If anyone out there knows of a job that would be appropriate for me, please let me know. Surely someone out there needs a Ph.D. in the humanities to do or teach something. Read Full Story

It appears new book on Heidegger is coming, and it argues that you cannot separate Heidegger's philosophy from his Nazi politics. I hope it has profound effect, considering how deeply the postmodern Left has been influenced by him. I don't think we can dismiss him -- he did create the waste land that is 20th Century philosophy, art, literature, and art and literary criticism, after all. But the more throughly he and his work is discredited, the sooner these fields can heal. His fascist influ... Read Full Story

Shall I compare them to good poetry?The lines are most atrocious, borderingOn adolescent ravings. GallantryIs pissed upon by a limp phallic spring.They bravely condemn racism in the United States in all their college linesInk-jetted in the racist centuryObama was elected, hate declines.But surely, despite this, they have a point?But, no – their mindless Marxism is flat,Pathetic, most embarrassing. AnointYourselves, you silly lines, with flames grown fat.Such self-important poetry’... Read Full Story

I had a recent email discussion with a fellow scholar who argued against using evolutionary psychology to understand the actions of Shakespeare's characters on the grounds that Shakespeare couldn't have put in something he didn't know about. The problem with this is that if evolutionary psychology accurately describes human behavior, then Shakespeare doesn't have to have known anything about it to nonetheless use it. I think this may be one of the main errors theorists make in their objection... Read Full Story

Beauty is what emerges out of the interaction of paradoxical elements. The more paradoxical elements, the more beautiful the object.I am pretty certain the above is true. Some examples:Woody Brock's concept of relative complexity of theme versus complexity of transformation of themebeauty balances symmetry and asymmetry (the golden mean ratio being an example)beauty contains both unity and varietyBeauty is emergent from the conflict between paradoxical opposites.More, the universe seems to al... Read Full Story

Although I'm not the biggest Obama fan when it comes to economic policy, and though I question his tendency to refuse to meet with friends and to show support for some pretty despicable leaders, I'm not exactly a knee-jerk anti-Obama guy. I hope he's successful on many of his professed social positions, and I hope that he is successful on the international stage. If you don't know anything at all about economics, it's too early to judge Obama about much of anything, considering he hasn't even... Read Full Story

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Thomas A. Steitz, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; and Ada E. Yonath, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". SPecifically, they each mapped out the location of each and every atom in the ribosome, helping us to understand better their function. And this is quite literally no small thing. Ribosom... Read Full Story

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to three scientists, Jack Szostak, Elizabeth Blackburn, and Carol Greider, for their discoveries of telomeres and telomerase. Telomeres, discovered by Szostak and Blabuburn, are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, and prevent the chromosomes from being degraded with copying. Telomerase, discovered by Blackburn and Greider, is an RNA-protein enzyme that acts as a kind of reverse transcriptase that copies telomeres and adds t... Read Full Story

Here is the evil genius of the socialists . . . er, Democrats. To pay for the government health insurance plan, they plan to tax medical devices and replacement parts. This, in addition to taxing private health insurance. This will of course drive up costs, making it more difficult for people to afford medical care, and driving up insurance costs, which will of course be passed on to consumers if possible. The higher insurance premiums, etc. will create pressure for a government option -- whi... Read Full Story

False Memories Why have gaslight in an electric age? Why feel the need to be transportedBack to a time none of us remembers,So far removed it has turned cliché, A time rustic and quaint, timeFlattening difference into utopia?A Parisian café longed for By a man who never left the States.Narrow streets, full cafes, buildingsCenturies old. Or, So he’s heard. A romantic placeOf Hemingways and Fitzgeralds, everythingAn off-focus impression.At night, lamplight, neonGoes unseen. A myth To be s... Read Full Story