIs it trick or treat they chimeOr other dark forebodings Such papered ghosts and lacquered bonesSporting masks in trendy tonesLeave Celts and Christians fuddling Each portal rent expands their baggy bloatThey bunch in doorways chastely litAs tightly smiling faces weary for repose Greet the…
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All the News that’s Fit to Print about Saddam’s Trial…
…in Canada: IF they had taken Adolf Hitler alive in 1945, they would certainly have put him on trial. But what if they had ignored Hitler’s responsibility for starting the Second World War and his murder of six million Jews, and simply put him on trial for torturing and executing a couple of hundred people…
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The Newest Right-Wing Smear on Chomsky…
…has appeared at the almost comically bad and dishonest Tech Central Station site: One of the most persistent themes in Chomsky’s work has been class warfare. He has frequently lashed out against the "massive use of tax havens to shift the burden to the general population and away from the rich" and criticized the concentration…
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More Bad Reviews for John Gray
His lack of understanding of Nietzsche apparently only scratches the surface of the philosophy he doesn’t understand.
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Change on the Link List (to Left)
Left2Right appears to be moribund, so I’ve removed it from my list of links (and, in any case, it is well-known enough that, if it revives, it can survive my removing it). In its place, I’ve added the interesting new blog by Ruchira Paul, noted the other day. Check out her "Memorial, not Milestone" for…
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More Worrisome Bird Flu Analysis from Dr. Niman
Here; an excerpt: The three French tourists who tested positive for H5N1 after visiting a bird park in Thailand clearly show that H5N1 in Thailand is transmitted by casual contact. H5N1 positive data suggest that hundreds or thousands of visitors would have also been infected by the H5N1 at the zoo. However, these infections produced…
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Law Professors Call for U.S. Supreme Court to Review Case Involving Military Tribunals
Details here. Note, of course, that the new Chief Justice, John Roberts, was on the wrong side of this question as a judge on the D.C. Circuit.
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450 Law Professors Call on Supreme Court to Grant Cert in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
You can read the letter here: Download professorstatement.pdf. Of course, the Court not only needs to grant cert, it needs to reverse the D.C. Circuit and defend the rule of law!
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British Defense Ministry Poll: 82% of Iraqis “Strongly Opposed” to Presence of Foreign Troops
Full story here; an excerpt: The survey was conducted by an Iraqi university research team that, for security reasons, was not told the data it compiled would be used by coalition forces. It reveals: • Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe attacks against British and American troops are justified – rising to 65 per cent…
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Cambridge Observation
In addition to having a stimulating visit to the Moral Sciences Club at Cambridge University yesterday (with warm thanks to my hosts, Ben Colburn and Hallvard Lillehammer, and to all the philosophers and students who turned out for the talk–nothing like a talk on Nietzsche to produce a standing-room only crowd!), I also had the…
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Right-Wing Memorials for Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks
Dadahead makes the following apt observation about the spectacle of various far right pundits lauding civil rights icon Rosa Parks: Surely I am not the only one who finds amusement in all of the right-wing bloggers solemnly memorializing Rosa Parks as a "true hero." Seriously, what do you think the likes of Michelle Malkin and…
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii