The Philosopher's Stone

Do Guns Make You Safe?

2012-01-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

Over on Facebook, a friend shared a story about an elderly woman who was pulled over. The officer discovered that she had a variety of guns in the car. (She had a permit.) The story ends with the woman saying that she's not scared of "a f***ing thing," the implication clearly being that it's because she has firepower at her disposal. A friend chimed in that there's "nothing for one's piece of

Sam Harris on Lying

2012-01-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not much for lying. For one thing, I tend to suck at it. Very badly, in fact. I giggle a lot when lying, which doesn't help carry off the subterfuge. So I avoid lying, mostly. At times, I probably go out of my way, blurting out my thoughts on issues where it would be better to keep silent. I actually love debating and, as any readers of this blog know, I love being a devil's advocate, so

Unintended Consequences: Religious Freedom, Unless You're a Minister

2012-01-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

This week, the Supreme Court unanimously decided in favor of religious institutions being able to make decisions about who they hire and fire, without government interference. While this is certainly a strong decision in favor of religious freedom, I think that those who are heralding this as a resounding success for religion as a whole are missing the point. While this decision does protect the

Books Read in 2011

2012-01-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

Every year, I like to look back at all of the books I've read in the previous year. In the days to come, I'll no doubt be putting together a more comprehensive retrospective of my other 2011 activities, but this is a good starting point. So, on to the list (with links to my reviews, when I got around to actually reviewing them): The Books Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (audiobook) Mockingjay

Spider-Man Comes to iPad

2011-12-03T09:45:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite modern myths is Spider-Man. Let's tick off all of the great things about Spider-Man's origin: Peter Parker starts out as a teenage science geek Peter Parker is bullied by other, more powerful kids Though he gets enhanced powers, these powers are also augmented by his own innovation (in the comic, he doesn't naturally shoot webs, but instead designs and builds "webslingers"

Two Packages in the Mail: Books and a Game

2011-11-18T15:47:00.001-08:00

This morning, two packages showed up on my doorstep, both of which are worth some discussion. The first was a copy of my two contributor's copies from the anthology The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Philosophy. I've discussed this collection (and my essay in it) on the blog before. When I get around to reading the other essays, I'll probably have some more to say about it. For now, though,

Unintended Consequences: Embryonic-Americans in Mississippi

2011-11-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

Next week, the people of Mississippi get to vote on who they think people are. No, we're not talking about a return of Jim Crowe laws, but instead to a recent measure called Initiative 26, which seeks to extend the rights of personhood to all fertilized embryos, thus creating a new class of American citizen: the Embryonic-American. I recently learned about this issue while listening to one of

Wisdom Talk vs. Rules Talk

2011-10-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

I don't like rules. It's not so much that I am particularly fond of breaking rules personally. It's just that rules tend to seem rather pointless to me. They can easily take on a life of their own, with the rules perpetuating for their own sake, rather in service to the cause that they were initially created to serve. I find that just trying to make the best choices usually result in better

The Philosophy of the Millenium Trilogy

2011-10-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

The anthology The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Philosophy: Everything is Fire, edited by Eric Bronson, is now available. This features a series of essays on how Stieg Larsson's internationally-bestselling Millenium trilogy explores various philosophical concepts inherent in the rich story laid out in the trilogy: gender roles, sexual morality, vengeance, rape, justice, privacy, and

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, No Birthday Shall Escape My Sight

2011-10-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

Today is the release date of the Green Lantern film DVD ... and also my 35th birthday. I am now officially old enough to run for President. Live in fear, America! (For anyone interested, I do have an Amazon.com wish list.) While I realize the film may not have quite captured the attention of fans as much as it could, I'll take the opportunity of this DVD release to remind everyone that Green

Two Great YA Trilogies Continue: Goliath and Crossed released

2011-10-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of years, I've found myself reading a lot of young adult fiction ... and you know what, it's pretty darn good stuff. This is odd, because since the 6th grade I've really been reading mostly adult fiction. As a kid, I focused on things like Asimov, Niven, Clarke, Bova, Heinlein (not the kid's stuff), and so on, and it was only later that I went back to read some of the classic

Independent Thoughts on the Last Republican Debate

2011-09-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Primary debates are very interesting for someone who doesn't care what party someone is, because they're specifically geared to pull at the emotions of those who are already in one regions of the political landscape. The recent Presidential debate had a lot of expected moments, but some unexpected ones, and some which I think can be used as springboards for more genuinely understanding the

