Jonathan Haidt has argued that a university can seek truth, or it can pursue justice, but not both. He’s right about the dichotomy, but I’m not sure he’s best identified the two choices. Getting the truth is far above anyone’s… Read More ›
Trump
MAR-A-LAGO, DOBBS, AND THE UNFORESEEABLE BUT SURE-TO-BE-COMEDIC FUTURE
The raid on Mar-a-Lago has done little to dampen the conviction that there’s a deep-state conspiracy against the Donald, and one designed to ensure that the Democrats remain in power. And the Dobbs decision has motivated many women to try… Read More ›
IN THE WAKE OF THE ‘INCURSION’
Since the – let’s just call it an ‘incursion’ – into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, CNN and MSNBC have been awfulising it as “the end of the American experiment in democracy”, while Fox has been downplaying it as… Read More ›
AWFULISERS AND TRIVIALISERS
In the wake of the events that took place at the U.S. Capitol building yesterday, things could have gone one of two ways. The Awfulisers worried that Trump would ‘double down’, perhaps even invoking martial law. So, they added, if… Read More ›
ONE PARADOX OF POWER
Last Saturday Donald Trump spent an hour on the phone trying to inveigle the Attorney General of Georgia to ‘find’ him enough votes to overturn the results of the election, in the wake of which some pundits are speculating on… Read More ›
THE NEXT 69 DAYS
As things now stand, Biden is going to exactly match Trump’s 306 Electoral College wins in 2016, which is 36 more than the 270 needed for the Presidency. This means that Trump’s legal challenges would have to reverse 38 of… Read More ›
MY NEW YEARS WISH FOR AMERICA
With the election finally called, the “You’re fired!” signs have been coming out, as we all knew they would. And given Trump’s bravado, Biden would certainly be entitled to join in the crowing. But he’s not. And wisely not. After… Read More ›
‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION, AND …
This is the night before the U.S. election. Unless you figure you can’t lose – or unless you figure you can’t win – you have to have two speeches ready for election night, a victory speech and a concession speech…. Read More ›
GOOD DAYS AND BAD
Let’s face it. Some days are better than others. Some days are better than most. And then there are those days, with apologies to Anselm, “the better of which cannot be conceived”. One such for me was last Thursday. It… 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 ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 