Missing Shades of Grue

Spent the evening listening to the Beatles' Revolver, released forty years ago, in August of 1966, and reading a free online monograph on the background to and making of the album. I nice read and an amazing album, still.

Abracadabra: The Beatles: Revolver by Ray Newman

Two philosophy students explain John Locke and George Berkeley in this video. Quite entertaining. "Descartes sux." I may have to use that in class next time.

Many of the feminist blogs have been responding to this wonderfully funny piece in the Onion: "I'm Totally Psyched About This Abortion!"

"I know, I know, I've heard all the arguments: Abortion stops a beating heart. It's a child, not a choice. Every life is precious. Well, I don't care what the pro-lifers say... I am totally psyched for this abortion!

At least one anti-choice blogger didn't really figure out that it was satire. This statement in the Onion article asks us to think about the relationship between unwanted pregnancy and the restrictions placed on oral contraceptives: "If my HMO wouldn't have bowed to their pressure not to cover oral contraceptives, I never would've gotten pregnant in the first place." Not to be slowed down by reflection, reason, or an appreciation of fine satire, the right wing blogger replies, "Sorry ma'am, if you hadn't had sex you wouldn't have gotten pregnant, it's not the HMO's fault for not supporting your promiscuity while not married." Sometimes I can't tell which is worse: having an abortion or having sex.

But why is it that these anti-choice wingnuts can't recognize even the most obvious attempts at humor? Even if you don't think it is funny, you should at least be able to see that it is meant to be satire. Perhaps the same sloppy neural wiring that prohibits the appreciation of subtle reasoning and complex value systems also struggles with subtles required by some forms of humor. Anyway, even though the point of the satire is revealed to him (I love this comment on the blog: "I'm pro life, but sweet Jesus you're an idiot. For your next post, how about a passionate speech on the need to immediately free Prince Albert from the can?"), the anti-choice wingnut follows up with a defense of his original entry. Yes, it's a joke; but for God's sake, you shouldn't have put Prince Albert in the can in the first place!

The rest of the Onion article follows.

Reza Aslan will be coming to NKU this fall (November 13, 2:00 pm in Budig Theater). He's the author of the well-received book No god but God: the Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. I don't know alot about him so I did a quick search for some past articles and found something interesting in a recent edition of The Nation, where he profiles Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize,

Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is one of the most eloquent advocates for liberalism and reform in the Muslim world. Her tireless work on behalf of those left unprotected by Iran's draconian laws--the orphaned, the widowed, the dispossessed--has made her an almost saintly figure in Iran. Her recently published memoir, Iran Awakening, is an inspiring account of her herculean struggle to hold Iran's clerical regime accountable for its gross human rights violations. As a testament to how a single, inspired voice can rise above the cacophony of bigotry and fanaticism, the book should be required reading for any American trying to see through the fog of misinformation about how to bring freedom to Iran.

Not surprisingly her memoir was banned in Iran, but apparently our own Office of Foreign Assets Control enforced a U.S. Treasury department regulation that prohibited translating, editing, marketing, or promoting any work from an embargoed state. She couldn't even promote the book in the U.S. Ebadi initiatied a lawsuit and the Treasury Department eventually backed down. As Ebadi herself wrote in a NY Times editorial

If even people like me?those who advocate peace and dialogue?are denied the right to publish their books in the United States with the assistance of Americans, then people will seriously question the view of the United States as a country that advocates democracy and freedom everywhere.... What is the difference between the censorship in Iran and this censorship in the United States? Is it not better to encourage a dialogue between Iranians and the American public?

Throughout the essay Aslan makes pointed references to the current geo-political environment--particularly our relationship with Iran:

Ebadi's words are a timely reminder, particularly as the United States contemplates another pre-emptive military attack in the region, that the history of revolution and war in Iran is intertwined. It was the war with Iraq that ultimately created the Islamic Republic as we know it, not the revolution itself. It was the war that brought all of Iran, including the military, under the yoke of clerical rule, allowing Khomeini to make sweeping changes in the Constitution in the name of national security (a tactic with which Americans have become familiar under the Bush Administration). More than anything else, it was the war that convinced even the most pro-American Iranians that the United States could never be trusted.

To be sure, Ebadi is a courageous and inspring individual. And I'm reminded, one day after our own Independence Day--during which our own patriots are highly celebrated with bombs bursting in air--, how much of a patriot Shirin Ebadi is. I'm also reminded, while comparing the two countries, how similar the strategies are for winning allegience and controlling criticism and rebellion.

Woman Warrior

Ronald Bailey at Reason online presents an interesting essay on Sen. Brownback's (R-Kan.) proposed legislation to ban any research that would create chimiras--human-animal hyubrids.

This quick review shows that current experiments using chimeric animals and embryos do not threaten our "respect for human dignity and the integrity of the human species." Ultimately, the Human Chimera Prohibition Act is a misbegotten legislative blunderbuss that would criminalize much valuable research aimed at curing human diseases. We can afford to wait until we hear that a Harvard or Stanford institutional review board has approved an experiment to produce a humanzee before Congress needs to act.

As Bailey makes clear, this legislation is about more than the creation of freakish monsters. It is yet another ill-disguised attempt to support a prolife aganda with naive assumptions about human nature and human dignity. The sanctimonious and simple-minded attempts to limit what could very well lead to beneficial discoveries in medicine and reproductive health strike me as, well, ...inhumane.

Reason: Brownback's Chimerical Attempt to Curb Science: Outlawing human/animal chimeras will hurt serious research

In the New Yorker, Woody Allen writes insightfully about Friedrich Nietzsche?s recently discovered diet book. He has a way with aphorisms.

Epistemology renders dieting moot. If nothing exists except in my mind, not only can I order anything; the service will be impeccable.

The New Yorker: Shouts and Murmurs

I came across some face recognition software that will take an uploaded image of you and match it with celebrity look-alikes. Here is the image of myself I uploaded:


The software surveyed 3200 celebrities from the previous two centuries and came back with this celebrity look-alike...