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Maureen Dowd is harsh but insightful: As in all great affairs, Mark Sanford fell in love simultaneously with a woman and himself — with the dashing new version of himself he saw in her molten eyes.
Archive for June, 2009
Mark and “Marco”
June 29th, 2009 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in News Discussion, Psychology 
Tags: Falling in Love, Mark Sanford, Maureen Dowd 
No Comments »Should Couples Stay Together For the Kids?
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Is it really better for the kids? Johann Hari argues “no”: Professor Kelly Musick and Dr Ann Meier of Cornell University have carried out a study of children whose parents stay together for the sake of the kids. We all know some: parents who can’t stand each other, but have made a hard-headed decision to [...]
Ft. Worth Commemorates Stonewall With Unjustified Raid of Gay Bar!
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke As usual Box Turtle Bulletin has the comprehensive coverage.
Jason Jones in Iran
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke The Daily Show‘s expose on the extraordinary ordinariness of Iranian people can be found all in one convenient place now. If you missed any of it, catch up! The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Indecision 2009 – Ahmadinejad Rally in Iran www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show [...]
Facebook Trying To Outtwitter Twitter, Microsoft Style?
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Dan is relaying tech news. Last fall, Facebook tried and failed to acquire Twitter for $500 million in Facebook stock.The deal blew up when Twitter learned Facebook valued itself somewhere around $8 billion while its stock was going for closer to $4 billion on the market. So what has Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg done since? [...]
Intimate Anecdotes About Michael Jackson
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke A rabbi friend mourns not just his death but his life, I would overcome my feelings of pity with a spirit of defiance. No, I will not cry. He hadn’t earned it.But then the news came that he had died. And I was devastated. Especially when I saw my children’s tears. Michael was accused of [...]
Daily Hilarity: George Carlin–”Religion is Bullshit”
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Greg Laden points out June 27th was a year since the death of George Carlin. Your Thoughts?
Nap Advocacy
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke I am a huge advocate of sleep. Here’s a case for midday sleeping. They say it’s better for concentration, productivity, concentration, etc. than caffeine! It’s already 2:10 pm, so go get some sleep already if you haven’t already!
Beginning of the End of Radical Islam?
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke The Washington Post reports: Election and polling results show a diminishing influence of radical Islam acroos the Middle East and other Muslim countries. Radical political parties are losing clout, support for suicide bombing and terrorist tactics is dropping, and the deteriorating situation in Iran mark the beginning of the end of radical Islam. Regardless of [...]
Teenagers’ Limbs Cut Off For Stealing
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke as a crowd of 300 men, women, and children watched: Somalia’s capital Mogadishu was witness, Thursday, to the public amputation of the left leg and right hand from each of four thieves. They were all teenagers, about seventeen years old. The thieves, were convicted of stealing some mobile phones and two guns by a Whahbist [...]
Posted in Islam, News, Religion, Theocracy Tags: Islamism, Religion, Sha'ria Law, Somalia No Comments »To Ban Or Not To Ban
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke A youtube point-counterpoint on this topic (on which I am still interested in your thoughts). Click here for Njustus’s stab at the topic and my attempt to play devil’s advocate against him. Pro-ban: Anti-ban: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Feminism, Pat Condell, Religion, Religious Rights, Women's Rights Tags: Burqua, Islamists, Islamophobia, Politics, Religion, Sarkozy No Comments »Playing Sarkozy’s Advocate
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Njustus has kindly accepted my gauntlet to readers to offer on the possibility of the French government outlawing women from publicly wearing burqas. And his reply is a good one: From a Lockean ’social contract’ perspective, I believe the state should have the power to regulate the wearing of burqas if it can offer a [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Autonomy, Ethics, Islam, News Discussion, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights Tags: Burqa, Culture, France, Freedom of Speech, Heteronomy, Liberalism, Liberatarianism, Locke, Muslims, Paternalism, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Liberties, Social Contract, Subcultures 6 Comments »A Question For My Readers About “Moral Facts”
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke In metaethics debates, there are disputes between various forms of cognitivists and non-cognitivists. Cognitivists claim that when we make a claim that “x is wrong” or “x is right” we mean to say that “it is a fact that x is wrong” or that “it is a fact that x is right.” Whether it turns [...]
How Faith Is Not Like Other (Revisable) Reflexive Assumptions
June 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke (It should not be necessary for understanding this post, but for the full backstory to this debate see my series on Objections to Religious Moderates and Intellectuals, parts 1, 2, 3, & 4 and my post “On Teleology and Intellectual Virtues and Vices”) Shane writes in reply to my post “On Teleology and Intellectual Virtues [...]
