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Index for this page...(Be aware some links below may have expired.)
All The Following Items Were Posted On May 1, 2005 1. Josiah Royce (1855-1916), American Idealist Philosopher
Read about Josiah Royce in The Radical Academy. 2. Francis Bacon (1561-1626), British Empiricist Philosopher
Read about Francis Bacon in The Radical Academy. 3. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), British Positivist Philosopher
Read about John Stuart Mill in The Radical Academy. 4. William Pepperell Montague (1873-1953), American Philosopher
Read about William Pepperell Montague in The Radical Academy. 5. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German Idealist Philosophy
Read about Immanuel Kant in The Radical Academy. 6. Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), British Realist Philosopher & Mathematician
Read about Alfred North Whitehead in The Radical Academy.
FOR THE RECORD 1. Senate Ponders Police-State National ID Bill. Get ready for a national ID -- as early as next month. In February the U.S. House of Representatives voted 261-161 to send H.R. 418, the "REAL ID Act of 2005," to the Senate. All but 8 Republicans supported the bill; three-quarters of Democrats opposed it. House Republicans then attached the REAL ID proposal to an almost-certain-to-pass emergency spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, thus allowing it to bypass the usual legislative hearings and debate. The Senate is expected to pass the bill. And the REAL ID is strongly backed by the Bush administration. The REAL ID Act essentially turns state drivers' licenses into national ID cards, with extraordinary powers. Ominously, the bill gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to unilaterally add additional information requirements. Here are some details:
The REAL ID bill is more than a civil liberties nightmare. It exposes every American to terrible accidental or criminal abuse. Even a small percentage of errors would cause major personal and social disruption. And the IDs would be irresistible targets for forgers and identity thieves. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a major online civil liberties group, says: "The Senate needs to be reminded that such proposals have always been rejected for good reason: our privacy and civil liberties are at the core of what it means to be an American citizen." Want to learn more -- and maybe do something about it? EFF has created a site where concerned citizens can get more information and easily send an email to their senators, expressing their concerns about the REAL ID proposal: Sources:
Thanks to James W. Harris of the Advocates for Self-Government and The Liberator Online for the above information. If you would like a free subscription to the Liberator Online, visit: http://www.self-gov.org/liberator/maintain.html. 2. On Florida Self-Defense Law: "Wild West" and "License to Kill." A new Florida law simply allows citizens to "meet force with force" if they "reasonably believe it is necessary to do so to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm." But on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the self-defense law prompted the networks to fire off ridiculously-exaggerated cliches. With "Wild West?" on screen, Good Morning America's Jeffrey Kofman asserted that "critics of the new law say it is going to turn Florida into a tropical version of the Wild West. They warn that if someone punches you in Florida, you will now have the right to shoot and kill them." Earlier, Diane Sawyer asked whether "if someone shoves you, that legally you can turn a gun on them?" She too wanted to know: "Is it turning Florida into the Wild West?" Over on CNN's American Morning, Bill Hemmer referred to the "shoot first, ask questions later" bill as a big on-screen graphic announced: "Florida's Shoot First' Law." With "License to Kill?" on screen, the night before Aaron Brown had framed the story: "Is it a law promoting self-defense or a license to kill?" CBS's Bob Schieffer fretted that if during a backyard argument with a neighbor "I have a feeling that he's getting ready to shoot me," I can "pull out a gun and shoot him. And that's OK under this law?" Source: Click Here for More on this Story at The Media Research Center 3. From Hollywood: Clooney's Next Movie Exposes "American Corruption." This September, Warner Brothers will release writer/director Stephen Gaghan's "Syriana," part of Hollywood's next wave of films that will more directly 'engage' the War on Terror. The film stars George Clooney and Matt Damon, and takes place just prior to the first Gulf War. Details of the film are sketchy, but this report from a private screening recently surfaced on Ain't It Cool News:
Let us translate:
It's inconceivable that Gaghan -- writer of "Traffic" and the revisionist "The Alamo" -- will treat the War on Terror fairly. Conservatives should be on the watch for "Syriana," and take Warner Brothers to task for releasing it. For three years after 9/11, conservatives were told that the War on Terror was too sensitive a subject to address through film -- hence the total lack of movies supporting America after the attacks. With the passage of time, however, it seems Hollywood is comfortable enough to reveal it's real feelings about 9/11 -- and they're consistently anti-American. Source: "Hollywood Confidential" by Jason Apuzzo & Govindini Murty and the staff of NewsMax. If you would like a free subscription, please visit http://NewsMax.com/email.shtml. 