Owner: The Opposite of Jim Bunning URL:http://toojb.com Join Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:00:34 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: A progressive/liberal political blog with an interest in philosophy and cognitive science. Site statistics:Click here
Obama: Ideologue, Pragmatist, or Both? 2008-12-15 20:30:00 In response to Chris Hayes’s Nation piece, the whole pragmatism meme is exploding. I love this stuff, so great for me. The new addition is this diametric opposition between ‘pragmatist’ and ‘ideologue,’ which I guess can be true but it really depends on your definitions. I’ve gone over two meanings of pragmatism before:
1) Pragmatism: The [...] Read more:Obama
On Authority, Philosophical and Cognitive 2008-12-15 16:22:35 There’s a pretty interesting discussion rumbling around the blogosphere, mostly between Glenn Smith and Julian Sanchez with a few words thrown in from Megan McArdle.
The discussion is interesting in that it’s about an interesting topic, the use of authority in political issue-framing. Unfortunately, the discussion is terribly confusing, mostly due to Glenn Smith’s conflation of [ Read more:Authority
, Cognitive
, Philosophical
The Philosophy of Reactionary Politics 2008-12-15 14:58:05 Recently, John Lofton of The American View (Motto: God, Family, Republic) commented on this blog on a recent post. My response was probably (ok, definitely) too glib.
Because Lofton cited psalms and verse as part of his arguments, I ignored the entirety. This was unfair: just because I don’t think that everything in the Bible is [...] Read more:Philosophy
What Kind of Pragmatism? 2008-12-13 15:08:56 Christopher Hayes has an article in the Nation on Obama’s pragmatism (h/t Ron Chusid). I like two things about this piece:
1) It identifies the ambiguous nature of the term, and lists several theories meant by the word and
2) It concludes that the kind of pragmatism compatible with progressivism is that espoused by John Dewey, whose [...] Read more:Pragmatism
Is Anti-Unionism the “New” Conservatism? 2008-12-13 14:03:29 Last month, a good deal of post-election GOP talk was about finding some new direction for their party. We liberals hoped that this new direction would include a fundamental change from divisive politics. This is starting to seem to be wishful thinking. If the activities of the last week are any indication, the new GOP [...] Read more:Conservatism
Auto Bailout: More than Meets the Eye 2008-12-11 17:22:59 Over the past month, I’ve gone from skeptic to proponent of the auto bailout.
The impetus for my initial skepticism was an uneasy feeling about the lack of consideration put into and oversight attached to the financial industry bailout, and I wanted to see the government be a little more reluctant to just hand out money. [...]
The New Green Marketing Scheme 2008-12-11 15:08:11 First of all, sorry in the 48 hour hiatus in posting. I went down to Providence, RI, and, while I can’t re-create that time to post more about the Illinois Gov/Senate Scandal or the auto bailout (though I have a feeling I’ll have more to say on the latter issueupdate: I do), I can at [...] Read more:Green
, Marketing
, Scheme
Guantanamo Pleas and the Al Qaeda Plan 2008-12-09 16:27:31 Yesterday, five 9/11 participants in captivity at Guantanamo Bay proclaimed that they wished to plead guilty and be executed immediately. I don’t think this story is getting as much coverage as it deserves because I think it’s avoided being interpreted through the right lens.
Assume, for a second, that the pre-election post about al-qaeda supporting McCain [...] Read more:Qaeda
Dear Bloggers: Stop Talking Obama Policy (updated) 2008-12-08 15:39:44 Publius over at Obsidian Wings has a great mockery of Megan McArdle’s piece on Obama
’s “new” “right” “leaning.” The words all go in separate quotation marks because they are each individually false for different reasons. Basically, it’s all B.S. and we should talk about other things until Jan 20th.
McArdle starts:
I don’t understand why t Read more:Policy
, Talking
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