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 ›
Everything You Wanted to Know About What’s Going On in the World But Were Afraid to Ask
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 ›
FROM THE UNTHINKABLE THOUGHTS FILE
Well no, that can’t be right. If a thought were unthinkable I couldn’t think it, and if I couldn’t think it I couldn’t blog about it. On the other hand, by unthinkable I can’t just mean distasteful or unseemly. So… Read More ›
THE ALMANAC AND THE NUMEROSITY OF SEXES
In this entry I want to take issue with some of my otherwise-fellow travellers on their understanding of science. On two fronts. The first is about something they call ‘the scientific method’. And the second is about what they think… Read More ›
FROM THE LET’S-SETTLE-THIS-ONCE-AND-FOR-ALL FILE: THE TRANS ISSUE
If, as its etymology suggests, by ontology were meant the study of being, it wouldn’t have much to say, because being is an unanalysable primitive. That is, if you don’t know what it is for something to be, then I… Read More ›
WELL, THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!
WHY THIS RATHER THAN THAT? As any mother of a small child can tell you, any answer to a why question invites a why to that, and then another to that one, and so on, until the child either declares… Read More ›
THERE SHOULD BE A LAW
It’s a well-known fact that Lee Harvey Oswald killed John Kennedy in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963. But it’s a little-known fact that he did so not because Kennedy was the President of the United States but because he had… Read More ›
POLITICAL ECONOMY MADE SIMPLE
Paying $3.99 for diapers instead of $4.19 gives Mom 20 cents more she can spend on lean ground beef instead of mostly filler. And that’s a good thing for kids. But governments need to fund themselves, and the ‘fairest’ way… Read More ›
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
By some accounts the war between Palestinians and Zionists has been going on since 1947, by others since ’67. But by all accounts it’s the war that’s never going to end. There’ve been battles: ’48, ’56, ’67, ’73. Coupled with… Read More ›
GIVING NEW MEANING TO SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT
The Bible isn’t a book. It’s a collection of several books. Wokeism isn’t one view. It’s a collection of several views. What unites them is what unites the collection of people who hold them. Something like a religion. First you… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 