The purpose of domestic taxation is two-fold. 1) It raises revenue for the government, without which it couldn’t do what we want it to do for us. And, 2) if but only if consumption of the product is discretionary, it… Read More ›
Month: August 2026
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
It’s my understanding that the province was named after the lake. So if we’re going to change Lake Ontario to Lake America, shouldn’t we change Ontario to America? And if so, is the capital of America Washington or Toronto? Apparently… Read More ›
NATURE, NURTURE, ATTRACTION AND REVULSION
To be disfigured is to have been ‘properly’ figured but then something happened, whereas to be deformed is to be born that way. This distinction may be important for other purposes, but not for what I want to discuss here…. Read More ›
BUT FIRST AN ASIDE ABOUT REPLACEMENT THEORY
That the complexion of Europeans and Americans is getting browner isn’t a theory, it’s an observable fact. But replacement theory – I had to look it up – is the view that there are some vile people – either the… Read More ›
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: PART ONE
For most of human history, literacy bestowed power. Power bestows privilege. And so, not surprisingly, the rarity of literacy was assiduously – sometimes even violently – protected. Once women can read … Once our slaves can … Can the same… Read More ›
ENTHYMEME
Some instructors of baby logic define an enthymeme as an argument with at least one missing premise. Strictly speaking this is a mistake. If the premise is needed to render the argument valid, and yet it’s missing, then the argument… Read More ›
A READING OF THE BOOK OF JOHN
Judaism was (and remains) a pre-philosophical religion. That is, the Jews never asked why God created the world, or how He brought it into being ex nihilo, or how He could know that He’d always been, or … The soon-to-be-Christians… Read More ›
BACKSTORIES
When looking up the etymology of a word, sometimes you need a backstory. For example, kleenex and hoover were once brand names. Or, how did we get ‘sincere’ from ‘without wax’? These are hardly grounds for complaint. But other disconnects… Read More ›
JASON ARDAY
Jesus walked on water. George Washington couldn’t tell a lie. Davey Crockett killed his first bear when he was only three. Kim Jong Un played an 18 hole round of golf with a score of 17. And Jason Arday did… Read More ›
THE FEMINISATION OF THE UNIVERSITY
The Grumblers – and yes, we do have membership cards – argue about when our universities began their decline. But we’re all of a mind that it began with the admission of women. Which is not to say it was… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 