I just saw “The Last King of Scotland”, the film about Idi Amin (starring Forrest Whittaker). Although I think that Whittaker’s performance was impressive, I am slightly disturbed by a recent trend in filmmaking that portrays “African conflicts” in a reductively “nativist” kind of way. Here’s my problem– in the recent films I have seen…
Read MoreI love medical mysteries. About a year ago, I saw a “Dateline NBC” show on people who have a strange condition called Body Integrity Image Disorder (BIID) or apotemnophilia (from the Greek αποτÎμνειν, “to cut off” and φιλία, “to love”). It is characterized by an overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or…
Read MoreHere are the mutliple options I was considering for opening this post. (I couldn’t decide, so they’re all here):“The universe is a funny, funny, thing….” “Ever since Odysseus, we’ve all been heading back home in some way or another…” “I always wondered how it would feel to actually come ’round full circle…” Whatever… the news…
Read MoreIn Eduardo Mendieta’s recent review of Nicholas Adams’ philosophical text Habermas and Theology, Mendieta begins with the following: “Adjoining two nouns in the title of a book is like writing a blank check to “cash.” One better know who is receiving the check and one better make sure to have sufficient funds when it gets…
Read MoreNormally, I complain about the ubiquitous misuse of the term “deconstruction.” I find that, more often than not, when people say “deconstruction” they actually mean “destruction,” but they also want to show that they went to college. (See the “deconstructed” fashions hyped on Project Runway, for example, which are just ensembles of shredded or otherwise…
Read More…because I’m scheduled to play in the Rose Bowl. I love this time of year. It’s “Bowl Season” for college football fans– great teams matched up in memorable games, heaps of pomp and tradition, endless battles over cryptic BCS rankings–and if you’re a fan, as I have been all my life, it just doesn’t get…
Read MoreI want to give kudos to a friend of mine, Alex Stehn, for being such a fantastic teacher. He was telling me the other day about his desire to teach a class on Christianity and Marxism–a really fantastic proposition in my view–and it got us talking about the way many of our students think about…
Read MoreOn my weekly drive to State College, I find that there is about a 100 mile stretch (through central PA) where I can’t find anything interesting on the radio except conservative talk-show programs. Now, I must admit, I actually love listening in to the likes of Rush Linbaugh and Sean Hannity, despite my total disgust…
Read MoreI was recently at a conference for one of the professional philosophical organizations in the U.S., the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP). As a part of the business meeting, SPEP regularly honors its members who have died in the last year. This year, there were four eulogies given at the business meeting, which…
Read MoreIn a recent (excellently written) article byScott Warmuth, the issue of Dylan’s alleged penchant for plaigarism has again risen its ugly head. (You can read the article here.) The most recent accusation is that many of the lyrics from Dylan’s new album Modern Times were lifted from Henry Timrod, former Poet Laureate of the U.S….
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