08.15.10
Posted in Current Events, Patriotism, Politics, Religion at 6:12 am by madcap
I agree with much of what Sam Harris writes. When I don’t agree, it’s usually a question of degree. For instance, Harris recently ignited debate at his TED talk, in which he advocated science as an arbiter of moral decisions. While I support this effort in principle, I fear Harris is a bit too optimistic on the prospects of science to develop from a historically descriptive practice to a normative one, or, to put it another way, to rise above Hume’s (in)famous “is-ought” problem. In fact, one could review history and make a plausible case that science is often at its worse when it is used prescriptively. (The expected counterargument is that those examples are not examples of science, but pseudoscience used to further decidedly non-scientific agendas.)
I am not writing this to debate science’s role in morality, though. I believe a thoughtful debate can be had there. Rather, I am reacting to Harris’ recent article, Ground Zero Mosque from The Daily Beast. His first two sentences perhaps best sum up his position:
Should a 15-story mosque and Islamic cultural center be built two blocks from the site of the worst jihadist atrocity in living memory? Put this way, the question nearly answers itself.
Harris’ answer, in case the obviousness escaped you, is no.
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01.12.10
Posted in Culture, Philosophy, Politics, war at 12:43 am by madcap
Conor Friedersdorf responds to Jonah Goldberg’s continuing attempts to frame the debate over water-boarding as a debate over semantics: Talking Over Torture | The American Scene
Goldberg is absolutely wrong to argue that there are no good responses to the ticking time bomb scenario. Perhaps he means that he chooses to pretend like nobody is making them. This makes sense, since the neocon crowd is quite adept at plugging their ears and yelling their mantras (not to mention running their own cable news networks) in order to drown out any opposing viewpoints. In fact, Friedersdorf’s analysis, as well as the comments of Mike Farmer’s above, provide two excellent responses to the ticking time bomb scenario.
I humbly offer a third Read the rest of this entry »
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09.16.09
Posted in Politics at 12:01 am by madcap
There seemed little question after the argument in an important campaign finance case at the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the makers of a slashing political documentary about Hillary Rodham Clinton were poised to win. The open issue was just how broad that victory would be.
Justices Are Pressed for a Broad Ruling in Campaign Case - NYTimes.com
The idea that corporations or other groups have constitutionally-protected rights by way of their corporate personhood is ludicrous on the face of it. Corporate personhood is a legal fiction that is convenient for business matters (esp. contract law and torts), but ought not be taken too far.
If we discard the notion that corporations have constitutional rights above and beyond the rights of their human constituents, then we can see that Congress should have broad leeway in regulating corporate participation in our political process.
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09.06.09
Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Quotes at 9:37 pm by madcap
“No man is an island, and rules made for imaginary islands ignore the fragile ecology of the actual archipelago.”
Adam Gopnik, The Return of the Native, The New Yorker, Sept. 7, 2009
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08.26.09
Posted in Economics, Humor, Politics, Quotes, Rants at 12:58 am by madcap
I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE SHITHEEL
this morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy.
I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility.
After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.
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