Down the hall in the English Department, we have an otherwise highly respected colleague who believes, and I quote, that “Any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism.” I take this to mean that if the Israelis decided to empty the Gaza Strip the way the Nazis emptied the Warsaw Ghetto, she would have … Continue reading THE PLIGHT OF THE ANTI-SEMITIC SEMITE
Holocaust
THE CASE AGAINST HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
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
CAUSE FOR CANONIZATION – PIUS XII AND THE CURA
Let’s start with a little Hohfeldian housekeeping. Arguably there’s no such thing as a duty to defend oneself from injury. But no one, save the most bone-headed pacifist, would deny one has a right to defend himself, to defend himself even from state-authored injury, and be that injury an injustice or not. That is, the … Continue reading CAUSE FOR CANONIZATION – PIUS XII AND THE CURA
OH BUT THAT’S DIFFERENT
As a philosopher of mind Kant was beyond brilliant. As an ethicist he was an idiot. Kant asks us to consider two scenarios: I steal your wallet, you steal mine. If I think the one is okay, I have to think the other is too. Why? “Well, because they’re the same.” No they’re not. In … Continue reading OH BUT THAT’S DIFFERENT
DENIALISM
‘Denialism’ is a neologism in search of a meaning. Let’s see if we can find it one. As it turns out we’re going to fail. As it turns out calling someone a denialist is going to have about as much cognitive content as calling him an asshole. It’s an expletive. A term of strong disapproval. … Continue reading DENIALISM
JEWS, THE SHOAH, AND IDENTITY POLITICS
There’s not a whole lot that’s special about us Jews. Yes, we do celebrate Easter by drinking the blood of a Christian baby, preferably one still wet from the baptismal fount. But other than that we’re pretty much like everyone else. As Shylock asked rhetorically, “Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, … Continue reading JEWS, THE SHOAH, AND IDENTITY POLITICS
