There are a lot of people out in the world saying stupid and hateful things. I don’t waste much time on them since they are too easy a target. But what surprises me is when major media sources interview ordinary people who really should not be on TV because they are not going to do …
Monthly Archive: May 2012
May 25 2012
Take that, Avengers!
The film The Avengers is doing boffo box office, breaking all kinds of records. I have not seen it. I am not a fan of action films in general and did not grow up in Sri Lanka reading any of the superhero comics that were popular in the US, so the characters do not resonate …
May 25 2012
The Potemkin constitution
The Tea Party is looking at the wrong place for Obama’s shadowy death panels. They do not exist in the Affordable Care Act but do exist in the way that individuals are selected for summary execution by drones and other means. We now learn that John Brennan, Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and …
May 25 2012
Thought experiments on the historicity of Jesus-2: The case of the sixth islander
In a post yesterday I discussed a paper by philosopher Stephen Law of the University of London where he used a thought experiment and something that he called ‘the contamination principle’ (P2) to cast doubt on the claims of whether a historical Jesus existed.
May 24 2012
Short selling of Facebook stock
I recently wrote a post about the practice of short selling. Commenter Gregory in Seattle added some valuable insights (see here and here) on how it works, based on his knowledge as licensed broker.
May 24 2012
Thought experiments on the historicity of Jesus-1: The contamination principle
Readers may recall an earlier post on the question of whether the Jesus of the Bible is based, however loosely, on an actual historical figure living in that region of the world at that time (as claimed by the historicists) or whether he is an entirely fictional character based on myths and legends (as asserted …
May 23 2012
That Mitchell and Webb Look‘s take on Casino Royale
I have shown this before but thought I would repeat it in light of the post about gambling earlier today.
May 23 2012
Death penalty in Kuwait for cursing Mohammed
Kuwait is usually held up as one of the moderate Arab states, not as extreme in pursuing rigid Islamic laws. But its parliament has just passed a law that makes blasphemy in the form of cursing god or Mohammed or even any of his wives an offense punishable with the death penalty. If the emir …
May 23 2012
Affirmative action in education for white people
Whenever the subject of affirmative action in education comes up, it is always assumed that this is used to give preference to under-represented minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans) in admissions to colleges.
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