A couple of days ago, I predicted here that a “terrorist” attack on the United States would take place. Now one has, in New Orleans. Did I have foreknowledge of this attack? I sure did. In fact, I told you what the foreknowledge was in the post itself: You can’t spend decades supporting apartheid, conquest, occupation, and genocide, then take pride in shutting down the anti-war movement, and not expect to be attacked in retaliation. That’s what Americans and Israelis did, and that’s what happened to them. What did you think was going to happen? The victims of your psychopathic depredations were going to roll over and play dead forever? Continue reading
The Lessons of History
It’s amusing how many obituaries of Jimmy Carter mention ruefully that it was Carter’s idea, inspired by Zbigniew Brzezinski, to support the Afghan mujahidin against the Soviets. It seemed like such a great idea at the time, but look at Afghanistan today. Brzezinski was widely hailed as a strategic genius and moral prophet for devising that jihad, like Robert McNamara before him, and Paul Wolfowitz after. Three wizards. Three catastrophes.
Continue readingThe Rime of the Denial Manager
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
–Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1834)
About two weeks ago, I wrote a long post here on the killing of UnitedHealthCare (UHC) CEO Brian Thompson. Here’s a follow up. Continue reading
Molinari East and West
Lo, I have information about both the Eastern and Pacific meetings of the Molinari Society for 2025. (Irfan has already previously posted some info about his presentation at the Eastern.)
Eastern meeting, NYC, January 2025:
The Molinari Society will be holding its mostly-annual Eastern Symposium in conjunction with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in New York City, 8-11 January 2025.
Here’s the schedule info:
Molinari Society symposium: False Alternatives in the Politics of Knowledge
G3A. Wednesday, 8 December, 4:00-5:50 p.m., Sheraton Times Square, 811 7th Ave. & W. 53rd St., New York NY 10019, room TBA.
chair:
Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)
speakers:
Irfan Khawaja (Independent Scholar), “Pedagogy Under Occupation: Between Indoctrination and False Neutrality”
Cory Massimino (Center for a Stateless Society), “Between Convergence and Conspiracy”
commentator:
Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)
Frequent Molinari panelist Jason Lee Byas will also be presenting elsewhere on the program on “The Vocabulary of Society: Feasibility and Fit in Expressive Arguments” (10G, Friday 10 December, 9:00-10:50 a.m.).
Pacific meeting, SF, April 2025:
The Molinari Society will be holding its mostly-annual Pacific Symposium in conjunction with the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association in San Francisco, 16-20 April 2025.
Here’s the schedule info:
Molinari Society symposium: Author Meets Critics: Gary Chartier, Christianity and the Nation-State: A Study in Political Theology
G1H. Wednesday, 16 April 2025, 6:00-8:00 p.m., Westin St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell St. [unless a labour dispute forces a change of venue], San Francisco CA 94102, room TBA.
chair:
Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)
author:
Gary Chartier (La Sierra University)
critics:
David VanDrunen (Westminster Seminary California)
Mary Doak (University of San Diego)
Irfan Khawaja (Independent Scholar)
Be there or B2!
Thy Kingdom’s Will Be Done
I had a conversation the other day with a woman associated with a very liberal Protestant church who’d been organizing a charitable event for Gaza. The event was a dinner intended to raise money for a well-known medical relief organization. The event was a success, but she told me with chagrin that she had to be careful to advertise it in such a way as to avoid mentioning it to those members of the congregation who might have objected.
Continue reading“False Alternatives in the Politics of Knowledge”
Just a reminder to anyone attending the APA Eastern in New York this January: the Molinari Society is hosting a session on “False Alternatives in the Politics of Knowledge,” Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, 4-5:50 pm, room TBA. Cory Massimino and I will be giving papers, with Roderick Long moderating and commenting. Cory’s paper is “Between Convergency and Conspiracy.” Mine is “Between Indoctrination and False Neutrality,” a defense of an advocacy-based conception of pedagogy, using the teaching I did under the Israeli occupation as a case study. For more details, click here.
How Still We See Thee Lie
I was at a Christmas Eve service last night where the Confession and Lament Sequence said: “Forgive us for following the logics of Empire and the violence of Herod. Lord have mercy.”
It’s an admirable sentiment, but I had to wonder: if mercy is to be sought, is this the proper addressee? Is mercy in fact the thing to be sought at all?
A Christmas Sermon
In the Gospel of St Matthew, we read of King Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents. Herod put to death every male child under the age of two in the vicinity of Bethlehem. The Christian response was to render unto state power what belonged to it, without being able to identify what did and what didn’t. The results were predictable. First the Christians accommodated empire. Then Christianity became one.
Continue readingOn Love of Country
You’ve got to love a country where the President commutes the death sentences of 37 death row inmates, is widely praised for it, makes a pious speech about why the other three have to get the shaft for “terrorism,” and then, without a pause, continues committing genocide abroad while winning adulation for that. The part of the country fixated on the first part of that sentence is incomprehensible to the part fixated on the second, and vice versa. The day when the second group becomes large enough to be a real worry to the first is the day that we’ll witness the beginning of the end of the United States of America in the name of something better. It’s only when you grasp that the second group unapologetically wants to hasten that day that you’ll understand what the dispute was about in the first place. But believe me, we do.
The Evil Demon in the OR
EVS Journal 8: More Scenes from Life on Call in the OR
Up to this point, what I have accepted as very true I have derived either from the senses or through the senses. However, sometimes I have discovered that these are mistaken, and it is prudent never to place one’s entire trust in things which have deceived us even once.
Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, Meditation 1
I’m on call in the OR for New Year’s Day, 8 am to midnight–an irritation after a long sleep-deprived week of work, including all of New Year’s Eve spent in the OR. I wake up on New Year’s Day, and decide, on a mere hunch or whim, to drive to the hospital mid-morning, pre-empting the phone call that calls me in to the hospital, operating instead (so to speak) on the premonition that if I go to the OR unbidden, there’ll inevitably be a case waiting for me to do, which I’ll then be in a position to “head off at the pass,” whatever that’s supposed to mean in this non-cowboy context. Continue reading
Policy of Truth 