When someone argues in defence of x, at least in the realm of ethics, he usually means x is morally defensible, by which he need not be urging us to do x, but rather and only that it would be… Read More ›
consent
WHAT NOT TO SAY WHEN …
All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal. Check. All lives matter. Black lives are lives. Therefore black lives matter. Check. But if you say black lives matter, and I respond with all lives matter, I’ll… Read More ›
SOME PUZZLES ABOUT SEXUAL ‘INTERFERENCE’
I’d hardly be the first to observe that when a small child falls and scrapes her knee, nine times out of ten she looks to her parent before deciding that it hurts. If the parent doesn’t signal alarm, the child… Read More ›
AUTONOMY
This morning, a block over and ten blocks north of here, there was a woman tweaking out on something, probably meth or fentanyl. I’m reasonably certain something similar is happening a few blocks from your house too. I take it… Read More ›
STATUTORY RAPE AND CHILD SOLDIERS
For most of human history young men were expected to go to war at about the same age that young women were expected to become mothers, probably within about a year of their first period. Were our ancestors just mistaken?… Read More ›
IN DEFENSE OF BESTIALITY
The internet is a treasure-trove of “Look for one thing, find another!”, often giving rise to “Who knew there even was such a thing?” Case in point, the other day I stumbled across a slough of articles in defense of… 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 ›
THE UNIVERSITY’S SEXUAL VIOLENCE POLICY
I’ve just had the opportunity to read the University of Lethbridge’s recently adopted Revised Sexual Violence Policy. On the one hand I’m bound, by what I’m supposed to do for a living, to point out in what respects it’s a… Read More ›
THE I-BELIEVE-YOU CAMPAIGN
I have a colleague down the hall who believes that “Any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism!” This is stupid, but in her case forgivable. She’s the daughter of two Shoah survivors, both of whom had tattoos on… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 