December 2005
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Some Lawyer Jokes for your Holiday Break
Courtesy of Marc Galanter (Law, Wisconsin).
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Blogging Hiatus…and Some Reading Recommendations
I’ll be on a hiatus from blogging until early in the New Year. In addition to all the fine blogs linked in the lefthand column, let me also recommend several interesting philosophy-oriented blogs for your reading pleasure over the holidays and hopefully after: Philosophy of Biology Garden of Forking Paths (Free Will/Moral Responsibility) Ethical Werewolf…
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Student Made Up Story of Being Visited by Federal Agents for Requesting Mao Book
As several commenters to the original thread (now removed) suggested, the story was a fake. (Thanks to Ruchira Paul, who first sent me the link.) This, alas, will simply embolden the apologists for all the real fascist initiatives of this Administration, including, of course, the monitoring of libraries. (On the fascist apologists, Dadahead has apt…
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Friday Poem: “Magdalena”
Magdalena Bending at the hipshe wipes the toilet seatThen on her kneesWashes out the bowlI wonder at her speedHer gait her strideThe breeding in itHer knuckling into dirtWithout a wordHer equanimitywhatever task I make She tells me of Chile“My country” as she saysAnd of a familyThat works the earthTo whom she sendsA share of what…
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More Reactions to the Dover Decision on Intelligent Design (with special attention to the unfortunate intervention by Professor Alschuler)
This blog has a rather lengthy compendium of links pertaining to yesterday’s court decision. The New York Times, meanwhile, has run a pleasingly direct editorial: Judge Jones’s decision was a striking repudiation of intelligent design, given that Dover’s policy was minimally intrusive on classroom teaching. Administrators merely read a brief disclaimer at the beginning of…
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Domestic Surveillance in Britain
Chris Bertram (Philosophy, Bristol) offers a useful reminder here. The intrusiveness of cameras into all public (and some private) spaces here is really very weird. The only mildly redeeming aspects of the situation are that (1) the judiciary here is quite independent and not bashful about stepping in to protect civil liberties, and (2) there…
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Congressman Conyers Calls for Investigation into Grounds for Impeachment
Story here; an excerpt: As President Bush and his aides scramble to explain new revelations regarding Bush’s authorization of spying on the international telephone calls and emails of Americans, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has begun a process that could lead to the censure, and perhaps the impeachment, of the president and…
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U Conn Law Dean Newton to be New Hastings Dean
Nell Jessup Newton, currently Dean of the law school at the University of Connecticut, will be the new Dean of the University of California, Hastings, from which she graduated nearly twenty years ago. The Hastings press release is here. Dean Newton succeeds Mary Kay Kane, a leading authority on civil procedure, who was Dean for…
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Gutting on “Analytic” and “Continental” Philosophy
Gary Gutting (Philosophy, Notre Dame) has written a generous and informative review of my Future for Philosophy collection in which, towards the end, he considers the difference between "analytic" and "Continental" philosophy, which we had occasion to discuss a few weeks back (here and here) during the visit of the Stanley brothers. Gutting writes: I…
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Harvard Tenures Siegel, Makes Tenured Offer to Kelly
Susanna Siegel (philosophy of mind and language) has been awarded tenure by Harvard University. In addition, the University has approved a tenured offer to Sean Kelly (philosophy of mind, phenomenology), who last year was turned down for tenure at Princeton University. These decisions are striking in two ways. First, it’s clearly time to stop saying…
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Bush Crimes Commission
The indictments are here and the schedule of hearings here. One suspects the "liberal media" like CNN and New York Times will manage not to cover this. (Thanks to Eduardo Tenenbaum for the pointer.)
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Federal Judge Hands the Pennsylvania Taliban a Stinging Defeat
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has barred the teaching of Intelligent Design creationism in Dover, Pennsylvania, and in terms that will give the conmen at the Discovery [sic] Institute a migraine: The proper application of [the relevant constitutional tests requiring that government not endorse a particular religion and that its actions have a secular purpose]…
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Mitchell from Florida State to Virginia
Gregory Mitchell (behavioral law and economics) at Florida State University has accepted a tenured offer from the University of Virginia.
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“Libertarians for Fascism”
I borrow the apt headline from Dadahead, who has the details. Of course, the play libertarians in question are all bloggers. Actual libertarians take a position worthy of their ideology.
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God Exists!
More than 300 arguments proving it…here. (Thanks to Pete Trosclair for the pointer.)
Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii