Posted in Rhetoric, tagged blogs, credibility, media on May 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I talked Friday with a colleague in Communications who described a current research project and its puzzling results. He asked people about the credibility of blogs and the credibility of articles in the mainstream press. Blogs scored lower: “Anybody can write anything in a blog,” people thought. But then he had people read “posts” in [...]
Posted in Religion, Rhetoric, tagged Islam, logic, Rhetoric on February 16, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Mike Lucas, a gay porn star, gave a speech at Stanford criticizing Islam. The reaction to the speech prompted him to write an op-ed for The Stanford Daily. That brought on a torrent of comments which are remarkable for their intolerance, abusiveness, and sheer idiocy. (Warning: Strong language!) Here are a [...]
Posted in Education, Rhetoric, tagged Rhetoric, writing on January 7, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The late Kurt Vonnegut’s rules for writing short stories. They’re excellent rules for writing any sort of fiction.I wish more screenplay writers would follow these rules; movies might be a good deal better as a result. When I watch “deleted scenes” on a DVD, my respect for the writers always plummets. It’s [...]
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Politics, Rhetoric, liberty, tagged academic freedom, liberty, speech on December 31, 2007 | No Comments »
Hat tip to Instapundit, who entitles his post “Cats and Dogs Living Together”: Moderates have been spotted at the meetings of the Modern Language Association, which rejected resolutions against Israel and for Ward Churchill in favor of ones expressing support for academic freedom. I especially admire these remarks, from someone who opposed even the [...]
Posted in Rhetoric, terrorism, war, tagged terror, war. rhetoric on December 31, 2007 | No Comments »
Britain declares that the war on terror is over.
That’s a relief, I guess—but doesn’t it depend who won?
Seriously, this seems to confirm the hypotheses of Dr. Sanity and ShrinkWrapped that many people’s reactions to terror are based on displacement and denial.
Posted in Rhetoric, ethics, philosophy, tagged ethics, philosophy, Rhetoric on November 13, 2007 | No Comments »
J. O. Urmson, introducing a volume of essays by H. A. Pritchard:
Certainly it must be conceded that his influence in his lifetime was great, particularly in his own university of Oxford; but this may be counted a misfortune. Did he not constantly overbear his opponents with dogmatic assertion? ‘If we reflect, we [...]
