After a mastectomy, some women choose to go flat. Should these flat chesters be allowed shirtless in public? I can't see why not. On the other hand, there is some small case for requiring top-heavy men to wear the mansiere in public, though I won't press the point.
Category: Varia
Feser Cancels Membership in Society of Christian Philosophers
Wise move. Things have come to a sorry pass when defunding the Left includes quitting the SCP. The outfit ought to rename itself: Society of Culturally Marxist 'Christian' Philosophers.
And of course every Right-thinking person must work to defund the Left. Voting with feet and wallet are most effective. Just walk away and take your money with you.
3,290 Page Views Yesterday
Why the surge? I have no idea despite scrutiny of my referral list. I have been averaging 1600-1800 page views per day. But yesterday's spike was nothing like the one this site received in late February of this year: 10,695. I figure that that was due to my post about the Norwegian anti-natalist, Peter Wessel Zappfe.
Perhaps we philosophers need to pay more attention to anti-natalism as a cultural phenomenon and as a component in der Untergang des Abendlandes.
We are losing the will to perpetuate our civilization and its values. Christians in the Middle East are being slaughtered and their churches pulverized by Muslim savages. So what did Pope Francis say in response to Donald Trump's call for a wall along the southern U.S. border? We don't need to build walls, but bridges. Francis the fool is one dope of a pope.
Evangelical Protestants understand this, though they are too polite and politic to put it the way I just did. This is why, mirabile dictu, so many of them support Trump, the nasty sybarite of Gotham who builds casinos to the greater glory of Lust, Greed, Gluttony, and Lady Luck.
They understand that his character flaws are no worse than Hillary's and that ideas and policies trump persons and their peccadilloes. His are mainly sound; hers are all of them destructive.
(I used 'peccadillo' above because I am overly fond of alliteration; but it is not quite the right word, referring as it does to little sins. The sins and crimes of Hillary are by no means little. She belongs in jail.)
Russian Roulette With a Semi-Automatic Pistol
This seems to be becoming an Internet meme. It comes with the implication that certain death will be the result. (See graphic below.) Let's think about this, just for fun.
Strictly speaking, one can play Russian Roulette only with a revolver. But surely something analogous to Russian Roulette can be played with a semi-automatic pistol with a non-zero probability of surviving.
Here is one way. Have 'a friend' load the magazine randomly with live and dummy rounds. Insert the magazine and rack the slide, thereby chambering a round. Point the gun at your head and press the trigger. If you hear a click, then the hammer fell on a dummy round. Congratulations! You are not dead. Care to press your luck? Then press the trigger a second time.
Here is a second way. Pick up a semi-auto pistol and remove the magazine. Point at head, pull trigger. If there is a live round in the chamber, you're a goner. A dummy round or nothing in the chamber and you survive to be a fool another day. Unlike Terry Kath.
Remember him? He was the blazingly fast guitarist for the band Chicago. In 1978, while drunk, he shot himself in the head with an 'unloaded' gun. At first he had been fooling with a .38 revolver. Then he picked up a semi-automatic 9 mm pistol, removed the magazine, pointed it at his head, spoke his last words, "Don't worry, it isn't loaded," and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately for his head, there was a round in the chamber. Or that is one way the story goes.
Such inadvertent exits are easily avoided by exceptionless observation of three rules: Never point a gun at something you do not want to destroy. Treat every gun as if loaded, whether loaded or not. Never mix alcohol and gunpowder.
Perhaps I should add a fourth: Never mix dummy rounds with live rounds. Variant: Dummies should stay clear of guns, loaded or unloaded, and ammo, live or dummy.
Uncle Bill has a fifth rule for you: Never try to cure someone's hiccups by pointing a gun at him or her. A Fort Hood soldier availed himself of this method to cure a fellow soldier's hiccups, but ended up 'curing' him of life itself. (A cock to Asclepius!) The soldier, who was drunk at the time, said he thought the gun was loaded with dummy rounds. And now for the graphic, from Diana West via Bill Keezer.
Curious Bumpersticker
I actually saw this on the back of a car the other day. It was surrounded by other liberal bumper stickers. That suggests that no irony was intended. No doubt liberals are willfully stupid people, but is any liberal so stupid as not to know that 'b.s.' is a polite abbreviation for 'bullshit'?
Not Blog-Worthy
A good blogger exercises restraint as to what he posts. Too much of the merely personal makes for a boring blog. Facebook is the place for narcissism. But a blog bare of all traces of the personal is not a blog either, by my definition, one with which you are free to disagree. Here is an entry from my written journal which illustrates what needn't be published to the four corners of the earth:
The old push broom has been retired from service, 30 years worth, it may well be. The handle had become unrepairably unattached to the brush. I believe I bought the old broom when we purchased our first house 30 years ago in '86. I bought a new 'industrial' broom on Saturday, long-handled and serious, at the Crismon Road Home Despot Depot. I can't wait to try it out.
Neue Besen kehren gut!
Fear not, I shall not report on the state of my bowels, which is excellent, nor pull a Trump and crow about the efficacy of my schlong.
The Tomb of the Philosopher
Supposedly found. Appropriately enough, in Stagira. How long before Islamists destroy it?
