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.

• THE BDS MOVEMENT AND THE SHUNNER’S DILEMMA

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 25, 2019 • ( 0 )

  Since I’m old enough to remember the Peloponnesian Wars, I can certainly remember that it wasn’t Canadians refusing to buy South African wine that brought an end to Apartheid. It was that Apartheid was no longer sustainable on its own… Read More ›

• BAD THOUGHTS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 19, 2019 • ( 0 )

  There’s nothing praiseworthy about someone who never has to transcend the ‘worser’ angels of her nature. So if you’ve never had to wrestle with the guy with the horns and pitchfork sitting on your shoulder, I really don’t want to… Read More ›

• WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 19, 2019 • ( 0 )

  Not unlike the Indigenous Studies Department, Women and Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge makes no bones about its commitment to social justice. But on its website it also promises that its students “will develop critical thinking skills”. By… Read More ›

• INDIGENOUS STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 19, 2019 • ( 0 )

  The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has argued that a university can task itself to seeking the truth, or to promoting social justice, but not both. Why? Because the truth is sometimes incompatible with the promotion of social justice. A university… Read More ›

• The #MeToo Movement’s Brave New World

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 16, 2019 • ( 2 )

  It used to be that in the absence of saying no she’s saying yes; that by saying no she’s saying convince me; and that by convincing me she’s saying yes. And so, much to the delight of us ardent men,… Read More ›

• MY BEGRUDGING RESPECT FOR STEVE KING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 16, 2019 • ( 1 )

  Iowa Representative Steve King is being pilloried in the press for pointing out that, were it not for rape and incest, none of us would be here. “Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that has taken… Read More ›

• DOMESTIC TERRORISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 8, 2019 • ( 0 )

  From the beaches of Normandy to the German surrender ten months later, my father’s job was to align the turrets of hundreds of artillery pieces for the saturation shelling of the stretch about a kilometer to about three kilometers still… Read More ›

• FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 7, 2019 • ( 0 )

  I was born in 1950, and came to (albeit nascent) political consciousness about the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, by which all I mean is I knew some of what was going on in the world, the names… Read More ›

• THE CAMPAIGN AS OF AUGUST 2019

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 5, 2019 • ( 0 )

  Donald Trump may be an idiot, but even an idiot can accidentally hit on the right strategy. He knows that his so-called base, about 40%, isn’t enough to get him re-elected. And there’s nothing he can do to add to… Read More ›

• MASS SHOOTINGS AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 5, 2019 • ( 0 )

  In the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings, Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has just taken her turn at the now-obligatory think-of-the-children bleat. It’s almost, but not quite, as obligatory as our-hearts-go-out-to. Politicians have simply got to hire some… Read More ›