December 2008
44 posts
Dec 31st
Utopia: Living in a Nowhere Land →
Editorial by Tim Madigan (Philosophy Now) “Last year I was given the opportunity by my friend David Suits, chair of the philosophy department at the Rochester Institute of Technology, to teach an experimental course on Philosophy and Utopias. It was a great experience for me to explore such time-honored places such as the Garden of Eden, the Golden Age, Plato’s Republic, the City of the...
Dec 30th
1 tag
Dec 30th
Xmas was a success
Put the Christ back into xmas this year with Pretentious. Nice work. Nearly flawless. JG - get ahold of yourself. You’re losing control ! Excellent turkey though.
Dec 26th
Dec 24th
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Dec 23rd
South Western Ontario
Is awesome……. (a very qualified ‘awesome’): even though nobody’s around and the place is just completely devoid of the interesting, I’ve still managed to drink myself into a happy xmas mood. Not to mention that 4 tacos for 2 dollars is the best deal you can find from Stratford to Everton.
Dec 23rd
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Dec 23rd
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Dec 23rd
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Dec 22nd
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Dec 15th
Consider the Philosopher  →
An essay by James Ryerson (The New York Times): With the death of David Foster Wallace, the author of “Infinite Jest,” who took his own life on Sept. 12, the world of contemporary American fiction lost its most intellectually ambitious writer. But Wallace was also wary of ideas. He was perpetually on guard against the ways in which abstract thinking (especially thinking about your own thinking)...
Dec 15th
Way to ruin the planning phase
So three years ago I was doing some dishes in my apartment when a piece fell out of the glass I was working on. The loss of my right index knuckle left me with a scar that can’t be made cool no matter what story you come up with. Cleaning my apartment tonight in preparation for my trip home, the same thing happened to my left index knuckle. FUCK. And yes I am writing this at 5:06 AM,...
Dec 11th
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Dec 11th
Dec 11th
Flying home tomorrow for a much needed break.
Heading from Montreal to Waterloo shouldn’t necessarily be, but is the highlight of December so far. South Western Ontario here I come. JG don’t be sad - it’s really only like a day and a half. I wonder if I’ll get a chance to get into the country. Wellesley, Stratford, Tillsonburg and New Dundee are on my list (*Sarcasm).
Dec 11th
1 tag
Dec 9th
corneilious: I was really worried about global warming for a bit.  -17 on Sunday???!!What the fuck.  Much to my relief, it is going to be a balmy plus five today! If the smog breaks, I might even see a spot of sun. It dropped from around -5 to -26 here on sunday (with windchill) within about 6 hours. I think they were right about Montreal.
Dec 9th
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Dec 9th
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Dec 9th
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Arguing for A Habermasian take on Pettit →
Here’s something I’m working on right now JG. (And Pretentious: the next section is gonna make you lose your shit). If the goal of a group of individuals is in fact to establish a collective agent, it must meet this condition. What follows is that any organization that delegates its decision making to an individual will fail to qualify as a collective agent; when a group is called on...
Dec 8th
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Dec 8th
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Dec 7th
2 notes
Dec 7th
ListenMattafix - Passery By
Dec 7th
Dec 6th
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Dec 5th
Naomi Klein and the new new left →
An article entitled Outside Agitator by Larissa MacFarquhar (The New Yorker): “The day after the Chicago event, Klein taped an appearance on “The Colbert Report,” then went directly to the airport for a flight to France. She came back and went on a speaking tour to Texas, Colorado, California, and Wisconsin, did two panels in New York, and then later flew to Chicago for its humanities...
Dec 5th
Dec 5th
20 notes
ListenMadcon- Beggin’
Dec 5th
Robert Brandom's Website →
I just found this. It’s great. He’s posted all of his recent lecture material, handouts,  and drafts, all in .doc format. Wicked. Oh and check out what he’s just sitting there casually reading (Pretentious and JG: that was my nerdy way of reaching out. I’m critiquing Brandom’s reading of Hegel *as we speak).
Dec 4th
Dec 4th
86 notes
1 tag
Dec 4th
Moral battle over Spanish schools →
An article by Steve Kingstone (BBC): “A 16-year-old girl sits crumpled on the pavement, glugging sangria from a carton. Around her, a posse of giggling friends plan their Saturday night. Dressed to conquer male hearts, they draw pre-battle courage from the booze and a communal joint. … Who here, I ask, is a Catholic? Six faces, five blank looks. But then, a surprise contribution from...
Dec 4th
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Dec 3rd
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Dec 3rd
Should we all be sorry that we exist? →
Saul Smilansky elaborating on a chapter in his new book 10 Moral Paradoxes: “However, it also seems to me that there must be a limit: one cannot be happy that the Holocaust occurred, even if it is a fact that were it not for the Holocaust, one would not have been born (one’s parents would not have met, or would have had a different child at a different time). So one must choose: Holocaust...
Dec 3rd
The Complete Bushisms →
The ongoing collection of Bushisms from Slate “Yesterday, you made note of my—the lack of my talent when it came to dancing. But nevertheless, I want you to know I danced with joy. And no question Liberia has gone through very difficult times.”—Speaking with the president of Liberia, Washington, D.C., Oct. 22, 2008 “This thaw—took a while to thaw, it’s going to take a...
Dec 3rd
Everything You Need To Know About Hitler's... →
An article by Ron Rosenbaum (Slate) “Isn’t it obvious by now what this is about? Our need to prove that Hitler was not “normal,” thus not like us, normal human nature thereby exculpated from producing a Hitler. It fills a need to reassure ourselves there is no Hitler potential in human potential. We’re off the hook. I’ve tried to point out the sheer lack of...
Dec 2nd
Dec 1st
27 notes
Images by Mikhael Sibotzky →
Mikhael Sibotzky’s portfolio photographing South African prisons, prisoners, as well as the photographs of those prisoners taken in the local (prison) photography workshop.
Dec 1st
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Dec 1st
Pruss on Normativity →
A short argument from the blog of Baylor University Philosopher Alexander Pruss: “Every day, at a significant expense of time and effort, George engages in activity E. We ask him whether he does E because he is morally required (whether absolutely or prima facie) to do so? He denies it. We ask him whether he does E because he desires to do E or desires something else which the doing of...
Dec 1st
“Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Factual Error: There is a heinous number...”
– One of the best IMDB goofs ever written (via maniacalrage) (via onemoretimewithfeeling)
Dec 1st
8 notes