Strange Doctrines tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1703488 2010-03-10T18:40:19-08:00 A blog dedicated to uprooting error.Wait -- that's not right... TypePad It's a Calling tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef01310f8a7d30970c 2010-03-10T18:40:19-08:00 2010-03-10T18:40:19-08:00 In the recently-decided Ninth Circuit case United States v. Cha, Guam police officers seized the home of In Ha Cha and his wife. The seizure was undertaken without a warrant, and would ultimately last 26.5 hours. At about Hour 7... Michael Drake Personal Confessions tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a920acae970b 2010-03-10T07:48:24-08:00 2010-03-10T07:48:24-08:00 Eric Schwitzgebel makes out a problem with Kant as a problem for philosophy: Kant's philosophical moral reasoning appears mainly to have confirmed his prejudices and the ideas inherited from his culture. Therefore, we should be nervous about expecting more from... Michael Drake More on Stewart Baker tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef01310f8722b7970c 2010-03-10T07:25:34-08:00 2010-03-10T07:30:30-08:00 About the only redeeming feature of Stewart Baker's post on the Liz Cheney affair is that its title is phonetically identical to "Moron: Liz Cheney." I'd like to think that my post has at least one such redeeming feature. Michael Drake Reasons tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef01310f7b4b32970c 2010-03-08T07:29:04-08:00 2010-03-08T07:29:04-08:00 The headline of this inane blog post by Stanley Fish (but I repeat myself) asks: "Are There Secular Reasons?" Paul Gowder has the correct answer: "I sure hope so. Because otherwise there aren’t any reasons at all." Michael Drake Base Alchemy tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef01310f769693970c 2010-03-07T10:12:06-08:00 2010-03-07T10:12:06-08:00 Professional journalist Thomas Friedman, in the Paper of Record: If you combine CO2 with seawater, or any kind of briny water, you produce CaCO3, calcium carbonate. (Via Daniel Davies, who wonders "about the kind of person who will write such... Michael Drake Has Someone Waterboarded Orin Kerr Recently? tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a8f68621970b 2010-03-03T19:34:13-08:00 2010-03-06T11:04:11-08:00 I was surprised to see Orin Kerr stipulate that "[w]aterboarding seems to be pretty clearly forbidden under [18 U.S.C. § 2340]," and that "the only fair reading [of the section] is that waterboarding is prohibited by it." Of course I... Michael Drake What the Hell Is Fodor On About? tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a8c38d87970b 2010-02-22T08:21:09-08:00 2010-02-24T05:29:46-08:00 Did Jerry Fodor actually expand this error into a book-length argument? It appears so. UPDATE: Block and Kitcher have more. (Via Brian Leiter.) UPDATE II: Very fine, informative post by PZ Myers, here. Michael Drake And Be Sure to Blog Every Now and Then tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef01310f2223cb970c 2010-02-20T08:26:16-08:00 2010-02-20T08:29:03-08:00 [W]here are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death. But life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your... Michael Drake Health Insurance and Health Care Denialism tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef012877ad0426970c 2010-02-16T21:42:19-08:00 2010-02-16T22:08:39-08:00 I haven't had time to get up to snuff on the studies (or actually I guess it's just "study") Megan McArdle and others cite in support of the notion that health insurance has no discernible effect on mortality. But there... Michael Drake Spare the Rod tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef01287798b992970c 2010-02-12T22:00:40-08:00 2010-02-12T22:01:37-08:00 ...and pour the water instead. Such has long been my counsel. And I am most gratified to learn that, at last, a forward-looking head of household appears to have taken heed of my call. Let it not be gainsaid: one... Michael Drake Testosterone as Fairness tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a801e5be970b 2010-01-23T09:05:42-08:00 2010-01-23T09:08:30-08:00 This is fascinating (emphases mine): Evidence from animal studies in rodents shows that testosterone causes aggressive behaviour towards conspecifics. Folk wisdom generalizes and adapts these findings to humans, suggesting that testosterone induces antisocial, egoistic, or even aggressive human behaviours. However,... Michael Drake Boo! tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef01287704f97a970c 2010-01-23T08:53:22-08:00 2010-01-23T08:53:22-08:00 Lawrence Lessig at Huffington Post, on Citizens United: Whatever else one believes about the Supreme Court's decision striking down limits on corporate speech in the context of political campaigns, there's one thing no credible commentator could assert: That money bought... Michael Drake The Phatic Wilde tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef012876faa36c970c 2010-01-21T07:15:32-08:00 2010-01-21T07:15:32-08:00 From Prospect Magazine: (Via 3 Quarks Daily.) Michael Drake Perspectives on Perspectivism tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef012876fa9aac970c 2010-01-21T07:09:36-08:00 2010-01-21T07:09:36-08:00 Mike solicits other views on the similarities (if any) between Nietzsche's perspectivism and the "perspectivism" of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky. Go lend him your many eyes. Michael Drake Call Me Ungrateful tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a7d0bc38970b 2010-01-13T19:32:22-08:00 2010-01-13T19:33:03-08:00 Stephen Meyer writes a letter to the editor of the London Times: Functional RNA catalysts arise only once RNA bases are specifically arranged into information-rich sequences – that is, function arises after, not before, the information problem has been solved.... Michael Drake All Work and All Play tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a7c93ec0970b 2010-01-12T07:47:18-08:00 2010-01-12T07:49:09-08:00 Blogging's been slow because when I'm not delivering justice for the Federal Public Defender, I'm learning material for a new country rock project. In the residue of time I try to, you know, eat. So: not much time for blogging.... Michael Drake When Is the Holy Ghost Not a Ghost? tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef012876a2bb0a970c 2010-01-03T18:19:35-08:00 2010-01-03T18:19:35-08:00 Apparently, when you tell Pew whether you believe in "ghosts": (Via Charles Blow, via Butterflies and Wheels.) Michael Drake The Altruistic Acceptance of Market Valuation tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a79f71c8970b 2010-01-03T15:05:03-08:00 2010-01-03T15:07:43-08:00 Proponents of so-called 'Rational Choice Theory' (first proposed in economics and then enthusiastically adopted by a number of political and legal thinkers) have tried hard to make us accept the peculiar understanding that rational choice consists only in clever promotion... Michael Drake Thoughts on the Rose Parade tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef0120a795fcd0970b 2010-01-01T09:28:11-08:00 2010-01-01T09:28:11-08:00 Why? Why? Michael Drake Happy New Year? Sure, Why Not. tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c8b8a53ef012876949353970c 2009-12-31T08:09:32-08:00 2009-12-31T08:23:48-08:00 I was going to abjure a "happy" New Year (per my usual), and instead recommend a thoughtful one. But the coda to Tony Judt's reflection on life with advanced stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) has given me, well,... Michael Drake