Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Shirking Personal Responsibility...
...A pastime of past times… “A Lesson for Our Time in Three Late-Antique Narratives: Satyricon, The Golden Ass, and Confessions” by Thomas F. Bertonneau, Professor of English at the State University of New York College , Oswego , New York . (essay)
[snip] "Those who are determined to resist the moral and civic corruption of their age – those who refuse to participate in the flouting of decorum and the degradation of bodies – must also resist the sophistic apology that seeks to excuse the very same moral and civic corruption. This apology typically articulates itself as a form of dogmatic determinism. The apologist denies freedom of will so as to exculpate moral lapses generally, or perhaps those of the enunciator himself specifically; determinism seeks to redefine moral consequences as non-causal outcomes that have somehow happened to people, as it were, at random. We can discern such attempts at spurious exoneration in the oft-heard counseling claim that obnoxious behaviors like dipsomania or drug addiction stem from the dumb proclivity of the organism rather than from witting declensions of a particular character; and in the sociological tenet that crime emerges as a “consequence” of “poverty” or of “oppressive social structures.[...]" (continue)
[snip] "Those who are determined to resist the moral and civic corruption of their age – those who refuse to participate in the flouting of decorum and the degradation of bodies – must also resist the sophistic apology that seeks to excuse the very same moral and civic corruption. This apology typically articulates itself as a form of dogmatic determinism. The apologist denies freedom of will so as to exculpate moral lapses generally, or perhaps those of the enunciator himself specifically; determinism seeks to redefine moral consequences as non-causal outcomes that have somehow happened to people, as it were, at random. We can discern such attempts at spurious exoneration in the oft-heard counseling claim that obnoxious behaviors like dipsomania or drug addiction stem from the dumb proclivity of the organism rather than from witting declensions of a particular character; and in the sociological tenet that crime emerges as a “consequence” of “poverty” or of “oppressive social structures.[...]" (continue)
Monday, November 22, 2010
Richard Epstein Opines...
-- on legal challenges to ObamaCare, the effects of stimulus spending, TARP bailouts, and Obama, his former Chicago Law Colleague:
Sunday, November 21, 2010
No Shortage of 'Useful Idiot' Professors
Leftist Stanford U. professor invite anarchists and jihadists together in the name of peace & justice: "Stanford University history professor Joel Beinin made the latest in a series of appearances on the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center (PPJC) Palo Alto cable television program "Other Voices" on November 2, 2010. The subject of the show was "Israel-Palestine: A New Protest Generation" and, as before, it provided a platform for Beinin's anti-Israel animus.[...]" -Campus Watch Research
A quick refresher course:
A quick refresher course: