"Palintology"

This cartoon from the Washington Post deserves to be shared.

I don't care where your Party affiliation lies, it's undeniable that the way Palin is being shielded from even our maximally accommodating, couldn't-scrutinize-its-way-out-of-a-paper-bag Press is a complete disgrace.

Paul Newman has a posse

Paul Newman has a posse. Enjoy here.

The PlainDrome

I assume you've all by now seen the mock Sarah Palin blog, PalinDrome. It's pretty funny.

Earlier in the week, I sent the link out to a bunch of pals. Roughly half wrote back honestly asking whether I was sure it was a parody. I guess it's not so obvious that it is.

Therefore: We're doomed.

More on Nagel

As many expected, Nagel's recent Philosophy & Public Affairs essay on "Public Education and Intelligent Design" is being celebrated in the ID community. Note this entry on the Discovery [sic] Institute's blog, "Prominent Atheist Professor of Law and Philosophy Thomas Nagel Calls Intelligent Design Scientific and Constitutional to "Mention" in Science Classes."

Predictably, the almost blow-by-blow recapitulation of the essay makes no mention of Nagel's crucial claim that although ID is not non-science, it's really bad science.

Pirate

Apparently it's "Talk Like a Pirate Day." I learned this just a little while ago, when I was served at my local coffee shop by someone who was wearing a funny hat and insisted on saying "Arrrghh...." before each sentence she uttered. Puzzled by my lack of response, she said, "Aren't you going to talk like a Pirate today?"

I replied, "Absolutely not. Pirates are criminals." As I walked away, I heard her say, "whatever... weirdo." And I turned around and said, "Don't you mean to say 'Arrrghhh... whatever weirdo'?"
No response.


Spiros, 1; Fake Pirate, 0

Porn Dethroned

From Reuters:

Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate . . . .

Question: Doom or not?

Shine on....

Richard Wright, keyboardist for Pink Floyd, has a posse.

Story here.

After Animals, who cares, right?

David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace has a posse.

In what respect, Charlie?

Bob Herbert hit the nail on the head in the New York Times yesterday:

John McCain, who is shameless about promoting himself as America’s ultimate patriot, put the best interests of the nation aside in making his incredibly reckless choice of a running mate. But there is a profound double standard in this country. The likes of John McCain and George W. Bush can do the craziest, most irresponsible things imaginable, and it only seems to help them politically.

If anyone in Canada or the UK has need of a pretty good (if I may say so) political philosopher, please let me know. Will work for cheap. Seriously. I've had it with this fucking place.

DOOM, DOOM, DOOM

From The Michigan Messenger:

Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African American voters

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

Full details of DOOM here.

Logic Text Fuckedupness

In the brand new (10th) edition of Pat Hurley's A Concise Introduction to Logic the following are offered for translation into sentence logic (pp. 299-300):

If Bill O'Reilly spins the news, then if Katie Curic charms her viewers, then Paula Zahn has sex appeal.

If Kate Winslet and Jessica Biel do a comedy, then either Forrest Whitaker will make a documentary or Paris Hilton will do a skin flick.

If Tom Cruise is gay, then if Diane Sawyer interviews him, then Scientology's being nonsense implies that Katie Holmes is in for a surprise.

It is not the case that both Atari's releasing a stalker game implies that Nintendo does and Sega's releasing a molester game implies that Commodore does.

I'm not making this up. I understand that textbook authors are pressured into using examples that connect with the younger generation and all... But what the fuck's up with these examples? Do we really need references to skin flicks? And what's a "molester game"?

Country First

Does anyone else detect something in the neighborhood of performative contradiction in Country First as a campaign slogan, especially since the tacit background to the slogan is that Obama is simply interested in winning an election?

Nostalgic Ozzy Graffiti

On my way to campus, I saw the following bit of newly-drafted graffiti on a telephone pole:

Ozzy Killed Randy,
Took Everything

And then, about a foot beneath, almost as an afterthought:

Randy is us all

It has long been my view that Ozzy used his Dark Powers to crash that plane.