Monthly Archives: January 2010

Lancaster Councilwoman Sherry Marquez Finds a Vocal Local Ally: Audie Yancey, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Quartz Hill

Lancaster city councilwoman Sherry Marquez has dug in on her essentialist remarks on the true nature of Islam (it is a violent religion dominated by violent people who are properly exemplified by the recent beheading of a woman by her Muslim husband … Continue reading

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No Things but in Ideas: Elisa Gabbert, a Poetry Editor, Vents

William Carlos Williams’s famous poetic motto was “no ideas but in things,” but as someone who loves philosophy as well as poetry, I like what Elisa Gabbert recently wrote: Here’s what I’d like to see more of in submissions: IDEAS. … Continue reading

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21st Century Bohemian Hippie Joy

The liberated body and free-flowing consciousness. The hope of the world: When I watch this I think of John Keats’s famous lines from “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all … Continue reading

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Richard Dawkins, Sherry Marquez, and Reductio Ad Absurdum

After Pat Robertson said that Haiti’s earthquake occurred because Haiti had made a pact with the devil, other Christians distanced themselves from his statement and had a different reaction: don’t worry so much about the question of theodicy, but help those in need … Continue reading

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Lancaster Councilwoman Sherry Marquez on a Muslim on Trial for Beheading His Wife: “We are told this is a small majority (sic) of Muslims in America, but it is truly what they are all about.”

The true nature of Islam is on display in the murder trial of a Muslim man in New York who beheaded his wife? That’s the essentialist conclusion of an elected Republican official in Southern California: Lancaster councilwoman Sherry Marquez. Here’s how … Continue reading

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Richard Rorty on Making Ethical Choices in a Godless Universe

I think that Richard Rorty is right about this, but it’s a bit jarring to read it stated so directly and matter-of-factly. The quote comes from Rorty’s essay, “Kant vs. Dewey” (in the last collection of his papers, Philosophy as Cultural … Continue reading

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Doobie Doobie Do—in California?

Expanding liberty and consciousness—and traffic accidents—in California? Pot seems to be headed for the ballot this year. This today from Reason: It looks like a marijuana legalization initiative will be on the ballot in California this fall. Today the backers of the … Continue reading

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I Like This Howard Zinn Quote

From “The Optimism of Uncertainty,” The Nation, 2004: The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous … Continue reading

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Author Mitch Horowitz Says Adolf Hitler was Not an Occultist

And an Alternet reviewer of Horowitz’s new book on occultism says that he’s persuasive on this score: He convincingly knocks down the trendy idea that the Third Reich was an occult phenomenon. “However tantalizing some may find it to conceive of … Continue reading

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Are There Angels in the Architecture of the Universe?

There appear to be ghostly minds in the architecture of the universe (that is, us). So why can’t there be angels? Just asking.

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Of Cookie Crumbs and Religion’s True Nature

I have two questions. Here’s my first: if a crumb from a cookie falls to the kitchen table and breaks into four pieces, do you now have one cookie crumb divided by four, or four cookie crumbs? Here’s my second … Continue reading

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A Sentence by Sentence Guide to Making a Blog Post

A brilliant deconstruction. See the full post here. Here’s how it starts: This sentence contains a provocative statement that attracts the readers’ attention, but really only has very little to do with the topic of the blog post. This sentence claims … Continue reading

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Richard Dawkins and Pat Robertson: The Essentialism That Binds?

After Pat Robertson said that Haiti’s earthquake had occurred because Haiti had made a pact with the devil, other Christians distanced themselves from his statement, and had a different reaction: don’t worry so much about the question of theodicy, but help those in … Continue reading

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Image of a Working Mother

Marc Chagall:

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Pope John Paul II: He Buffeted His Body and Made It His Slave?

According to Yahoo News today, a new book by Monsignor Slawomir Oder claims that Pope John Paul II habitually abused himself: John Paul frequently denied himself food — especially during the holy season of Lent — and “frequently spent the … Continue reading

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The Other 1950s

Hieroglyphs at Karnak (Thebes), circa 1950 BCE:

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The Haitian Earthquake: The Pagan Wheel of Fortune or God’s Will and Grace?

In a recent New York Times essay, literary critic James Wood made the following observation on President Barack Obama’s selection of the language of Christian theodicy over that of the pagan Wheel of Fortune (in response to the Haitian earthquake): [T]heological language has … Continue reading

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Tea-Partiers in America Take Note: Marcel Theroux’s Creepy Tea Party in Japan

Marcel Theroux is a novelist and documentary film makers for BBC 4. He does some really interesting work. Here’s a clip from his documentary on Japan (In Search of Wabi Sabi ). I suppose that the clip below depicts some Blakean … Continue reading

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In Greek Mythology, Who is Peitho?

Peitho is the goddess of rhetoric, persuasion, and seduction, and in ancient depictions, she tends to accompany Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Why Aphrodite? Because it is by artful and pretty words that your rational defenses—especially against love—are overcome and conquered (as in Gorgias’s “Encomium for … Continue reading

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21st Century Russia: Early 1930s Germany Redux?

A sobering documentary on 21st century Russia. Worth watching in full. We live in dangerous times. Here’s part 1 of 6:

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