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
Freedom Good faith, bad faith and no faith in reasoning 7 Oct 201823 Nov 2018 We are hearing a lot of calls for there to be public debates with climate deniers, the alt-right (that is, modern fascists), creationists and antivaxxers, and this has led to people marking the so-called “paradox of tolerance” named by Karl Popper in his epochal 1945 Open Society and its Enemies: Read More
Epistemology Are smarter people irreligious or just nonconformists? 14 Aug 201314 Aug 2013 There’s been a lot of discussion around the traps that studies show repeatedly that those who are atheists or otherwise irreligious are on average a bit smarter than those who aren’t. The usual ballyhoo has followed, with atheists claiming that religion makes you stupid or only stupid people follow religions,… Read More
Administrative More roundup 15 Sep 2008 Mohan Matthen, a philosopher of biology, has a very nice takedown of Thomas Nagel’s qualified support for teaching creationism on his blog. Hat tip Leiter. Richard Losick has an excellent piece on the problems of using cultured lab strains when studying microbes, at Small Things Considered. A new blog on… 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