Author: Rufus F.

Helpfully, Christwire has posted a list of warning signs that a man might be gay. Regular readers will note that the list effectively outs as gay males everyone who writes here, with the exceptions...

An Alternet article profiles “Ten Young Right-Wingers Being Prepped to Take Over the Conservative Movement“- #6 is E.D. Kain, who is “so goddamn reasonable as to be unquotable”. Erik- since nobody else here is...

Bemoaning the “nanny state”, Andrew Sullivan highlights a recent story about posters for a Will Ferrel comedy being altered to suit the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s advertising policy, that “ads should not appear to...

We’ve reached the end of Empire of Illusion. Throughout the previous chapters, Chris Hedges has argued that Americans have retreated into a fantasy world that denies the grim realities the country now faces. Here,...

Phaedrus is a masterful dialogue that it’s impossible to do justice to. Here Plato is at the height of his powers describing the soul’s ascension towards the divine with the aid of the beauty...

Recently, I asked if there had been a recent uptick in people protesting Islam and the building of mosques. The Times says yep, ‘fraid so: “While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near...

This is the first one of these I’ve done, mostly because my musical tastes are not very sophisticated. I’ve got a decent ear for classical, but when it comes to rock, blues, country and...

As any blog-reader can attest, there’s something very satisfying about a good thorough debunking. Seeing a smart critical thinker beating back the tide of bulldada is invigorating; and now that ideas have been unmoored...

Plato’s dialogue Ion is brief and seems to address a rather trifling question: Do poets know what they’re talking about? If Homer composed beautiful passages about chariot-driving, does his art include technical knowledge of...

Lately, I’ve read a number of news stories about this sort of thing. Out of curiosity, has there, in fact, been a recent uptick? If so, does anyone know why?

At this point in the book, it’s becoming more evident to me that Chris Hedges is a cultural conservative of a fairly traditionalist bent. Some readers might overlook this because he’s a progressive, but...

It’s striking that in recent years America has become familiar with a major theme in Euripides: namely, the war that starts after victory is declared. I proposed this as the climate in which Hecuba...

The Westboro Baptist Church decided to picket Comic Con 2010 for some reason. (God probably hates anime.) The cosmic alliance of convention-goers responded by staging a counter-protest across the street with an appropriately high level of silliness. Pictures here....

[Note: This post discusses the second chapter of the book Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges, which some of us are reading. It mainly discusses pornography in general, so I’d like to invite those...

E.D., I have a great amount of respect for your frequent calls for us to rise above passing judgment over other people, and to keep in mind the inner turmoil that Mel Gibson is...

For those reading along at home, this CBC podcast has a great interview with Chris Hedges about “Empire of Illusion”, during the first 20 minutes or so, that asks a number of good questions about...

I think it’s time we start collectively chewing on Chris Hedge’s book “Empire of Illusion”. I’d like to kick things off by offering some (scattered) thoughts on Chapter 1: The Illusion of Literacy… I...

Rivaling the problems of John Stagliano in the U.S., Quebec make-up effects artist Rémy Couture is facing criminal charges for “moral corruption” under section163 of the Criminal Code of Canada for the content of both...

After a war, for the conquered, comes unfathomable fate. The ceasefire is rarely absolute when directed at the losers and the terms of surrender are harsher for those who have no other choice but...

In a recent post, Jason poses good questions about Confucius and how we view history more generally. As for Confucius’s idealization of the Duke of Zhou, the little I know about Chinese history suggests...