Author Archives

I'm a philosophy professor at the University of Lethbridge in Southern Alberta, Canada. I specialize in philosophy of war, game theory, contractarianism, and theodicy (the Problem of Evil). I am bald, fat, and ugly, but my wife loves me, so I don't care.

• AMERICA’S POLICING DILEMMA

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 3, 2020 • ( 3 )

  The question, I suppose, is this. At what point should the penny have dropped for the Jews of Europe? When should they have started shooting the authorities at the door rather than come along peacefully? It’s easy to say in retrospect,… Read More ›

• LET HOTTER HEADS PREVAIL

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 1, 2020 • ( 3 )

  Some of you may remember the cult classic Billy Jack from 1971, and if so, the title character’s remark that, “When policemen break the law, there is no law!” That might be a bit too strong. Policemen are people. People break… Read More ›

• THE LEGACY OF GEORGE FLOYD

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 31, 2020 • ( 2 )

  A law that’s impossible to obey isn’t a law. A law that’s impossible to disobey isn’t a law. A law that’s impossible to enforce isn’t a law. And a law that isn’t enforced isn’t a law. The most it can be… Read More ›

• PATIENCE, GRASSHOPPER

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 20, 2020 • ( 0 )

  The number of American soldiers who’ve died in Iraq since George W. Bush declared victory from the deck of that aircraft carrier has been many times the number who died before that declaration of victory. So it’s not always clear that victory… Read More ›

• SCHADENFREUDE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 20, 2020 • ( 2 )

  Covid 19 has divided the human world into four distinct camps. There are those who’ve already lost – or are about to lose – their lives to this thing. That’s probably going to end up being about a half million… Read More ›

• WE’RE NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 19, 2020 • ( 4 )

  Wherever you look, there are signs reminding us that “We’re all in this together!” If this is some kind of social cue I’m not picking up on, it’s probably because I don’t know what the ‘this’ refers to. For example,… Read More ›

• A DEFENCE OF BIGOTRY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 13, 2020 • ( 1 )

  If I were born blind, I’d have no idea what colour I am. Or even that people come in different colours. I’d only know about it if someone told me about it. As it happens I wasn’t born blind. But even then… Read More ›

• THE PIVOT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 8, 2020 • ( 0 )

  A servant serves a master. A public servant serves the public. Dr. Deborah Birx was quintessentially that. Note the ‘was’, because yesterday, May 7, she pivoted. You can tell she pivoted from public servant to servant of Donald Trump when,… Read More ›

• STACEY ABRAMS AND THE I-BELIEVE-YOU CAMPAIGN

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 8, 2020 • ( 0 )

  It would be oxymoronic of me to complain about something having gone unreported, since if it went unreported I wouldn’t know it. The same applies to something that is reported but is then ignored, since if I’m complaining about it being… Read More ›

• COVID 19 AND PRIVILEGE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on April 8, 2020 • ( 1 )

  On the assumption things don’t get so bad that we descend into anarchy, those of us with protected incomes have a much better chance than those who don’t of coming out of this thing financially intact, but also physically intact…. Read More ›