I’ll put my civil libertarian credentials up against anyone’s. But I have to confess that the older I get, the less principled I become. I like to think it’s because I’m becoming more understanding, in this case of those powerful communitarian intuitions that so often conflict with what would otherwise be the inviolable sanctity of … Continue reading THE CASE AGAINST HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
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. What we’re doing bears no relation to what you’re fretting about. Nothing in the Nuremberg … Continue reading ISRAEL’S NEW NATION STATE LAW
JURIES AND RACE
During the month of February, 2018, the Crown saw fit, in two separate cases, to put a white man on trial, one in Saskatchewan, the other in Manitoba, for wrongfully causing the death of a young aboriginal man and an aboriginal girl respectively. In each case an (apparently) all-white jury acquitted. And in each case … Continue reading JURIES AND RACE
CALLING OUT CODE-CALLING
I’m not sure it’s anything new, so I’ll just say there’s a particular effective but pernicious ploy in popular argumentation that I’m going to call ‘code-calling’. For example, during the 2016 Presidential campaign Americans were told that accusing so-and-so of holding “New York values” is code for Jewish values, and so calling out one’s use … Continue reading CALLING OUT CODE-CALLING
THE UCP GOVERNMENT’S FREE EXPRESSION PROPOSAL
It’s rare that I find myself expressing unqualified support for a piece of legislation that the government, or so I hope, is about to enact.. But the UCP’s proposal for An Act to Protect Free Expression at Alberta’s Public Colleges and Universities strikes me as letter perfect and long overdue. The drafters of the Act … Continue reading THE UCP GOVERNMENT’S FREE EXPRESSION PROPOSAL
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY AS-YET-UNINITIATED STUDENTS
Some university administrators, and a few of my colleagues, want to offer you a babysitting service, not for your children but for yourselves. And some of you got so used to it in high school that you want to be babysat. Good babysitters are not to be disparaged. They provide a very important service. But … Continue reading AN OPEN LETTER TO MY AS-YET-UNINITIATED STUDENTS
THE SUMMA POLITICA
I’d like to buy the world a Coke. I imagine you would too, though perhaps we’d both make it something a little lower in sugar. Unfortunately, making the world a better place for some people, even for the vast majority of people, cannot but make it a worse one for others, even if only a … Continue reading THE SUMMA POLITICA
ON MORAL URGENCY COMPARISONS
Wherever and whenever one group of people is doing better than another, there’s going to be resentment. The Europeans shipped slaves from Africa to the Americas to cut cane and pick cotton. A mere century and a half later, should we be surprised that we’re not entirely just one big happy family? The British invited … Continue reading ON MORAL URGENCY COMPARISONS
AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL YOU 9/11 TRUTHERS
For the prosecution to get a conviction, it’s not enough that I confess to the crime. I have to make good on every element the prosecution would have had to make good on had I not confessed, including means, motive, opportunity, and so on. So yes, the authorities have long since lost track of the … Continue reading AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL YOU 9/11 TRUTHERS
ON LIKENING GAZA TO THE WARSAW GHETTO
Academics sometimes use words in ways that may not correspond to how they’re used among the hoi polloi. For example, I’d have thought that to discriminate means to ascertain a difference and act accordingly. But among the unwashed it means to treat someone unfairly. In this case there’s little danger of being misinterpreted. No one … Continue reading ON LIKENING GAZA TO THE WARSAW GHETTO