This September 11, Reject the Enemy Meme

2011-09-11T07:11:00.000-07:00

A year ago, I posted the following message on Facebook and my 40 Days of Giving blog: I have no enemies. There are people out there who want me, or those I love, dead for some abstract reason, but such a person is not my enemy. I wish them no ill. I have no deeper desire than that they find something in their life that brings them pure love, joy, and peace. I wish for them - as I wish for my

Being Literal, In the Figurative Sense

2011-07-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Years ago, a dear friend of mine described one of his pet peeves: people who use the word "literally" incorrectly Specifically, I recall him describing a prolonged conversation with a Taco Bell employee who complained that his car was "literally" a piece of shit and would not understand that, while his car might be very junky, it was not possible for it to be "literally a piece of shit" and also

Behemoth - World War Steampunk

2011-01-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

Scott Westerfeld has created a brilliant steampunk alternate history, where forces wielding darwinian monsters clash with mechanical monstrosities, in his new trilogy, which started with the 2009 release of Leviathan and continues with the 2010 book Behemoth. This trilogy has some valuable lessons about history, class structure, gender roles, biology, and mechanics. And, like Westerfeld's

2010 Reading List

2011-01-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

As always, I like to recap the year in the form of the books that I've read, which often provide some indication of how my year is going and how my thinking has been transformed over the year. I read 21 books and also listened to 39 audiobooks, for a resounding 60 books consumed. Life After Death: The Evidence by Dinesh D'Souza (audiobook) The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra (audiobook) Super

Jews & Atheists Top Ratings in Religious Literacy Study

2010-10-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

Which religious groups know the most about their own (and other) religious faiths? Some interesting results along these lines were announced this week from the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey performed by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. There's some really great information to be culled from these results about how religious information is distributed in America, so I'm going to delve

Conundrum Computing Contraption

2010-09-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

Authors Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer are editing a strange collection: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. (The image on the right is a preliminary cover from the proposal, not the cover of the actual book - due out in 2011.) The book - a sequel, of sorts, to the The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases - sounds like it'll be a steampunk-ish

Film Review: Alice in Wonderland

2010-07-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

I really had no desire to watch the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland. His films are, of course, always visually stunning, but I am just not nearly as impressed with them as I'm supposed to be. While I love Johnny Depp's acting, Burton's need to put him in film after film is a bit grating, especially because it causes Depp to play on the same facets of his acting toolbox. The Mad

Rational Morality: What Is Evil? - Part 1

2010-07-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

Sam Harris believes that morality can be reached without the intervention of religion. In fact, he seems to believe that religion, as often as not, complicates issues of morality more than it provides any clarity. He's an interesting guy, though I have not yet read his books (but that will change soon), so I was pleased to when I heard about his TED talk on the issue of morality derived from

The Music Revolution - Pandora & Glee

2010-07-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

I recently began listening to Pandora, a website that is able to take your musical tastes and create customized (and free) streaming radio channels with other music that you might be interested in. As it plays music, you indicate whether you like or dislike songs, and the future selections (as well as the ads, no doubt) continue to become more refined and personalized based on these interests. I

Free(Market)Dom

2010-06-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

In a recent blog post, science fiction author David Brin cites these two ideals as the core of libertarian thought: Freedom and Fair Competition Brin's science fiction is great, but in recent years I've grown quite impressed with his thinking on political issues. (Sometime I'll delve more deeply on his thoughts about the importance of transparency, but until there you can read about it on his

Glee Provides One of Best Scenes Ever

2010-05-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

If anyone was in any doubt that Glee is one of the best shows on television these days, it's because they haven't been paying attention. I got into the show right before their hiatus, and have been impressed (by and large) with the steps they've taken since coming back. It's hard to believe that the show is this huge in such a short period of time. But what continues to impress me with Glee the

The "Lost" Series Finale and the Chain of Promises

2010-05-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

Having watched 6 years of Lost, I've come to expect that their finales pose more questions than they answer ... but I'm hoping that isn't the case for the series finale. Sure, there will be some questions left open, but the big ones need answered. In this respect, Lost has always suffered from the best and worst in storytelling, because it continually offers promises/questions to the reader (as

Money From Virtually Nothin' at All

2010-05-01T04:57:00.000-07:00

From college into my mid-twenties, I spent most of my spare time as a staffer on various text-based multi-user online games, most of them set in the World of Darkness roleplaying setting. My emphasis was on the Mage: the Ascension game, though I did have some overlap with Vampire: the Masquerade and Changeling: the Dreaming. My focus was then (as now) on telling a good story, and I was told by