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Index for this page...(Be aware some links below may have expired.)
All The Following Items Were Posted On June 1, 2005 1. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German Idealist Philosopher
Read about Arthur Schopenhauer in The Radical Academy. 2. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German Idealist Philosopher
Read about Immanuel Kant in The Radical Academy. 3. Pierre Lecomte du Noüy (1883-1947) French Philosopher and Scientist
Read about Lecomte du Noüy in The Radical Academy. 4. Henri Bergson (1859-1941) French Intuitionist Philosopher
Read about Henri Bergson in The Radical Academy. 5. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Danish Existentialist Philosopher
Read about Soren Kierkegaard in The Radical Academy. 6. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German Existentialist philosopher
Read about Friedrich Nietzsche in The Radical Academy. 7. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) Recent British Philosopher
Read about Bertrand Russell in The Radical Academy.
FOR THE RECORD 1. National ID is Here: Some States Threaten to Rebel Last issue we reported on the REAL ID Act, a police-state federal bill that would in effect turn state drivers licenses into national ID cards, as well as providing for the use of the cards to collect a national database of information on citizens. The bad news: despite protests by hundreds of civil liberties groups representing millions of American citizens, the Senate passed the bill unanimously today. (Republican backers of the bill had added it to a must-pass emergency military spending bill, thus bypassing debate and making it all but unstoppable.) President Bush, whose spokesmen once said he "does not support a national ID card," strongly backs the bill and has promised to sign it into law. The (sort of) good news: many state governments are protesting the bill. Most of the concern isn't over the civil liberties nightmare, sadly. Instead, states are worried that implementing the bill will cost them an enormous amount of money -- potentially hundreds of millions of dollars -- and make getting a driver's license extremely difficult for many law-abiding citizens and a headache for state officials. Some state governors are threatening to challenge it in court. Some state governments even say they will disobey the law. "Governors are looking at all their options. If more than half of the governors agree we're not going down without a fight on this, Congress will have to consider changing this unfunded federal mandate," said Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, vice chairman of the National Governors Association. Under the law, residents of states that fail to adopt the new national ID won't be able to board planes, enter federally protected buildings, get most jobs, or receive Social Security. (So much for Republican concerns about unfunded federal mandates, limited federal government, and states rights.) Libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), the most outspoken opponent of the national ID in Congress, has described it this way: "This REAL ID Act establishes a massive, centrally-coordinated database of highly personal information about American citizens: at a minimum their name, date of birth, place of residence, Social Security number, and physical characteristics. The legislation also grants open-ended authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to require biometric information on IDs in the future. This means your harmless looking driver's license could contain a retina scan, fingerprints, DNA information, or radio frequency technology ... National ID cards will be used to track the law-abiding masses, not criminals." A national ID has come to America, and the primary opposition is by state lawmakers who are worried that it might cost too much to implement. It's a sad day -- and another indication of the desperate need for a strong libertarian movement in America. Sources: Boston Globe, Kansas City Star, and U.S. Congressman Ron Paul. (Also see Quote of the Month below.) Thanks to James W. Harris of the Advocates for Self-Government and The Liberator Online for bringing the above to our attention. If you would like a free subscription to the Liberator Online, visit: http://www.self-gov.org/liberator/maintain.html. 2. Conservatism at the Local Level Ken Masugi of The Claremont Institute has sent us the following communication: The future of conservatism in California is explored by Tom Fuentes in the current, spring issue of Local Liberty, the newsletter of the Claremont Institute's Center for Local Government. Fuentes was for 20 years the Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party and is now Director of the Orange County Office of the Claremont Institute. Among other subjects, Fuentes discusses redistricting reforms, illegal immigration, Governor Schwarzenegger's policies, big local government conservatives, and California's future. Local Liberty's articles include essays on policy issues facing local elected officials, such as taxes, property rights, illegal immigration, and regulation. Book reviews reflect on the latest books of use to citizens who want to restrain their local governments. Local Liberty regularly features updates of the legal strategy of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. Our senior correspondent Conor Friedersdorf (a former local politics newspaper reporter himself) explains why local government reporting is often so poor -- and thus how indifference to local politics encourages local sleaziness. My editorial praises crusading libertarian attorney Clint Bolick, but I strongly disapprove of a key part of his argument in Leviathan -- Bolick's insistence that local governments refrain from legislating on moral issues, in particular sodomy laws. Local governments must follow the rule of law and protect individual rights but within a moral framework that the community may articulate through legislation. That moral nexus between government and faith-based institutions is explored by Joseph Knippenberg, who reviews two recent books on President Bush's faith-based initiative. The Los Angeles County Seal controversy and eminent domain abuse are among the subjects engaged by John Eastman, director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. Read excerpts from the Claremont Institute brief in the Supreme Court case of Kelo v. City of New London. Liberty is one; thus the case for property rights, religious liberty, and self-government is one. Local Liberty dedicates itself to applying the principles of the American founding to American local politics, especially as it is practiced in southern California. American politics on all levels has deteriorated considerably in its theory and practice, but the effect of the Progressive Revolution, with its disparaging of constitutional practices, has been felt most decisively on the local level, with devastating results for liberty. To receive a free subscription to Local Liberty send your mailing address to Lindsay White at lwhite@claremont.org. Past