Kieran Healy

God is Undead

The website of the American Philosophical Association is a quiet affair as a rule, but its section on Calls for Papers turns up the odd gem:

Philosophy and The Onion. Now soliciting proposals for projected philosophical anthology on any aspect of The Onion, America’s leading satirical […]

The New Catechism of Cliche

Though it can never replace the old one, in what way is a new one needed?

Sorely.

When it is published online what must we read?

The whole thing.

What value do such posts hold for reading?

Much worth.

What sort of insightful are they?

Characteristically.

If we cannot devote the time to the whole piece which paragraph should we read?

The nut graf.

What […]

Big Changes in California

As you’ve probably seen on the news, Mark Kleiman’s blog has moved. Update your blogroll.

It just struck me that if all your information about America came from political blogs, you’d think the country was composed mainly of libertarians together with a bloc of right-wing populist-imperialists and a few liberals here and there. But if all […]

All Things Nice

Over at Slate, Steven Landsburg has a piece on the finding that the parents of daughters are more likely to divorce than the parents of sons:

In the United States, the parents of a girl are nearly 5 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of a boy. The more daughters, the bigger the effect: […]

Israel Bombs Syria

For the first time since 1973, Israel has attacked targets in Syria. The attacks were in response to the most recent suicide bomb attack in Haifa. According to CNN, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. described the attack as a “measured defensive operation” aimed at destroying a training camp run by Islamic Jihad. Syria denies the […]

L. Ron at Ground Zero

The New York Times reports that a number of firefighters have been receiving treatment for stress at a clinic located near the site of the World Trade Center and run along lines prescribed by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. The “detoxification program” has the Firefighters “take saunas, engage in physical workouts and swallow […]