4. Ad Puts Los Angeles in Mexico California billboards have relocated Los Angeles to south of the border, angering groups fighting illegal immigration. According to the L.A. Times the billboards, touting the virtues of Noticias 62, a Spanish-language newscast on Los Angeles' KRCA-TV, show two cable newscasters sitting in front of Los Angeles' downtown skyline, with "Los Angeles, CA" printed above. The "CA" however is crossed out, and "Mexico" is stamped alongside in bright red letters. Underneath are the Spanish words, "Tu ciudad. Tu equipo." -- Your city. "This is almost a poster-board for illegal immigration," Peter Amundson, a volunteer with the California Republican Assembly told the Times. "This is America. We're a land of immigrants -- legal immigrants. This is not Mexico. This is the United States." He called the ads "a slap in the face to Californians and a pretty blatant one." Members of Americans for Legal Immigration, a political action committee that targets illegal immigration, told the Times the ads are offensive. They posted a photo of a billboard on their website, prompting angry comments. "I think it's irresponsible corporate citizenship to be promoting that type of message," Daryl Jurbala, communications director for the group told the Times. "I don't think it's responsible for anyone to encourage or reward or try to make illegal immigrants feel welcome." The ad's sponsors defended the message. Executive Vice President Lenard Liberman told the Times Noticias 62 was a popular news program in Los Angeles and noted that people of Mexican descent made up a large portion of the city. "We tell the story behind L.A., and we tell the story behind Mexico," he said. "If they find that offensive, I'm sorry. But you just have to drive around L.A. to know that this is a Hispanic city." Stuart Fischoff, who teaches media psychology at Cal State L.A., told the Times the billboard was like "sticking a finger in your eye" to immigration reformers. "The joke here is, 'We're taking back California,' " Fischoff said. "Underneath the joke is part of the truth." Note: Los Angeles is still in California and in no danger of migrating to Mexico, although the reverse is certainly occurring rapidly. Source: News Alert from NewsMax.com. "There is an old saying that philosophy bakes no bread. It is perhaps equally true that no bread would ever have been baked without philosophy. For the art of baking implies a decision on the philosophical issue of whether life is worthwhile at all. Bakers may not have often asked themselves the question in so many words. But philosophy traditionally has been nothing less than the attempt to ask and answer, in a formal and disciplined way, the great questions of life that ordinary men put to themselves in reflective moments." Time, January 7, 1966.
Some interesting & provocative articles on other websites: To What Extent Was Rand a Misesian?, by Bettina B. Greaves: This year marks the 100th anniversary of Ayn Rand's birth. Her books sold in the millions and were most effective in transforming a generation of readers into ardent anti-communists and strong capitalists. There is also a connection between the Austrian School and Rand, as shown by a new symposium from The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (Spring 2005) entitled "Ayn Rand Among the Austrians." After Wojtyla - A "Papal Revolution" for the Third Millennium, by Sandro Magister: This is the audacious proposal made by the "party" of Ratzinger and Ruini. The conclave will decide about it, and also about what to keep or leave behind of the deceased pope. New Face on Objectivist Flagbearers, by Aaron Bilger: Last week I had the opportunity to see Yaron Brook speak. Dr. Brook recently became president of the Ayn Rand Institute, succeeding Leonard Peikoff as head of the 'orthodox' Objectivist organization. I had previously seen Yaron on a December 2004 O'Reilly Factor appearance, which was frankly quite disturbing. He called for increased brutality in Iraq and '[turning] Fallujah into dust'; almost unbelievably Bill O'Reilly ended up coming across as the voice of reason. I could not comprehend how someone advocating actions so at odds with Objectivist ethics could now be at the helm of the most definitive Objectivist organization. Still, to see him speak seemed a good chance for this Objectivist to see 1) is Yaron really as crazy about war as he seems? 2) is he at least solid elsewhere, and 3) could new ARI leadership mean more tolerance of other schismed Objectivist groups or libertarians? Armed with expectations set very low, I decided to attend his speech, on why America is losing the war on terror. The Breadth and Scope of Libertarianism and the Role of Student Activism, by Daniel J. D'Amico: Libertarianism stands apart from mainstream political debate because it proposes a dramatic restructuring of current government. In addition to being marginalized from the political mainstream, libertarianism is divided within itself. An individual libertarian can be more specifically defined by many other titles such as Libertarian v. libertarian, minarchist v. anarchist, paleo-libertarian v. left-leaning-libertarian, and probably more which I am unaware of. But this is just the beginning; other factions of libertarianism don't fit so nicely in a counter position relationship. Why Einstein may have got it wrong, by David Adam: A century after Albert Einstein published his most famous ideas, physicists will today commemorate the occasion by trying to demolish one of them. Astronomers will tell experts gathering at Warwick University to celebrate the anniversary of the great man's "miracle year" that the speed of light - Einstein's unchanging yardstick that underpins his special theory of relativity - might be slowing down. The New York Times and its Catholic crusade, By Lisa Fabrizio: When it comes to bashing the Catholic Church and its pope, the New York Times has lots of competition. But it has outdone even itself recently with a little number called, "Catholics in U.S. Keep Faith, but Live With Contradictions," a 1,500 word paean to what are generally known as cafeteria Catholics or, those who would pick and choose which parts of church teaching they will embrace or reject. Generation