issues of Local Liberty and much more from the Center for Local Government can be read at www.localliberty.org. 3. From Hollywood: DiCaprio & Paramount Take on The Patriot Act Paramount Pictures is in negotiations to acquire Robert Ludlum's political thriller "The Chancellor Manuscript" as a vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio. According to Hollywood Reporter, "DiCaprio will play novelist Peter Chancellor, who is writing a thriller about Washington power brokers being blackmailed with information gathered by intelligence agencies in order to alter U.S. policy. When Chancellor's work of fiction turns out to have stumbled into reality, he ends up on a run for his life, becoming like a character from his own novel." Paramount, of course, can't resist updating such material to fit 'progressive' political concerns. So the script has been handed-off to screenwriter Michael Seitzman, who said, regarding adapting the Ludlum story, "We live in this crazy post-Patriot Act environment where Benjamin Franklin's warning that those that give up essential liberties for temporary security don't deserve either one are being ignored, so the subject matter seemed ripe" Ah, yes, this "crazy post-Patriot Act environment." The craziness - and paranoia - are all on your side, Mr. Seitzman. What "essential liberties" have been sacrificed by the Patriot Act remains unspecified, naturally, by either Seitzman or by Paramount - both of whom are now presumably at liberty to say and write whatever they want on the subject, without government interference. Oh, and since Mr. Seitzman clearly has the public good on his mind, we assume he'll be donating his generous writing fee to the ACLU or other rights-advocacy group of his choice. 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. Rhode Island College Continues Campaign Against Conservative Social Work Student David French, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), has sent us the following information: Rhode Island College's (RIC's) School of Social Work is requiring a conservative master's student to publicly advocate for "progressive" social changes if he wants to continue pursuing a degree in social work policy. RIC's appalling disregard for student Bill Felkner's freedom of conscience is the latest in an ongoing string of abuses by RIC administrators and faculty members that violate the right to fundamental freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution. "FIRE has dealt with hundreds of cases, but we have never seen anything quite like this," stated David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has written to RIC on Felkner's behalf and which last year defended RIC Professor Lisa Church when she was put on trial for refusing to censor constitutionally protected speech. French continued, "These relentless, ham-handed attempts to force Bill Felkner to advocate a certain political agenda are brazenly unconstitutional at a public institution such as RIC." RIC's campaign against Felkner began in Fall 2004 when social work professor Jim Ryczek suggested to Felkner in an e-mail that if he did not agree with the school's political philosophy, he should consider leaving or finding another line of work. Shortly afterwards, Felkner learned that RIC's School of Social Work not only recommended that he adopt a particular ideology but also mandated that he lobby the Rhode Island Legislature for one of several policy positions that he did not support. FIRE protested this action, and -- despite an assurance from RIC President John Nazarian that "no student has been obliged to lobby for a particular cause before the General Assembly" -- Felkner reports that Professor Sue Pearlmutter told him that his grade would be affected if he chose to lobby for an alternative policy position. RIC's most recent offense against the U.S. Constitution stems from its policy internship requirements for graduate students. There are eleven general requirements that every internship must meet -- and six of these require that students work towards advancing "progressive" policies such as "progressive social change." Felkner, who refused to accept an internship that would force him to promote policies he opposed, instead accepted an internship in the policy department of Republican Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri's office. Ryzcek reported Felkner's refusal to work for "progressive" policies to Lenore Olsen, the chair of the Master's of Social Work Program. Olsen subsequently informed Felkner in a letter that he could no longer pursue a master's degree in social work policy. "RIC, as a state college, simply may not require its students to publicly advocate for social changes they don't believe in -- 'progressive' or otherwise," noted FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff. "Forcing a person to publicly state one thing when he or she privately believes something else is one of the hallmarks of a totalitarian state. It is shocking that President Nazarian would allow this." RIC School of Social Work professors' and administrators' hostility towards Felkner came to a head in April 2005, when Felkner faced a disciplinary hearing for allegedly violating the National Association of Social Workers' Code of Conduct. The tribunal admitted that it "was not convinced" that Felkner had violated sections on respect and confidentiality, but found Felkner guilty of "deception" for recording an in-person conversation with Professor Pearlmutter. Felkner agreed not to record any more conversations, but maintained that he had recorded the conversation because he felt that RIC faculty members were being evasive or dishonest in their communications with him. For instance, at one point both Professors Pearlmutter and Ryczek refused to communicate with Felkner over e-mail after he had posted some of their comments on the Internet in an attempt to expose RIC's political bias. "It is time for President Nazarian to wake up to the startling abuses of power going on at RIC," said FIRE's French. "From allowing a professor to go on trial for refusing to censor speech to allowing ideological coercion to continue, President Nazarian has done virtually nothing to rein in his subordinates whose contempt for fundamental constitutionally protected freedoms is clear. RIC is courting disaster," he concluded. Website: http://www.thefire.org More Information:
"In 2002 I asked my House colleagues a rhetorical question with regard to the onslaught of government growth in the post-September 11th era: Is America becoming a police state? "The question is no longer rhetorical. We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined. "[T]he new intelligence bill ... moves us closer to an encroaching police state by imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card... "Those who believe a police state can't happen here are poor students of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny. We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people." -- from "It Can't Happen Here," by US Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), December 21, 2004.
