Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Humor

  • Pedantry in Pursuit of Precision . . .

    . . . is at worst a peccadillo. Philosophers place a premium on precision. Get used to it.

  • Friday Cat Blogging Three Days Late: A Puzzling Image

    When I travelled in China, I saw not one pussy cat. But I had a Chinese student at CWRU who said that the Chinese eat anything with four legs except the kitchen table. And now I recall eating something in Wuhan that tasted like chicken but a tad gamier. Now North Korea is not China.…

  • Chess Players Commiserate on their Failed Marriages

    A: "We were bishops of opposite color."  B:  "Sorry to hear that.  In our case the union ended when she discovered I had insufficient mating material." C:  "We just couldn't get it together.  Whenever she wanted to make love, I was busy making Luft." D: "She blew her stack when I gingerly brought up the topic…

  • How a Leftist Gains Perspective

    Here: Yet even as [Lisa] Bloom was still coming to terms with the [Weinsteinian] events of the past month — she attended the post-Burning Man gathering L.A. Decompression over the weekend in an attempt to gain perspective— she seemed focused on some of the smaller details of what went wrong. Be careful not to bust your…

  • Jewish Humor

    Here: Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. “Herr Altmann,” said his secretary, “I notice you’re reading Der Stürmer! I can’t understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew ?” “On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read…

  • I’m a Racist Because I Like Chess

    I left the house at 5:15 this morning, hiked 45 minutes over the local hills to arrive at 6:00 sharp at Gecko Espresso where I met up with Lowell S. a local chess aficionado.  We played under the influence of caffeine for a solid two hours, one game, recorded, to be analyzed when next we…

  • If Narcissus Had a Blog . . .

    . . . what would it be called? Facebook.

  • National Security Agency

    I was joking with somebody recently about blog backup.  "Why do I need to back up my blog?" said I. "The NSA has every word." Joking aside, the underlying issue is a vexing one.  There is no true liberty without security, but a security worth wanting must make allowance for a large measure of liberty.…

  • The Gastroenterologist Waxes Philosophical

    When asked about the value of life, the gastroenterologist sagely observed that it all depends on the liver.

  • A Realist Walks into a Bar . . .

    . . . looking glum. Bartender: "What's the matter, pal?" Realist: "My nominalist girl friend says we have nothing in common!"

  • Russian Dressing

  • Friday Cat Blogging a Day Late

    And then there is Schroedinger's troll.

  • Disproportionate Impact

    Laws against the destruction of public and private property have a disproportionate impact on leftist thugs. Such laws are obviously discriminatory, discriminating as they do between leftist thugs and decent folk, and are therefore unfair. They should be repealed. We need to work together to build a society in which all are treated equally regardless…

  • Past, Present, and Future Walked into a Bar . . .

    . . . and things began to get tense.

  • Stupor Bowl Prediction

    V. Putin will hack the scoreboard the way he hacked the voting machines in November, tilting the tabulation of the vote in favor of fellow fascist, Donald J. Trump. (Adapted from a Dennis Miller riff.)