George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” He could’ve written as readily that we’re all victims, but some of us are more victims than others. Your ancestors were… Read More ›
Everything You Wanted to Know About What’s Going On in the World But Were Afraid to Ask
TRUTH versus RECONCILIATION
The truth-value of an utterance – for example that I’m going to die on such and such a date – is very often at odds with (what J.L. Austin called) its perlocutionary value – what it does for the speaker… Read More ›
GENDER IDENTITY – WHO GETS TO SAY?
Unless you’re some kind of natural law theorist – in which case there’s no talking to you – let it be granted that all rights are contingent on the material conditions recommending them to us. And at that, they’re negotiated…. Read More ›
SHOOTING ITSELF IN THE FOOT
The #MeToo movement may be having its intended – and perfectly laudable – effect of discouraging some bad male behaviour. But it may also be having a less-than-laudatory autonomous effect, that of cutting women off from perfectly innocent and otherwise… Read More ›
THE BDS MOVEMENT AND THE SHUNNER’S DILEMMA
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 ›
The #MeToo Movement’s Brave New World
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
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 ›
FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS
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 ›
MASS SHOOTINGS AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT
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 ›
ISRAEL’S NEW NATION STATE LAW
Like the proverbial boiling of the frog, it always starts with an imperceptible change in temperature. And every change thereafter is just as imperceptible. If you worry it’s the thin edge of some mephistophilian wedge, you’re an alarmist. You’re awfulizing…. Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 