Of the 16 million Jews in the world, just under half live in Israel. Of the other 8.5 million, most support the State of Israel, in the sense that they regard it as a mustering point “come the next pogrom”…. Read More ›
Angst
AN APOLOGIA
We all notice patterns. But we don’t all notice the same patterns. Here’s one I’m noticing. In defending the revised curriculum for schools subject to the authority of the Florida Department of Education, Ron DeSantis observed that at least some… Read More ›
JUST WALK AWAY
In Canada, the US and the Antipodes, English is the name of the language spoken by us Western settler colonialists. I accept that. So those opposed to Western settler colonialism should have no trouble accepting that the language they’re speaking… Read More ›
CATCH 22
With the exception of my students, who’ve commented that I’m the only one still teaching philosophy rather than how to be woke, pretty much everyone at the University of Lethbridge, myself included, wants me gone. I don’t need the money,… Read More ›
ON HIDING MY WISDOM UNDER A BUSHEL
Unlike my colleagues in the Philosophy Department here at the University of Lethbridge, who are clearly experts in climatology, epidemiology, the pre-contact history of the indigenous peoples of this continent, the list goes on and on … I know nothing… Read More ›
ANTI-SEMITISM JUST AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE
(In my defence, my son handed me this title and then commanded me to write into it. Hence any liability is entirely his.) Growing up Jewish in western Canada, I regularly felt that I was other, but I can’t ever… Read More ›
OF DESPAIR
I can imagine there are moments – I suspect we’ve all had them – when life is such that one’s grown weary of it. If she’s lucky, which thankfully most of us are, that weariness passes, either because, thank God,… Read More ›
CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND THE COULEES
Back in 2003 the University of Lethbridge declined to honour its guarantees of confidentiality, and so for the last 17 years I haven’t served on any University-related committee involving that guarantee. In 2016 academic freedom was placed under constructive suspension… Read More ›
IN MEMORIUM
Today, January 27, marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps at Auschwitz. There weren’t a whole lot of people left there to be liberated. And of those who were there aren’t a whole lot still alive… Read More ›
RUMMAGING
The other day I happened to be looking out the window and I noticed someone in the alley rummaging through our garbage. He wasn’t one of, you know, those people. He was wearing a suit and a tie. And so,… Read More ›
