Monthly Archives: February 2009

Quote of the Day: William Clifford on the Duty of Inquiry (from his Essay, “The Ethics of Belief”, 1879)

William Clifford (1879): A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant-ship. He knew that she was old, and not overwell built at the first; that she had seen many seas and climes, and often had needed repairs. Doubts … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why I’m an Agnostic: Believers, Nonbelievers, and the Waving of Intellectual Garlic

The existence of the universe is a mystery. And we are, all of us, embedded in that mystery, and so we need to keep talking about it, like Jacob wrestling the angel, and not drive it away as if it … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Mental Health Break: My Uncle Writing Jokes at a Kitchen Table

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

My Uncle on Television with Woody Allen—and Forty Years Later

In February of 1967, Marty Allen and Steve Rossi were on the television show, What’s My Line? and Woody Allen was on the panel. Steve Rossi is my uncle, and “Rossi” is his stage name. His actual last name is … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

More on Republican Bobby Jindal’s College Foray into Exorcism and Faith Healing

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kindle 3.0?: Russ Wilcox on the Future of “E Ink”, the Electronic Newspaper, and the Electronic Book

Russ Wilcox is the co-founder and CEO of E Ink, which produces the low-power/high-contrast “electronic paper” screen that has made Amazon’s Kindle 2 such a huge success. Wilcox spoke to Xconomy.com and set some dates for what’s just over the horizon … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Philosopher Nigel Warburton Weighs in on the ATHEIST BUS AD CAMPAIGN in Britain

British atheists recently put together some money and purchased bus ads around their country proclaiming, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Christians promptly responded with counter-ads of their own. Philosopher Nigel Warburton offers his perspective … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Very Short Quiz to Help You Figure Out Where You Are at Right Now

Read each question slowly, and respond honestly. 1) If it is in fact the case that you are, right at this moment, occupying a very definite volume of space, then why is it that you do not know, without first taking a moment to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Suicide is Painless? Albert Camus’s First Problem of Philosophy—and the Southern Novelist Walker Percy’s Answer to It

Is the game worth the candle—or not? And if life is worth living, why aren’t you doing it? I like this reflection on suicide in Walker Percy’s brilliant Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self Help Book (Pocket Books 1984, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Is the Bible an Anthology—or a Unity?

F.F. Bruce, a biblical scholar rather better known in the 1960s than he is today, once said this: [T]he Bible is not an anthology; there is a unity which binds the whole together. Bruce, as an “old school” conservative scholar, has long been … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Big NY Times Science Story TODAY: 1.5 Million Year Old Proto-Human Footprints Discovered in Kenya

Can we put the inanities of young earth creationism to bed now? And can we finally just admit the obvious—that, yes, we descended from ape-like ancestors? The NY Times reports today that, in Kenya over the past three years, proto-human footprints (almost certainly … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Jesus of Nazareth, Republican?

Hey, you “Christian” Republicans out there! Jesus was a liberal. That’s right. Jesus said to sell all you have and give it to the poor, and he said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

John Cleese of Monty Python on Twittering

John Cleese deconstructs “twittering” in ten short seconds here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mid-Day Caffeine Substitute

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

35 Years Ago (in 1974)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               . The groovy-guy dancing, horns, and duds put me in mind of this late medieval Italian painting at the Getty Museum in Westwood:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Weird Fact for the Day: Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana (and Serious Rush Limbaugh Dittohead) WAS A COLLEGE EXORCIST!

So says TPM Online. Money quote: As others noted during his 2003 and 2007 gubernatorial campaigns (see update), in an essay Jindal wrote in 1994 for the New Oxford Review, a serious right-wing Catholic journal, Jindal narrated a bizarre story … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Talk Radio and the Louisiana Exorcist: Beloved Leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, HEARTS Exorcist Bobby Jindal—and Exorcist Bobby Jindall HEARTS Rush Limbaugh, Too

The love affair between Rush Limbaugh and exorcist Bobby Jindal is getting intense. Exorcist Jindal seems to have a serious crush on El Rushbo: In an interview with Limbaugh in 2007, Jindal gushed that he reads Limbaugh’s books and that he is … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“I don’t ever want to hear from you again”: The Great and Current Beloved Leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, Lays Down the Party Line

Don’t think. Don’t discuss. Just follow. The authoritarian personality on display: “[T]he people on our side are really making a mistake if they go after Bobby Jindal on the basis of style. Because if you think — people on our … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“I’m Still Falling”: A Russian Joke and the Global Economy

There is a Russian joke that I like, and that bears upon the global economy. It goes like this: Ivan sees his friend, Dmitri, fall into an old well. Ivan runs up to the rim of the well and calls down, “Oh my God, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t Buy Yet?: Yale Economist Robert Shiller Thinks the Housing Market is Only Halfway to Its Bottom

Yale economist, Robert Shiller, thinks we are only halfway to the bottom of the housing market, and, in consequence, that the economy’s general recovery is still 3-5 years off. See a five minute interview with Shiller, and a chart that he … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment