Laurence Tribe has a great fucking speech about the Constitution's history, legitimacy, and why strict textualism is a nonstarter.

Okay, William Vallicella just won me back. Damn bitches ( Read more... )

Oh holy fuck.

Not to specifically for the purpose of harping on Dana Perino, I found this writeup rather amusing ( Read more... )

You thought that literary translation had reached a new height with Tales for the l33t: Romeo & Juliet. You were wrong.

In other news, I read last night all about the major Yorkist victory in the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Towton. It was England's bloodiest battle ever, including more dead in absolute numbers than the Somme. Most ( Read more... )

David Hilbert, on (the toxic variety of) skepticism:Wir dürfen nicht denen glauben, die heute mit philosophischer Miene und überlegenem Tone den Kulturuntergang prophezeien und sich in dem Ignorabimus gefallen. Für uns gibt es kein Ignorabimus, und meiner Meinung nach auch für die Naturwissenschaft überhaupt nicht. Statt des törichten Ignorabimus ( Read more... )

In case you ever wondered about what it is that I do, this is a pretty good intro for those who aren't conversant with much mathematics:

( Some elementary numerical analysis )

So yesterday I heard on the radio about Iranian attack boats zooming up to American warships in the Strait of Hormuz, having a testy radio exchange, and then backing off before the US Navy fired a shot ( Read more... )

I've been thinking this for some time, but not in as organised a fashion.

Last night I watched the 30 November debate between Dinesh D'Souza and Daniel Dennett. The resolution under discussion was "God is a manmade invention", which I believe was D'Souza's proposal (he of course took the negative position). Dennett, with D'Souza's indulgence, also took some time to present and defend his proposal to instate mandatory ( Read more... )