Censors decree movie unfit for public viewing due to lack of sex, violence, and profanity. Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia, formally known as California. White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language. Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock. Baby conceived naturally...scientists stumped. Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage. France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica. Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking. George Z. Bush says he will run for president in 2036. Postal Service raises price of first-class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only. 85-year, $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss. Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs. Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut. Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative. Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights. Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches. New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036. Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts. Capitol Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with congressman. IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent. Florida voters still having trouble with voting machines.
Some interesting & provocative articles on other websites: Pope Foresees Major Church Revival, by John Phillips: April 26, 2005 -- Pope Benedict XVI predicted yesterday during a solemn pilgrimage to the shrine of Christianity's first missionary that the Roman Catholic Church will enjoy a major revival in its third millennium. The 78-year-old German-born pontiff received a enthusiastic welcome from thousands of monks, priests, pilgrims and citizens at the 4th century Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on his first papal visit outside the Vatican since his inauguration on Tuesday. The Bait and Switch of "Intelligent Design," By Keith Lockitch: "Intelligent Design" is religion masquerading as science. Legal and political battle lines have been drawn across the country over the teaching of "intelligent design"--the view that life is so complex it must be the product of a "higher intelligence." The central issue under debate is whether "intelligent design" is, in fact, a genuine scientific theory or merely a disguised form of religious advocacy--creationism in camouflage. False promises of academic freedom, by David Limbaugh: If you want to get a real glimpse of the thought-tyranny of the academic Left, you should look at the case of Scott McConnell, who was recently expelled from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., because his personal beliefs didn't fit within the school's indoctrination grid. Report - Farmers Are Sick Less From GM Crop, By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID: Chinese farmers growing genetically modified rice produced larger crops, saved money on pesticides and were less likely to get sick from exposure to poison intended for insects. An analysis of dozens of farmers growing two strains of rice modified to resist insects showed they used much less pesticide than those using conventional rice. None of the farmers using only the genetically modified (GM) crop was sickened by exposure to pesticides. One Longsome Argument, by Dennis R. Trumble: By any objective measure, the evolution of species ranks among the most successful scientific theories ever. So why is the message not getting through? Charles Darwin liked to describe the origin of species as "one long argument," but his extensive treatise in support of biological evolution now seems painfully brief compared to the argument that has followed in its wake. Indeed, never in the history of science has a more prolonged and passionate debate dogged the heels of a theory so thoroughly researched and repeatedly validated. And the end is nowhere in sight. The Crusade Against Walmart, by Thomas Sowell: The latest liberal crusade is against the Wal-Mart stores. A big headline on a long article in the New York Times asks "Can't A Retail Behemoth Pay More?" Of course they can pay more. The New York Times could pay its own employees more. We could all pay more for whatever we buy or rent. Don't tell me you couldn't have paid a dime more for this newspaper. But why should any of us pay more than we have to? Yale Historian Donald Kagan, Mixing the Old And the Neo, By Philip Kennicott: Yale historian Donald Kagan, who sits in one of the most prestigious university chairs in America, who is almost universally admired for his books on the ancient Greeks and the Peloponnesian Wars, who won the National Humanities Medal three years ago, gave the 34th annual Jefferson Lecture last night. It's hard to imagine a more successful or celebrated historian, and yet, just as he has for decades, Kagan still sounds peevish. Will he ever get over the audacity of other professors, who think the ancient Greeks and Western civilization are not the only things worth studying, to confront the old, settled way of doing things? S*x for Dummies, by John Leo: When covering a dispute over sex education in public schools, many reporters know what to do. Just type that the fundamentalist yahoos are at it again. For all we know, editors have installed a special timesaving key on newsroom computers so that the usual sex-ed news