Ever since her speech at the Golden Globes, people have been floating the idea of Oprah Winfrey for President. This is, of course, a silly idea. Or it would have been, before Trump. Oprah, like Trump, has no experience in government. Like Trump, Oprah is a celebrity who has had considerable success at business. And like Trump, Oprah embraces junk science. If not for the example … [Read more...] about Oprah For President?
Questionable Free Speech at Drexel University
Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher is now gone from his position at Drexel University. A year ago, I blogged a brief contingent defense of his controversial "white genocide" tweet. (Contingent because it only applies if he meant what I guessed he meant.) Drexel condemned his tweet at the time, but took no further action against him. It would have been … [Read more...] about Questionable Free Speech at Drexel University
Just Consequences
There was an interesting criminal case out of Fairfax, Virginia the other day, involving a young lady named Sandra Mendez Ortega who stole some jewelry from Lisa Copeland while cleaning her house. The Washington Post lays out the events this way: The case began with Copeland’s discovery in September 2016 that her engagement and wedding rings were missing from the … [Read more...] about Just Consequences
The Giving Season
Over at Popehat, in the spirit of the Christmas, Ken White has suggested three charities you could donate to this season. Although I have no problem with donating to any of them, I thought I'd offer a few suggestions of my own.To start with, I'm a regular donor to the Reason Foundation. This is the parent organization of Reason magazine, which is the flagship libertarian … [Read more...] about The Giving Season
Ye Olde Ethics Alarms
I just went through yet another argument about illegal immigrants in the comments at Jack Marshall's Ethics Alarms blog. Jack has been a frequent source of blogging ideas (at least when I used to blog more), but he's been kind of hard to take ever since Donald Trump was elected. It's not that he likes Trump, but he's clearly attracted to Trump's authoritarianism, especially … [Read more...] about Ye Olde Ethics Alarms