I recently said the following: Growing up in an upper-middle class environment made me take for granted that I would do some kind of post-college education. In college, I initially planned on going to medical school, but had a better time in my philosophy classes than in my honors biology classes (see transcript). Aside from [...]
Monthly Archives: January 2009
When bad writing is good writing
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 12, 2009
Comments Off
Okay, so right now I’m reading Jacques Barzun’s _Simple & Direct_, at first on advice of Tim Ferris, then because it turned out to be well written with lots of good advice–and a few ridiculous bits, like complaining about every-day use of “osmosis,” as an example of “wider application of technical speech, for purposes not [...]
Political lying
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 9, 2009
4 comments
If there’s one thing Ann Coulter deserves to be remembered for, it’s this passage from her book _Slander_: Liberals hate America, they hate “flag-wavers,” they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam (post 9/11). Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do. This is a very puzzling passage. In the States, “liberal” [...]
Vague religious ramblings on science
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 8, 2009
Comments Off
Found here and here. It helps to know that the author is a political science professor. Every time I get annoyed with this or that aspect of professional philosophy, it helps to read something like this. Showy displays of jargon often get in the way of clear thinking in philosophy, but it never anywhere near [...]
Something smart on Gaza
Posted by Chris Hallquist on January 7, 2009
1 comment
After seeing Joe Carter’s batch of gay marriage nonsense the other day, I realized the blog it came from is actually, on the whole, decent. Consider this post on the current situation in Gaza: On Israel and Palestine, I argue narrowly, concerning myself with English language discourse about world events, rather than making sweeping judgments [...]