Don’t let the door hit you on your way out

Fox News blowhard Sean Hannity took umbrage with some remarks made by New York state governor Andrew Cuomo that Hannity interpreted to mean that the governor wanted extreme conservatives to leave the state. We have seen a spate of rich people recently whining about how people are being mean to them and they think it is all very unfair. Tom Perkins is one of the most extreme of the lot, saying that criticisms of the wealthy are similar to Nazi Germany but he is by no means alone. [Read more…]

Pete Seeger and the blacklist

In reading about Pete Seeger on the web yesterday, I came across his testimony when he was hauled up before the House Un-American Affairs Committee in August 1955. This was the infamous Congressional committee that would order people to appear before them and quiz them about their political affiliations. If the people were willing to ‘prove their loyalty’ by renouncing their prior beliefs and associations and naming other people as being either Communists or fellow travellers or sympathizers, they would get lenient treatment. But if they did not, they would be accused of being pro-Communist. The committee targeted members of the entertainment industry, seeing them as being influential in shaping public opinion. Pete Seeger and his group The Weavers were blacklisted in the early 1950s. [Read more…]

The Greece v. Galloway symposium

The symposium held yesterday at the law school at my university went very well, I thought. The weather was brutal, with low temperatures and winds making it seem much colder. Combined with the snow left over from the previous night that had turned into slush and ice making walking unpleasant, to put it mildly, I wondered whether there would be many people who would venture out. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the auditorium was almost full, with students and faculty and members of the community braving the weather to come and hear about an issue that they clearly thought was important. [Read more…]

Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash

The internet has been full of tributes to the great Pete Seeger who died earlier today. Here is one clip that I particularly liked where he appears with another of my favorite singers Johnny Cash. Together they sing a rousing version of It takes a worried man, getting the audience to join in, which is something that Seeger loved to do. He realized the power of music to bring people together and raise consciousness and that music was something you did, not just listened to. [Read more…]

Neuroscience suggests that there is no soul

Neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss with the host some of the latest developments in neuroscience and what they shed on old philosophical questions. She had to break the news to him, a practicing Catholic, that he has no soul (because none of us do) and that our moral sense arises from the circuitry and chemical activity of the brain. It is a good interview. He actually asks some sharp questions, dealing with the kinds of concerns a religious person would have, and gives her time to respond rather than taking up a lot of the time which can be a failing of his. [Read more…]

The lady of the house

Today was supposed to be a very cold day with the predicted high to be only 0oF (-18oC) with winds making it seem much colder so they decided to close schools across the region, and my university did so too. Underlining the unpredictability of weather, in actual fact the day is very sunny and the temperature right now (at mid-afternoon) is 9oF (-13oC) and there does not seem to be any wind, making it seem quite balmy, at least while I was out briefly to shovel the walkway. Yesterday with its winds actually seemed a lot colder. [Read more…]

Spoiling things for others

Although I have never banned anyone, I have had the occasion to delete one comment. This was in response to the post about spoiling film endings. In the discussion, commenters referred to various films that had surprise endings and discussed them without giving them away. Then someone came along and posted a comment that listed all the endings to every film that had been discussed. I deleted it so quickly that I suspect that most readers never saw it. [Read more…]