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I saw the news about the Hobby Lobby decision on television today (7-1). ABC news reported that conservatives/the right wing scored a victory today when the supreme court ruled that a corporation can have religious convictions and that those beliefs are protected under the constitution. The supreme court is not in the business of picking winners and losers but in deciding what is or isn't constitutional. Along with describing the result as a 5 to 4 decision, ABC news erroneously paints a subjectivistic picture where reality is decided by majority vote. Truth is real, certain, and moral. The supreme court's job is to discover the truth. - You're welcome

I find the statement "it won't happen" When describing man-made realities very frustrating. People throw that phrase around like it's smart. It's not. It's stupid. Metaphysical realities lend themselves to predictions. Man-made realities, by-and-large, don't. The point when dealing with man-made realities is ethical. The point  is whether something "should" happen. "It won't happen" is stupid for two reasons: It's a prediction about a man-made reality (gambling, superstition) and it misses the point (anti-ethical). - You're welcome.

Republicans and other living things have a problem confronting and defeating Democrat socio/political proposals because they miss the trick. The trick is "socializing" the issue. "The poor", "The elderly", "The environment" are just a few of the examples of socializing the issue. Socialized issues invariably lend themselves to socialized solutions. The key is to privatize the issue because a privatized issue lends itself invariably to a privatized solution. - You're welcome

It seems to me that liberals behave an awful lot like Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA): 1. We became afraid of angry people, authority figures and personal criticism. 2. We became approval seekers and lost our identity in the process. 3. We live life from the standpoint of victims and we are attracted by that weakness in our love and our friendship relationships. 4. We have an over-developed sense of responsibility and it is easier for us to be concerned with others rather than ourselves; this enables us to avoid looking too closely at our own faults etc. 5. We get guilt feelings when we stand up for ourselves instead of giving in to others. 6. We became addicted to excitement. 7. We confuse love with pity and tend to love those we can pity and rescue. 8. We judged ourselves harshly and have low self-esteem. 9. We are reactors rather than actors. 10. You're welcome.

Being pragmatic is the pretense that ideas should be judged by their results. In other words "the ends justify the means". Also, pragmatic activity is always aimed at idealistic (unrealistic) outcomes. Ethics is principled and based on acknowledging reality. Being pragmatic is inherently unethical.

The hallmarks of American counter culture are: 1. Informality and false intimacy. 2. Publicity/nosiness (divulging personal information to people one barely knows and expecting others to do the same). 3. Subversion (stupidity is smart, cowardice is courageous, ugliness is beautiful). 4. Being jaded. 3. Impulsivity and improvisation. 4. Immediacy (no yesterday or tomorrow just successive moments of now). 5. Anti-conceptuality (expressing ideas via pictures and stories instead of concepts and abstractions). 6. Being idealistic (overreaching). 7. Expecting to get something for nothing. 8. Psycholgizing. - You're welcome

I just finished a new "great course" titled: "The Philosopher's Toolkit - How to be the most rational person in the room". It should have been titled: The Psychologistic's Toolkit - How to be the most manipulative person in the room". At the end of the last lecture the professor listed the people he thinks were great thinkers giving the reason or reasons why he included each person in the group after he named them. If the professor wanted to be rational (realistic) he would have defined his terms (in this case - great thinkers) before creating the list. What constitutes a great thinker? How many great ideas must one have had? As it is the professor makes one of the most basic logical fallacies. He simply demands that the viewer take his word for it. - You're welcome