Posted in Atheism, Authoritarianism, Epistemology, Ethics, Faith, Historical Ethics, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Miracles, Naturalism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Teleology Tags: A Priori Moral Knowledge, Aesthetic Knowledge, Assumptions, Cultural Relativism, Emotivism, Epistemology, Hermeneutics, Humean Skepticism, Mathematical Knowledge, Metaethics, Mythology, Nietzsche on Objective Values, Perceptual Knowledge, Philosophy, Prejudices, Religion, Supernaturalism 3 Comments »Brigham Young Ends Three Year Youtube Ban
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke The story. Sigh, banning things doesn’t make people morally good, it takes away even the opportunity for exercise of moral judgment. And, quite often it chokes off more good than it prevents evil.
Posted in Religion Tags: Brigham Young, Censorship, Good Motives, Moral Infantalization, Religion, Youtube No Comments »Children’s Bill of Religious Rights
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke I have almost always found children’s choirs incredibly loathesome because almost always they are used to have children in unison preach bland platitudes which are simply empty words to kids. Only recently I heard a great use of a children’s choir as part of the Decemberists’ new Hazards of Love album, which effectively just uses [...]
Christian Belief as a Natural Phenomenon
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Since May, Valerie Tarico has been writing a six part series of articles called “Christina Belief as a Natural Phenomenon.” Part 5 was just released last night. I highly suggest reading through all the articles and would love your feedback in our comments section. Your ideas from there might lead to future blog posts. So [...]
Want To See How Philosophers Think?
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke For logic, grammar, and semantics fans, this post and comments section are quite fun.
A Note For Philosophy Non-Specialists About This Blog
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Please, if your specialization in life is not philosophy, do not feel unwelcomed when encountering the sorts of detailed phiosophical discussion that this blog specializes in. When I write on here I am going to write in the clearest and most precise way I can about the philosophical issues that arise in my research on [...]
Posted in Education, Philosophy Tags: About this Blog, Jargon, Non-Philosophers, Non-Specialists, Philosophy, Specialization, Technical Terms No Comments »Taking The Unity of Truth Notion Seriously
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss on the incompatibility of God and science. The whole piece is worth your time. This succinct statement summing up the article, however, hits the nail on the head: My practice as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel [...]
Posted in Atheism, Christianity, Epistemology, Faith, Naturalism, News Discussion, Philosophy, Religion, Theocracy Tags: Democracy, Epistemology, Iran, Philosophy, Politics, Reason, Religion, Roman Catholics, Scientists, Virgin Birth No Comments »France Considers Banning Burqas in Public and I Consider Haidt on Pluralism
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke France, which has already banned headscarves in schools, purportedly as an effort to separate church and state, is now considering banning the burqa in public since it represents servitude and indignity for women (according to Sarkozy). Click here for the full story and links to perspectives on the option. Would the effects of this be [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Feminism, Islam, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, News, News Discussion, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Religious Rights, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights Tags: Burqua Ban, France, Haidt, Islamophobia, Metaethics, Multiculturalism, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Sarkozy, Secularism No Comments »Enjoy Some Industrial Noise Rock Instrumentals…
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke This cut from Nine Inch Nails’ 2008 release Ghosts just blows me away, one of my favorite things Trent’s ever done: And below is Dan Friel performing “Ghosts, pt. 1″ live from his Ghost Town, which is a great album start to finish: Finally, the Fuck Buttons’ appearance in “Juan’s Basement.”
Posted in Indie Rock, Music, Videos Tags: Dan Friel, Fuck Buttons, Industrial, Music, Nine Inch Nails, Noise Rock No Comments »Last Week in Gays
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke A round up of only some of the numerous interesting stories about the progress of gay civil rights covered this week by Box Turtle Bulletin: Ireland now has civil partnerships “with many (but not all) of the rights, priveleges, and responsibilities to same-sex couples.” In Texas, 57% now support some sort of recognition of gay [...]
Greg Laden’s Qualms With Missionaries
June 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Just learned about this from PZ Myers. Sounds most interesting, their last episode in their current format (before they switch to a podcast) starts at 8 am this morning. But more than just the concept of an atheist talk show is this really intriguing and morally urgent topic for today’s show: Missionaries tell us that [...]
Posted in Atheism, Religion Tags: Africa, Atheist Talk Radio, Minnesota, Missionaries, Poverty, Religion No Comments »
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