I have a colleague – okay, he was a colleague, but neither of us works there anymore – who believes that nothing is what it seems. Well no, because if nothing is what it seems, that would have to include… Read More ›
Humour
TWO MILDLY BIGOTED COMPLAINTS
I started this blog off a number of years ago with a series of curmudgeon-isms, and embarrassed though I am to return to that theme, last week leaves me no choice. My first complaint is the indecipherability of public address… Read More ›
SUPREMACY
I’ve always had trouble with the concept of supremacy. I think I understand it when it’s used aspirationally. I’m hoping that the Chiefs best the 49-ers in the upcoming Superbowl. Or predictively. I’m betting that the Chiefs best the 49-ers…. Read More ›
ONE TIN SOLDIER
Man steps into a crowded hotel elevator. “What floor?” asks the woman closest to the buttons. “Ladies lingerie,” he answers. Everyone laughs. She doesn’t. She’s from Women’s Studies, so of course she files a sexual harassment complaint against him. It’s… Read More ›
HOMO HUMOROSO
The recent spate of public Quran burnings, first in Sweden and now in Denmark, and Moslem countries calling in their ambassadors – as if these demonstrations were state-sponsored – goes to the very core of the freedom of expression debate,… Read More ›
HOW TO SURVIVE THIS
If you’re called out for a micro-aggression, call out the micro-aggression of being called out for a micro-aggression. If it’s then argued that the subaltern can’t micro-aggress, nod your head in full agreement and then point to yourself as the… Read More ›
NOT THE SHARPEST PENCIL IN THE BOX
What follows might appear to be me doubling down on my pasquinading the Dean of Arts and Science at the University of Lethbridge. But it’s not. It’s just a standard exercise in the Philosophy of Language. To wit: After his… Read More ›
DYSPHORIA
You say you present as a man but you feel like a woman. I get the first part, because I can see that you do, but I’m not sure I understand the second. How would you know what it feels… Read More ›
HOW TO GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
Try as it might, no constitution can include a mechanism for its own suspension, since if that mechanism were invoked it would have been constitutional to do so. That’s just a matter of logic. By contrast it’s not strictly 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 ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 