Philosophy joke

An analytic philosopher and a continental philosopher walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “wadda ya havin?” The continental philosopher replies, “I will require an authentic, discursively enjoined, post-structuralist, disimmediated thing-in-itself.”

The bartender shakes his head and says, “I don’t get what you want.” The continental philosopher turns his nose up in the air and storms out of the bar. The bartender looks apologetically to the analytic philosopher and says, “I really couldn’t understand him.”

“Oh, I know!” replies the analytic philosopher. “As for me, I’ll have the same, without the adjectives.”

(Via Atoms Arranged Meaningwise.)

Pigou club slogan

Al Gore comes up with the perfect rhyming slogan for Greg Mankiw's Pigou Club:

"The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels," he said in a speech in Washington.

"When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices."

To secure this green revolution, Mr Gore said the single most important policy change would be to "tax what we burn - not what we earn".

I want that on a bumper sticker.

Ode on a Holbovian Urn

John Holbo has posted a flickr set of illustrations from a Plato book he's working on.

This one is my favorite, although I'm not sure which dialogue it's illustrating.

She blogs, she sings!

Angelica's latest hobby? Songwriting. This is the first time I've ever released a song into the YouTubes, so please, comments would make me very happy.



I got the idea for this song a couple of years ago when the Patriot act and the US-Mexico border barrier were big hot button issues, along of course with the continuing scandal of Guantanamo bay. I want a song that tied all those problems together as symptoms of the same disease -- fear -- while also remaining hopeful that America will return to her ideals in the future.

I didn't get around to actually writing the song for a while because I had to get some guitar skillz first. Unfortunately, the issues in the song are still very much with us.

Please let it be Obama 08. I don't want this song to have any relevance in four year's time.

AMERICA [Angelica Oung 2008]

Once upon a time they came from so many different shores
They left it all behind for a life that promised more
The huddled masses stayed the same America did not
There's a new fear in our hearts, our confidence is shot
We let them pick our lettuce in America
Wash the dishes in the shadows of America
While we put up a fence around America

America, land of the free, home of the brave
All eyes are on you, to see what you'll do, today

The stumbling giant shocked by pain
lashed out in righteous rage
Should our decency be shed
on the shores of Guantanamo bay
Invincible, we'll show them all
our mightiness is real
Are we the city on the hill
or will we bend the world to our will

They say freedom's not for free
so give us your liberties
To be a patriot in the name of America

CHORUS

We've still got our rights to life and the pursuit of happiness
But pardon if I ask
what's happened to the rest?
While what makes this nation great is tumbling into dust
If in God we trust, then ask the lord we must
We're fighting for the soul of America
In this dark time for America

Please give us the strength to be Americans

Banned in Memphis

This week's Memphis Flyer contained a wonderful history article on Lloyd T. Binford, who was head of the Memphis Censor Board from 1928 to 1956.

But it was Binford's attitude toward blacks that caused him — and Memphis — the most condemnation. Binford was absolutely opposed to movies showing blacks and whites together on the same social level. In 1945, he blocked the hit musical Annie Get Your Gun from Ellis Auditorium because there were blacks in the cast "who had too familiar an air about them." For the same reason, he banned the film Imitation of Life (1934) with Claudette Colbert and Brewster's Millions (1945) with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson because certain scenes "gave too much prominence to Negroes."

To show the films in Memphis, local distributors had to delete these scenes. As a result, some movies shown here were minutes shorter than the same films shown in other cities, because Binford ordered the complete removal of scenes featuring prominent black performers like Duke Ellington or Cab Calloway. Memphians probably never realized that Lena Horne's segment, for example, was snipped completely out of the 1946 picture Ziegfield Follies, as was Pearl Bailey's role in the 1947 Variety Girl.

In 1947, Binford axed Curley, a Little Rascals-type comedy distributed by United Artists, simply because it included one scene that showed black and white children in a classroom together. In his official letter to the United Artists distributors, Binford explained, "The Memphis Censor Board ... is unable to approve your picture with the little Negroes, as the South does not permit Negroes in white schools nor recognize social equality between the races, even in children."

Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart for the Wii is very fun. And much more environmentally friendly than driving real motorized vehicles around Mushroom Gorge and Rainbow Road.

A strange supply curve

UK Foreign minister Lord Malloch Brown is opposed to legalizing production of opium for medical use in Afghanistan. Part of his justification is a either a wonderful example of economic ignorance, or pure bullshit.

"Those cultivating and purchasing opium for medical usage would be in direct competition with illegal traffickers, which could drive up the price of opium and encourage increased cultivation.

"Farmers who do not currently grow poppies would abandon legal crops to meet the market's demand.

"Ultimately, the area of land under poppy cultivation could increase. Quite simply, farmers would grow more to supply an additional purchaser."

(Emphasis added.)

You read that right. Increased competition and production will increase the price of opium.

Philosophy on the rise

The New York Times reports that philosophy is gaining in popularity as a major.

Sadly, I can't say that my experience in philosophy confirms the last two paragraphs of the article.

Jenna Schaal-O’Connor, a 20-year-old sophomore who is majoring in cognitive science and linguistics, said philosophy had other perks. She said she found many male philosophy majors interesting and sensitive.

"That whole deep existential torment," she said. "It’s good for getting girlfriends."