Recent Blog Posts
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How to be a moralizing blowhard
Have you always aspired to be a moralizing blowhard, but just can’t seem to get your message down pat? Are you unable to find that mix of condescension, ignorance, and absolute certainty that together make the perfect blend of sanctimonious grandstanding fit to publish on the editorial pages of newspapers across the country? Well, let…
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No special snowflakes
Dr. X commented recently on just world bias, as displayed by Oprah while interviewing Lance Armstrong: Just one slightly weird blip in an otherwise good job. She asked Armstrong more than once if he expected his day of reckoning to come. Fine enough question, but with an almost cult-like, true believer, fast-clip delivery, she explained…
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Failing to please
In the comments for a Pharyngula post about online harassment of women journalists, Rachel Kiernan wrote: This insanity isn’t just levered against female writers. Female politicians receive even more vitriol than their male coworkers or females in other lines of work. Otherwise secular and liberal Germany is filled with men who have something pathological against Angela…
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Aping Morality: video
As a follow-up to yesterday’s discussion, here’s Frans deWaal’s plenary talk from the 2010 American Academy of Religion conference in Atlanta. Ann Taves was president of the AAR that year and introduces him. A30-140 Plenary Address: Frans de Waal from American Academy of Religion on Vimeo.
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Aping morality
Whenever I’ve been involved in a discussion of the evolution of morality, the English language trips things up a bit. Due to the fact that “morality” could mean “being good” or “the capacity and tendency to distinguish right from wrong,” it’s always important to note which, specifically, you’re talking about. Generally speaking, it would seem…
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Update on “contempt of cop” cases
People sometimes find my blog by searching for some variation on “Is it okay to be rude to a cop?” It leads them to the post Being rude to the police: dumb, not criminal, which is about the case of a Colorado man who gave the finger to a state trooper while driving by. The…