article pops out in 15 seconds or less. A classic example is the front-page Washington Post piece for Saturday, May 7, dealing with a new pilot program in Montgomery County, Md. Science and Religion, by George Crispin: John Polkinghorne tells us, in his insightful book Beyond Science, that empirical science cannot give us ultimate answers. To be intellectually coherent and satisfying, answers require theistic belief. The current generally accepted physical theory tells us the universe is still expanding from the force of the Big Bang, as the force of gravity tries to pull it together. If gravity wins, the Big Bang will end with the Big Crunch. If expansion prevails, galaxies will continue to fly apart, as individually they collapse into Black Holes. The time period is tens of billions of years. Denying evolution alienates us from earth, By Kevin Talbert: I am an evolutionist. I am also a heliocentrist. I believe the Earth is nearly spherical, a fact demonstrated by photographs taken on our recent trips to the Moon, and that Earth orbits the Sun, rather than the other way around. Eratosthenes' discovery of the shape of Earth went thousands of years before being generally accepted as true, and even now there are a few holdouts who can't concede. When Galileo urged religious leaders of his time to look through a telescope for clear evidence that Earth revolves around the Sun, they refused to look. Religion and science have disagreed on cosmology for millennia. Deconstructing Post-Modernism, By Gary Jason: Over the last 20 years or so the philosophic orientation known as "postmodernism" (or "po-mo," to the cognoscenti) has become the dominant mindset in many humanities departments in American universities, especially in English departments. To the extent that professors in, say, science and engineering departments have heard of postmodernism, it seems mystifying. They see colleagues in humanities departments delivering papers filled with incomprehensible prose, making outrageous claims (such as that there is no correct interpretation of any text), and offering bizarre courses (such as the history of comic books). Stephen Hicks, a professor of philosophy at Rockford College, has produced a clearly written, concise book explaining just what postmodern philosophy is and how it arose, and he has done so in an admirable way. The Psychology of Liberals. By Paul Streitz: Teddy Kennedy is certainly one of the best known and most influential liberals in the United States. As pater familias of the Democratic Party as U.S. Senator, he has led one liberal crusade after another. As a sponsor of the 1965 Immigration Legislation, he was one of those most responsible for the mass migration into the United States of over a million per year. The liberals sponsoring the immigration bill promised that the bill would bring greater equality into the immigration process, but not an increase in overall numbers. PETA - An example of extreme rationality, By Peter Sellick: The Australian wool growing community finds itself in continuing conflict with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) over the practice of mulesing, the removal of skin from the hind parts of the sheep to stop fly strike. It is obvious from PETA's website that this group disapproves of the use of any animal whether for meat, skin, milk or eggs. In other words, we are all to be extreme vegans. Their motto is:... Prejudice Is Hard-Wired Into the Human Brain: Contrary to what most people believe, the tendency to be prejudiced is a form of common sense, hard-wired into the human brain through evolution as an adaptive response to protect our prehistoric ancestors from danger. So suggests a new study published by Arizona State University researchers in the May issue of the "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology," which contends that, because human survival was based on group living, "outsiders" were viewed as -- and often were -- very real threats. Davies's third way - Paul Davies suggests a life principle is "built into the nature of the universe." Is he correct?, By Victor J. Stenger: Physicist and prolific writer Paul Davies does not like any of the solutions usually proffered for the anthropic coincidences -- the apparent fine-tuning of the constants of physics that seems necessary for life as we know it. This is also often referred to as the anthropic principle. As described in a 2003 talk at Stanford, the 1995 Templeton Prize winner regards the cosmic designer explanation, favored by religious believers, to be ad hoc and explaining everything while nothing. Duality and non-duality in science and religion - A major problem in modern cosmology is related to the issue of duality and non-duality, By Mark MacDowell and Paul Utukuru: A bad workman blames his tools, but what if the tools are just not sharp enough for the job? A major problem in modern cosmology is related to the issue of duality and non-duality, which is directly related to the only tool available to us: mathematics. With math, we try to trace back the origins of our universe to the point when space and time did not exist. All goes well until we get to just a moment after the big bang. Beyond that, our mathematics breaks down and refuses to go back any further to the exact moment of the event, usually referred to as the space-time singularity.
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