Y Embraces Choice, Redefines Religion, by Cheryl Wetzstein: Most young Americans strongly believe in having choices, an attitude that is likely to shape their identification with traditional religions, a study says. "Generation Y," born between 1980 and 2000, is "bringing [media] industries to their knees" by embracing IPod, TiVo and other technologies that allow unprecedented consumer choice, said Roger Bennett, co-founder of Reboot, a Jewish group that is examining generational issues. Assassination intrigue lives on after Pope, By Eric Margolis: Last week in Italy, as Pope John Paul entered the final hours of his magnificent life, one of the 20th century's greatest criminal mysteries burst again to life. A special Italian investigative parliamentary commission announced it had obtained compelling evidence the Soviet KGB was indeed behind the "special task" -- what the secret police called high-level assassinations -- in Rome that was the 1981 attempt to kill the Pope. No Politics, Please -- We're Spies -- The intelligence commission's laughable conclusion about the politicization of the CIA, By Jacob Weisberg: The report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction is a government document well worth reading. With impressive precision, the commission shows how massive ineptitude at every spy agency fostered the Bush administration's mistaken assessment of Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical capabilities. Feminist, Homosexual Groups Turn Thumbs Down on New Pope, By Susan Jones: American Catholics who want major changes in the church are not happy with the election of a "hard-line" pope who backs longstanding Catholic doctrine. The Women's Ordination Conference, a Catholic feminist organization working for the ordination of women priests, said the church desperately needs a healer, but the cardinals have elected a divider: "This is another example of how the hierarchy is out of touch with Catholics in the pews," said Joy Barnes, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference. The papacy in a post-political world - How the Pope became an all-purpose Ethical Prince of international relations, by Philip Cunliffe: Even before the ascent of Pope Benedict XVI to the throne of St Peter, commentators observed that any new Pope would find it difficult to live up to the legacy of his predecessor. Judging by the ostentatious global grief that attended the last Pope's funeral, John Paul II has come to personify a new model of global leadership. Leftist commentators were quick to flag up John Paul's authoritarianism, by pointing out how his campaign against world communism led to the suppression of liberation theology in Latin America and the rolling back of the liberal legacy of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s... The Scourge of Earth Day, By Michael Berliner: Earth Day is here, and with it a grave danger faces mankind. The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe. The danger to mankind is from environmentalism. The fundamental goal of environmentalism is not clean air and clean water; rather, it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization. Environmentalism's goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather, it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshipped like the totem of some primitive religion. You Can Always Tell A Conservative, By Frederick Smith: I just read the, "You Can Always Tell a Liberal" piece, found here: http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/apr/article262.html. To this piece, I say, "Hogwash", or as they say in these parts, "hogwarsh"! See? Not only can I take a joke, I can make them too ;) What's more accurate is that you can tell a Conservative by the fact they lack complexity and nuance. Rather (to avoid sounding like a hypocrite), some vocal Conservatives limit themselves to one dimensional thinking. Dead funny? - New York columnist Matt Taibbi on why he wrote an infantile pisstake of a dying Pope, by Brendan O'Neill: Have you heard the one about the dead Pope, the cocky New York columnist, and the former President's wife? It goes like this: On 8 March, as Pope John Paul II lay dying in the Vatican, Matt Taibbi, a columnist for the freesheet alt-newspaper New York Press and currently Rolling Stone magazine's Michael Jackson trial correspondent, penned a piece entitled 'The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope'. It was emblazoned across the front page of the New York Press, tantalising readers with this strapline next to a picture of the Pontiff: 'There's Nothing Funny About This Man Dying... Or Is There?' Then They Came for the Children - Feds Arrest Girls for Teen Snottiness, by Ted Rall: They've vanished into the netherworld of a Homeland Security gulag and their story has already disappeared from the headlines, but the shocking case of two 16-year-old girls from New York City arrested a month ago ought to inspire outrage among every American worthy of the name. Since the government's reasons for the girls' imprisonment could apply to virtually any teenager, it should also spark fear. Science and the sages - If science is to discover a 'theory of everything,' it has to learn to listen to the world's spiritual masters as well, By Paul Utukuru: As Albert Einstein said, "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." Einstein also believed that God does not play dice. This year is the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of his theory of relativity, which revolutionized the world of science. The question as to whether God plays dice or not has not yet been settled because of the still irreconcilable features of quantum mechanics and relativity, but it is fair to say that God does play hide-and-seek with us, and science and religion are the main players in the game.
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