Last week the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom, on my behalf and that of two other complainants, filed a Charter challenge against the University of Lethbridge for cancelling a talk I had organised by Frances Widdowson on the effects of… Read More ›
media
THE OUTCOMES FALLACY
The way to test your argument for validity is what we might call the that’s-like-saying test. You give me your argument, I provide an analogous argument – analogous in the sense of sharing what we call your argument’s argument form… Read More ›
A HOUSE DIVIDED, AND KEEPING IT THAT WAY
In one my first entries in this blog, “First to the Tribe”, posted on September 14, 2016, I noted – not as a criticism but as a simple observation – that none of us can afford to do all of… Read More ›
SOME APT COMPARISONS
I tell my students that the only rhetorical overkill, no pun intended, worse than likening some perceived injustice to the Holocaust is likening some perceived villain to Adolf Hitler. But I never allow my advice to apply to me. Accordingly… Read More ›
RE LAST NIGHT’S PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
When people talk over each other, neither can be heard. But the fault that neither side was heard last night lies not with Donald Trump. That was his well-rehearsed strategy. Rather it lies with Chris Wallace. What he should have… Read More ›
PATTER
I’m certain that clergy, politicians, and news anchors all take the same course in patter. Given how often “our hearts go out to …”, one wonders if they ever stay home. Note that it’s invariably our hearts, first person plural,… Read More ›
RACE RELATIONS AND INFOTAINMENT
It was February, 1968, and I was just turning eighteen. I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Callao, the port city adjacent to Lima, Peru, reading an English language Time magazine that was reporting on the Tet Offensive in… Read More ›
THE PREVIOUS INVESTMENT TRAP
My wife isn’t just a pretty face. Behind it she’s got a sit-up-and-take-notice brain, i.e. one not to be trifled with. So in response to my query at the end of my last post, she’s offered the following answer. Not… Read More ›
LESS IS MORE
If you want to know whether you’ve been reporting or commenting, count your adjectives and adverbs. The most effective commentary comes across as reporting, because it lets the facts speak for themselves. If they can’t, and so they have to… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 