Blog Stats
- 2,910,411 readers since June 2008
Recent Comments
- bluebird on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Evelyn Stone on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Bible says beastiality is ok on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Stan on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Tess on In 1935, Were Cary Grant and Randolf Scott Sex Partners? No, But These Images Look Rather Camp
- Tess on In 1935, Were Cary Grant and Randolf Scott Sex Partners? No, But These Images Look Rather Camp
- geirsmith1 on Barack Obama: The Leopard in the Book of Daniel?
- Christian on What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- nothingbutthepub on Evolution v. Creation Metaphor Watch: Is Nature “Red in Tooth and Claw”?
- Anonymous on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Carol Dickinson on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Bradley on Bonobo Liberals? Chimp Conservatives?
- Bill on Shakespeare, James Joyce, and the Dirty Encoding in Britney Spears’s “If U Seek Amy”
- godisreal2017 on “Male and Female Created He Them!”: Was Adam a Hermaphrodite? And Does That Explain How Eve Could Be Taken from Adam’s Body?
- godisreal2017 on “Male and Female Created He Them!”: Was Adam a Hermaphrodite? And Does That Explain How Eve Could Be Taken from Adam’s Body?
Top Posts
- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Clit Rubbing Bonobos: A Clue to the Evolutionary Origin of Human Homosexuality?
- Walt Whitman: "To be indeed a God!"
- What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- "The Vision of Christ That Thou Dost See": William Blake on the Many Faces of Jesus
- G.K Chesterton's Defense of Mysticism and Poetry
- The Stockholm Syndrome and Religion
- Ludwig Wittgenstein for Beginners
- Chris Hedges the Prophet on Print Culture Turning to Image Culture
- Was Emily Dickinson an Atheist?
-
Recent Posts
Recent Haiku Tweets
- @abrahampiper Yahweh as a frustrated deity, much to be pitied! Abraham Piper's insight here, if thought about as a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 year ago
- RT @tbonier: More than 80M votes cast and we're not done yet. Thoughts: - It's too late for an "October surprise" to have a significant imp… 2 years ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: 1. Want to thank @DanielNewman for using his HUGE platform for this work. I want to clarify what this is. In the voter… 2 years ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: Tell me again about how old and feeble Joe Biden is??? twitter.com/ProjectLincoln… 2 years ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: Remember when you had a chance to choose country over party and you chose party @SenatorCollins? Well, @ProjectLincol… 2 years ago
-
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Mike Bost Speaks Truth to Power
I don’t know if Mike Bost, an Illinois state legislator, is a Republican or a Democrat, but I’m impressed with his lucidity in the midst of strong emotion. His complaint: a giant bill has come to him without sufficient time … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged activism, America, democracy, freedom of speech, mike boss
2 Comments
The Bed, the Bath, the Bus—and the Motorcycle: Where Craig Venter Gets His Ideas
Thinkers tend to refer to the “bed, the bath, and the bus” as places where they get their ideas, and Virginia Woolfe famously wrote of the need for a room of one’s own. Likewise, Daniel Dennett recently praised his morning … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged craig venter, creativity, dna, genome, Nietzsche, science, solitude, Zarathustra
Leave a comment
Zygmunt Bauman On What Made The Holocaust Possible (And Whether Something Like It Could Happen Again)
In Modernity and the Holocaust (2000 edition), sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (b. 1925) explores the question of responsibility: who or what is responsible for the direction of the modern world? He explores this question via the prism of the Holocaust and has a provocative thesis: … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged activism, freedom, moloch, rage against the machine, sociology, the Holocaust, thoreau, zygmunt bauman
3 Comments
Ask an Interesting Question, Get an Interesting Answer. Michio Kaku’s Question: What Happens to Our Analysis When We Recall That We’re Scarcely Different from Our Paleolithic Ancestors of 100,000 Years Ago?
If, indeed, human beings are scarcely different from their Paleolithic ancestors of 100,000 years ago, what are the implications of this for the object or subject of your current attention? Here are some questions for foregrounding this issue: Of nature: … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged analysis, critical thinking, Darwin, evolution, evolutionary psychology, michio kaku, paleolithic ancestors, reason
2 Comments
No More Jesus Bashing: John Loftus Throws in the Towel
John Loftus, the ex-Christian author, has had enough. He’s recently decided to stop blogging and writing books debunking Christianity. Here’s part of what he wrote at his blog earlier this month: I have no more desire to engage Christians. They … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged abuse, agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, Christianity, fundamentalism, Jesus
18 Comments
Ask an Interesting Question, Get an Interesting Answer. Stephen Knapp and Walter Benn Michael’s Anti-Critical Theory Question: What Happens if We Don’t Separate Meaning from Intention and Knowledge from Interpretation? Will This Kill Critical Theory?
Within the humanities, contemporary critical theorizing typically entails political commitments, predominantly from the left, accompanied by some line of attack or qualification on Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle (his idea that every communicative act necessarily requires a speaker or author, a message, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged college, critical theory, God, literature, meaning, philosophy, reason, the author
Leave a comment
Ask an Interesting Question, Get an Interesting Answer. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Question: Who Wins and Who Loses Under Globalization?
Some globalism questions for the object or subject of your contemplation. Of nature: How is this natural object or ecosystem affected by globalization? Of art, literature, architecture, goods-for-sale, photography, advertising, or media: How is this object of human fashioning changed … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged art, college, globalism, literature, Politics, psychology, questions, seeing, vision
Leave a comment
“Cool Braining” Should Be The New Phrase For Yawning
Or, perhaps, “empathy enhancing.” __________ I take from the above video that maybe “hot heads” should not just count to ten in an effort to not blow up at other people, but perhaps try yawning (“cool braining” or “empathy enhancing”) … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anger, empathy, love, nonviolence, occupy, peace, psychology, the brain, yawning
Leave a comment
Agnosticism and the Uncanny
Imagine that you find a stranger attractive, and each time you see that person, you notice that he or she in turn notices you. Now let’s imagine you approach that person and say the following: “It’s uncanny how we keep … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, Jesus, philosophy, uncanny
1 Comment
Philip Roth On The Novel Verses The Screen
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged books, computers, internet, literature, novels, philip roth, poetry, screens
2 Comments
Emer O’Toole Says Shakespeare is Globally Popular Because of Colonialism
If a student were to ask me why people, the world over, read and put on performances of Shakespeare’s plays, I would basically say the following: A difficult achievement is universally recognizable. Shakespeare has done something, aesthetically and imaginatively, very far … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged art, beauty, colonialism, drama, literature, postmodernism, Shakespeare, Shakespeare festival
4 Comments
Evolution’s Eccentricity: Head Injury Savants And The Right Way To Organize Society
Imagine banging your head and suddenly having a talent for piano playing (or oil painting, or doing complex mathematics). It’s a real phenomenon. Here’s an example: __________ To my mind, this suggests that individuals are a lot like birds. Birds … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged compulsion, determinism, freedom, intelligence, obsession, philosophy, slavery, talent
Leave a comment
Does God Want You To Be Curious?
In a recent interview, science writer Philip Ball talks about his new book on curiosity, and implicates religion in stifling it: It’s certainly true that the instinct to know more about our environment must go back as far as humanity … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, curiosity, God, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Mohammad, philosophy, science
13 Comments