I have most of my random thoughts in the shower.
You know the Soviet cinema industry made westerns? Well they did and mightily popular they were too. Possibly because the western was pretty universally popular.
It does seem ironic but is it really? The classic black hat / white hat western is not a space for [...]
Posts under ‘Philosophy’
Random thoughts (from the shower).
Value Judgements
Well, it’s the middle of the night, and this is the only time in a long time I’ve missed not having a telly, because I want to watch David Dimblebore like usual, and shout at him, and I can’t. And I’ve had a day of bad omens. Firstly, I was roused from my slumbers by [...]
The Script of the Tiger
Just about exactly 15 years ago today I sat my last exam at the University of Nottingham. I was on fire by then - wired on talent and the self-belief of youth. I only took what I needed. 20 Marlboro, a lighter, a mechanical pencil and 35cl of pre-frozen Smirnoff.
It was a fluids exam. [...]
The Fatal Error Of Anarcho-Capitalism
Having taken a break from the libertarian internets, no sooner have I properly come back to the fray than I’ve inadvertently, well, deliberately in fact, found myself once more debating the difference between minarchy and anarcho-capitalist approaches with the fine bunch of chaps at the UK Libertarian Forums. And feeling a little sense of deja [...]
Moral Relativity
Nick says everybody else has had a go and the B&B saga. I’m going to disagree with him on that point, because I haven’t. And I’m going to disagree a bit more, in a friendly sort of way, because we don’t do group think here and we’re allowed to do that sort of thing.
Or at [...]
Eternal Dim-Sun Out to Lunch
Given that all hell seems to be about to be unleashed on the Korean pennisula - great for me because electronic components prices are going to go through the effing roof - I thought I’d check out what the Norks are up to…
Eternal Sun
The Korean people celebrate April 15, birthday of President Kim Il Sung [...]
Devil’s Copyright
Devil’s kitchen is having a fine discussion on the concept of Intellectual Property here and here and quoting Bella Gerens here. I was initially going to comment there, but it got a bit long, and I thought it a sufficiently interesting topic to promote to a post, so here you are.
Bella:
Let’s begin from the assumption [...]
Multi-Culti Cognitive Dissonance
What happens when high-energy lefty obsessions collide head-on? Why, you get an Oxford philosopher waffling on at the BBC about freedom and tolerance, and deciding that in fact both can go.
A retired judge – who just happens to be Asian, the BBC say; wonder why they mentioned that? – has said that Sikh children should [...]
Enlightenment
Part of the following is a comment I made earlier in reply to a couple of very good comments – good because they questioned, they provoked debate, and they expressed sentiments I would generally agree with – that Nick thought would make a good post.
And I decided that it was well-worth bringing up, because it [...]
An Icy Fear of Lawyers
It was a cold and frosty night. There was a cold wind blowing from the East, and the forecast was for heavy snow. The streetlights gleamed on the inch of solid ice that covered every surface. Cautiously, I made my way up the steep hill, stepping gingerly from foothold to foothold, plotting my path ahead [...]
This is John Galt speaking
Regardless, I remain of this opinion.
Garden of Eden
I was listening this morning to Radio 4’s Sunday Service – bits of it, anyway. I don’t normally (for reasons I hope are obvious), but had turned the radio on for a bit of noise. I found it a strange experience, because I know what church services sound like and this wasn’t it. It featured [...]
Numbers
It would be possible to describe absolutely everything scientifically, but it would make no sense. It would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.
-Albert Einstein
Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.
- Richard Feynman
The very [...]
The Nail On The Head
The statist is not motivated purely or even mainly by results. Statism is not a philosophy rooted in discovery of pragmatic solutions to social problems. At the root of this kind of legislation is the belief in Society (ie the state apparatus) as a source of moral authority. The state needs to express its moral [...]
Rights Under Liberty
There’s a little conversation going on over at Devil’s Kitchen about genital mutilation, and it has (perhaps inevitably) wandered into the question of what, in a libertarian society, groups can and cannot be prevented from imposing on their members, such as religious groups.
Commenter Andrew asks,
“Don’t you, as a libertarian and LPUK member like myself, accept [...]