Super π Day Approximately
π day is 3/14. March 14th last year was called super π day: 3/14/15. Years ago, as a student of electrical engineering, I memorized π this far out: 3.14159. So isn't today better called super π day? I mean, 3.1416 is closer to the value of π than 3.1415. Am I right? Of course I am.
The decimal expansion is non-terminating. But that is not what makes it an irrational number. What makes it irrational is that it cannot be expressed as a fraction the numerator and denominator of which are integers. Compare 1/3. Its decimal expansion is also non-terminating: .3333333 . . . . But it is a rational number because it can be expressed as a fraction the numerator and denominator of which are integers (whole numbers).
An irrational (rational) number is so-called because it cannot (can) be expressed as a ratio of two integers. Thus any puzzlement as to how a number, as opposed to a person, could be rational or irrational calls for therapeutic dissolution, not solution (he said with a sidelong glance in the direction of Wittgenstein).
Finally a quick question about infinity. The decimal expansion of π is non-terminating. It thus continues infinitely. The number of digits is infinite. Potentially or actually? (See Infinity category for some discussion of the difference.) I wonder: can the definiteness of π — its being the ratio of diameter to circumference in a circle — be taken to show that the number of digits in the decimal expansion is actually infinite?
I'm just asking.
Many people don't understand that certain words and phrases are terms of art, technical terms, whose meanings are, or are determined by, their uses in specialized contexts. I once foolishly allowed myself to be suckered into a conversation with an old man. I had occasion to bring up imaginary (complex) numbers in support of some point I was making. He snorted derisively, "How can a number be imaginary?!" The same old fool — and I was a fool too for talking to him twice — once balked incredulously at the imago dei. "You mean to tell me that God has an intestinal tract!"
Now go ye forth and celebrate π day in some appropriate and inoffensive way. Eat some pie. Calculate the area of some circle. A = πr2.
Dream about π in the sky. Mock a leftist for wanting π in the future. 'The philosophers have variously interpreted π; the point is to change it!'
But don't shout down any speaker or throw π in his face. That's what 'liberals' and leftists do, and you are a morally decent person who believes in free speech and open debate.
As a sort of 'make-up' for missing Saturday night's oldies show, here is Queen Jane Approximately.
Which Dylan song features the line "infinity goes up on trial"?
Data on the Persecution of Christians
While on Ego Surfari . . .
. . . I turned up this delightful tidbit in Gilleland the Erudite's archive of arcana from 2006:
Bill Vallicella (aka Maverick Philosopher) quotes the Latin phrase "Post coitum omne animal triste est," translates it as "After sexual intercourse every animal is sad," and remarks "The universal quantifier causes me some trouble." A variant of the phrase gives exceptions to the general rule: "Triste est omne animal post coitum, praeter mulierem gallumque," every animal except woman and rooster. Or should that be "Gallum," Frenchman?
Spanish civil servant’s six-year absence from work goes unnoticed
A heart-warming story at the intersection of government inefficiency and the love of wisdom. (HT: Karl White)
"They said he did go to the office, although not for full business hours every day, and that he dedicated himself to reading philosophy."
Don’t Say ‘Turkey Day’
Say 'Thanksgiving' and give thanks. You don't need to eat turkey to be thankful. Gratitude is a good old conservative virtue. I'd expatiate further, but I've got a race to run. You guessed it: a 'turkey trot.'
Colander Girl
With apologies to Neil Sedaka, Calendar Girl.
A 'pastafarian' idiot was allowed to wear a colander in an official DMV photo in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Bring on the hoodies, the sombreros, the ski masks . . . . Story here.
Does this have anything to do with the decline of the West? Something. It is just another little indication of the abdication of those in positions of authority. A driver's license is an important document. The authorities should not allow its being mocked by a dumbass with a piece of kitchenware on her head. But Massachusetts is lousy with liberals, so what do you expect? A liberal will tolerate anything except common sense and good judgment.
A penne for her thoughts as she strains to find something to believe in. If only she would use her noodle.
The Old Lady Needs to Get With It
Harley-Davidson: Stickin’ It to the Man
Check out this H-D promotional video. A celebration of individuality by people who dress the same, ride the same make of motorcycle, and chant in unison.
"Some of us believe in the Man Upstairs, but all of us believe in stickin' it to the Man Down Here."
But without the Man Down Here there would be no roads, no gasoline, no science, no technology, no motorcycles, no law and order, no orderly context in which aging lawyers and dentists could play at stickin' it to the Man on the weekends. The Man is discipline, self-denial, repression, deferral of gratification, control of the instinctual. The Man is civilization, discontents and all. Without the Man there would be no one to stick it to, and nothing to stick it to him with. Adolescents of all ages need the Man to have someone to rebel against.
Still and all, after watching this video, what red-blooded American boomer doesn't want to rush out and buy himself a hog? Get your motor runnin', head out on the highway . . . .
Personal anecdote: A few years back I took a three-day motorcycle course, passed it, and got my license. I was about ro rush out and buy myself a hog when Good Sense kicked in. So I rushed out and bought myself a Jeep Wrangler instead.