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Jacques comments and I respond in blue: A few ideas about your recent post on defining political correctness.  First, there's a questionable suppressed premise in the argument below: "To be politically correct, then, is to support the leftist worldview and the leftist agenda.  It follows that a conservative cannot be politically correct.  P.C. comes from…

Recently over the transom: Greetings from a long time reader and fan of your blog.   I'm often struck by the difference in tone (representing a difference in your doxastic stance?) when you discuss ontological issues and when you discuss political issues. This was brought home forcibly by 'Does Evil Disprove the Existence of God’…

Causal theories of reference strike me as hopeless, which is not to say that descriptivist theories are in the clear.  (There are also hybrid theories that we ought to discuss.)  For now let's see how causal theories fare with the problem of negative existentials.    Not well, I shall argue. In particular, how might a causal…

The other night I caught a bit of the debate in the House of Commons about whether Donald Trump should be let into the U. K. for a visit.  That's rich.  A bizarre straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel of unassimilable elements who spell the eventual doom of the host culture.  Am I…

Michael Rea, no slouch of a philosopher, makes the following surprising claim in the Huffington Post: Christians and Muslims have very different beliefs about God; but they agree on this much: there is exactly one God. This common point of agreement is logically equivalent to [the] thesis that all Gods are the same God. In…

The following just over the transom from 'Jacques' with responses in blue from BV: I read your blog every day.  Quite apart from the high level philosophizing, it's a rare bit of political sanity and rationality and decency.  Academic philosophy is now thoroughly controlled by the most evil and insane factions of the Left.  It's…

Here is an example:   A Pew survey last year found that 75 percent of Republicans believed it is more important to "protect the right of Americans to own guns" than to "control gun ownership." This way of framing the issue shows left-wing bias.  For it implies that Republicans are opposed to controlling gun ownership.…

A curious sub-genre of meta-rock devoted to the defense of the devil's music. The Showmen, It Will Stand, 1961  Bob Seger, Old-Time Rock and Roll Rolling Stones, It's Only Rock and Roll (but I Like It) Electric Light Orchestra, Roll Over, Beethoven.  Amazingly good.  Roll over, Chuck Berry! Danny and the Juniors, Rock and Roll…

 This entry is a third response to Aidan Kimel.  Fr. Kimel writes, Reading through Vallicella’s article, I kept asking myself, Would Mascall agree with the proposition “existence exists”? I find the proposition odd. [. . .] What about the assertion of Pseudo-Dionysius that God is beyond all Being? Aquinas would certainly agree that the Creator…

This is a revised post from September, 2009.  Thanks to V.V. for his interest. ………………. A great deal could be said on this topic. Here are a few thoughts that may be helpful. Test them against your own experience. 1.   Make good use of the morning, which is an excellent time for such  activities  as…

It only got worse under his 'leadership.'  David Harsanyi: . . . the gratuitous groveling we do to allay the sensitivities of violence-prone Muslims (because who else are we attempting to placate?) has become a cringe-worthy aspect of American policy long before Barack Obama ever showed up. When the Bush administration, in the middle of…

 Last Night, 1961, The Mar-Keys. Last Date, 1960, Floyd Cramer. Save the Last Dance for Me, 1960, The Drifters. At Last, Etta James. Last Thing on My Mind, Doc Watson sings the Tom Paxton tune. A very fine version. Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream, Simon and Garfunkel.  Last Man Standing, Ry Cooder Last…

Merry Christmas everybody.  Pour yourself a drink, and enjoy. Cheech and Chong, Santa Claus and His Old LadyCanned Heat, Christmas Boogie Leon Redbone and Dr. John, Frosty the SnowmanBeach Boys, Little St. Nick.  A rarely heard alternate version.Ronettes, Sleigh RideElvis Presley, Blue Christmas Jeff Dunham, Jingle Bombs by Achmed the Terrorist Porky Pig, Blue ChristmasCharles…

Imagine a German restaurant so named. Blood and Soil. My astute readers needn't be reminded of the provenience of this phrase.  "Best blood sausage in the East Valley!"  Or MOM's Diner of Mesa.  "Fine Aryan cuisine served up right by members of the militia of Montana."  Would you be offended?  I just made up those…