About Rationally Speaking


Rationally Speaking is a blog maintained by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, a philosopher at the City University of New York. The blog reflects the Enlightenment figure Marquis de Condorcet's idea of what a public intellectual (yes, we know, that's such a bad word) ought to be: someone who devotes himself to "the tracking down of prejudices in the hiding places where priests, the schools, the government, and all long-established institutions had gathered and protected them." You're welcome. Please notice that the contents of this blog can be reprinted under the standard Creative Commons license.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Michael’s Picks


by Michael De Dora
* Gary Gutting discusses the question “should religion play a role in politics?” in the New York Times.
* A team of scientists in Amsterdam has sequenced the marijuana genome. How cool, man. 
* A five-minute video clip from the recent Republican presidential debate, in which the range of GOP candidates state their nonsensical views on the issue of marriage.
* Here’s audio of an hour-long radio interview I did on the secular movement and secular ethics. 
* Salon.com’s Jack Shafer argues that old-fashioned newspapers still trump online news outlets.  
* Pope Benedict XVI recently blamed Europe's current economic crisis on a profit-at-all-cost mentality, and said that in the future morality must play a greater role in formulating economic policy. Hmm, sound familiar
* A federal appeals court has ruled that a public high school teacher in California may not be sued for making hostile remarks about religion in his classroom.
* As Jon Stewart brilliantly points out, the conservative position on taxes is both illogical and immoral.

2 comments:

  1. Of course it had to be in Amsterdam :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good discussion on ETFF. I now have a new podcast to listen to.

    But did Ann Klaeysen at minute 25 really mean to imply Stalin was not as bad as most people think?

    Her exact words, "They (meaning Hitler and Stalin) actually fought against each other…..Stalin was leading a socialist society in defense…people say Stalin killed 20 million; 20 million people were killed by Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin had problems, but they were not, he was leading a totally different society…"

    Does she know anything about the history of Stalin's rule? Does she know anything about the history of World War 2? I would suggest she start with Arthur Koestler's account of what the Nazi Soviet pact of 1939 meant to Leftists everywhere.

    ReplyDelete

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