Harvey Milk is getting a Presidential Medal of Freedom 11 Aug 2009 This is a Very Good Thing: Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk encouraged lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens to live their lives openly and believed coming out was the only way they could change society and achieve social equality. Milk, alongside San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, was shot and killed in 1978 by Dan White, a former city supervisor. Milk is revered nationally and globally as a pioneer of the LGBT civil rights movement for his exceptional leadership and dedication to equal rights. Forget about that Hawking guy, or that Tutu fellow. They have had their recognition. Milk has been more important than most individuals in the struggle for universal human rights. There are some other interesting folk too: Joe Medicine Crow being one of them. A nice selection. Politics
Accommodationism The “developmental hypothesis” of belief acquisition 29 Jan 201420 Feb 2014 In the last two posts I have discussed why members of belief-groups have silly beliefs (that is, beliefs that the wider population finds silly), and why those particular beliefs, whatever they are, are the ones they believe. In broad terms, the answer is that these are arbitrary, costly hard-to-fake signals… Read More
General Science Sensible information on the US Health Care debate 6 Sep 2009 I’ve been critical of New Scientist a bit, lately, so it is with great pleasure that I can link to this informative and sensible video. [brightcove vid=30583310001&exp3=2227271001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=981571807&w=300&h=225] Read More
Humor Vote now! 4 Nov 2008 At the time of writing the vote was evenly split four ways between A Moose, Immanuel Kant, Saul Kripke, and any Four Dimensionalist. Beat the tie now by voting. [Hat tip to Leiter] Read More
“Forget about that Hawking guy . . .”? What will you say when someone wants to recognize “that Wilkins guy” for his contribution to the philosophy of biology? PS One of the librarians at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology (www.senecac.on.ca) has agreed to order _Species: A History of the Idea_ for the Markham campus library.
Would you prefer Commentessa? Or how about commentata and commentatum for members of the commentariat? (I stole commentariat from John Pieret who stole it from Dr. Isis!)
True enough, John, but I’m going to buy your book. What am I DOING in the blogverse. I can’t say @#2 I can’t call someone an $#$%^ I can’t even tell someone to light him or herself on fire. See you back on UseNet