State legislatures initiate constitutional conventions. Conservatives have control over (possibly) enough of these bodies to make such a call in the n...
"Nazi" is short for "National Socialist' (Nationalsozialismus). There were, initially, some socialist features in the Nazi program,, but they were fai...
"Fascism" isn't ancient. It was invented in Italy in the early part of the 20th Century. Hitler "co-discovered" fascism along with Mussolini. The Nazi...
Whatever amendments a constitutional convention passed on to the states. (The convention itself has no power to effect the amendments. The states have...
You have excellent health and excellent health maintenance habits. Good for you. Keep up the good work. Unfortunately, you good physical condition doe...
A real "free" market in health care would be like the free market in anything else: If you can't afford it, you are shit out of luck. If you can't aff...
They may not have wanted health insurance. Perhaps they thought they were invincible. They may have thought they did not need insurance. Actuaries kno...
The wealthy have a long history of objection to all of the 20th century efforts in the US to create a semi-adequate social welfare program--one that s...
The ACA attempted to several things: end pre-existing conditions as a bar to health insurance; allow young people to maintain health care coverage for...
It isn't baseless. If a constitutional convention is called for by 2/3 of the states, it would meet, establish operating rules, and then would proceed...
Yes, I want God to exist, but with a lot of ambivalence about which God. The omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omni-everything-else God? God withou...
It IS an irritating term, though it's more mystical than intellectual property rights, though that does tie in. The public domain is the public well, ...
I checked yes when I meant to check no when I couldn't decide whether I wanted god to exist or not. Unfortunately you didn't provide an "I can't figur...
Because, as you are no doubt aware, religionists keep bringing God up to back up whatever views they have with respect to some particular "domain of h...
Well look, that is the kind of reductionism that gets into books and this forum. If you were thinking of something else, then give us a good clear exa...
People don't like reductionism (or more to the point, what they think reductionism is) because it seems like it diminishes their humanity in some way....
Some of the ways one accommodates people who come from societies unfriendly to secular, liberal culture: Along with everyone else, 1. Their children a...
Such things happen I suppose, but... quelles horreurs! The poor child... "Deconstruct this dirty diaper, mother!" Everybody loves stomping on postmode...
This painting, by "NYC artist Dana Schutz" is typical of her other works. The art blurbs supplied by the Saatchi Gallery are standard non-inferential ...
What stake do we have in defending Islam vs. Christianity? A plague on both their houses. It would be a good thing if the world's various religions ju...
Abrahamic fundamentalists tend to end up in the weeds, regardless of which branch they adhere to, because fundamentalism tends to lead one into totali...
I DETEST Donald Trump, but bitching about Obama's time on the inks, or spewing factual errors doesn't make him a fascist, a proto-fascist, or a crypto...
What would cause us to care one way or the other--virtue ethics vs utilitarianism? Or for that matter, why care about ethics, the general welfare, the...
That's odd. I saw a study that suggested just the opposite: Smart people tended to be more crooked. Your study, my study, and your statement that phil...
Yes, very good observation. I don't know much about this, but I do know that tribe/family is an essential structure in some countries. An overlay of d...
I can't think of many places that go months, let alone decades, without functioning governments. "Failed states" are pretty bad places to live. Many p...
In earlier times, public executions enabled prostitutes and pick pockets to do land office business. Of course, in earlier times capital punishment co...
Well, some of what you said here is true, but what I meant was that the British laid down territorial boundaries in such a way as to divide ethnic hom...
The trouble with dictatorships is that considerable force is generally required to get into, stay in, and exercise power. Usually the military and sec...
There are people who think that some countries are ill-served by encouraging them to set up democratic governments. "the people are not ready for self...
Some philosophers are praised by one group and excoriated by another. Some people think some philosophers are RIGHT and others think the same philosop...
Oh, sorry, embarrassing proofreading error. That was supposed to be, "You can not derive an ought from an is". Like, "many people are murdering other ...
There are real fascists in the world, but let's define what "fascism" is, once again: an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of governme...
How would you decide that people were either "good" or "bad" at philosophy? Would one look for "progress"? Are people bad at literature? Literature ha...
Some people say you can derive an ought from an is. Is that true? ought (v.) Old English ahte "owned, possessed," past tense of agan "to own, possess,...
This was provided by a website, http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/can.html. It could be that it's conjugations are computer-generated, and what ...
Well, dearest, you had made up a list of interrogative words (who, what, why...) and you invited comment. I thought perhaps, following on Time Line, t...
If you Gaggle "Searle arrested" you'll find that a lot of people named Searle are dangerous criminals. Must be something wrong with people named Searl...
English is strange. The infinitive of 'can' is 'to can'. Outside of food preservation, I've never come across "to can" until a few minutes ago in a di...
Can humans get outside their conceptual schemas? Is 'the self' part of a 'conceptual schema'? I think I am self, which comprises all of me in various ...
Has Professor Searle been exhibiting irrational heterosexual exuberance (ref: Alan Greenspan)? What is the point of rising to the top of one's departm...
No. The Nazis launched Kristallnacht on November 09, 1938. This was allegedly in response to the murder of a low-level German diplomat in Paris by a 1...
So, what I know about string theory could be written on the back of a postage stamp in none-too-small lettering. Any thoughts I have about string theo...
I do not have a position on Newtonian Mechanics vs. Quantum Mechanics. Sorry. A murder spree is a murder spree and war is war. If the French Resistanc...
Comments