Or, why I’ve learned, once again, not to bother trying to have an opinion on anything art-related. It’ll only make me feel bad.

(spoilers)
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Here an issue that truthfully stymies me. Time and again I hear that video games don’t need to be made less violent because research has perpetually failed to find any causal link from game violence to real-life violence. But time and again I hear how games do need to be more inclusive and representationally respectful toward women and other ( Read more... )

This bit of trivia came up on Jeopardy: one early draft title of Catch-22 was Catch-11, but it was rejected for being too similar to Ocean’s Eleven, which had just been released one year earlier.

There is this thing called the “tone argument”, which is when you dismiss an argument (or simply don’t listen) because you don’t like how forceful or ( Read more... )

# Action Primary Result Secondary Results 1. I vote for Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney gets elected. I get called an idiot and a traitor. 2. I vote for Barack Obama. Mitt Romney gets elected. I get called an idiot and a traitor. 3. I sit on the couch eating Doritos. Mitt Romney gets elected. I get called an idiot and a traitor.
I need an ( Read more... )

Some weeks ago, I encountered one of the innumerable academic quizzes on the Internets. This particular one was a Philosophical Health Check. Most tests of this sort are meant to identify your political ideology. This one aims to point out mutual contradictions in your beliefs, such as believing Michelangelo to be a great artist but also feeling ( Read more... )

Paraphrased from the discussion here:

"Wow. It turns out government-mandated healthcare isn't so unconstitutional after all."

"How do you mean?"

"It's already been done. By some of the Founding Fathers, even. Back when the country was about twenty years old, the economy was taking a big hit. The U.S. relied heavily on international trade, but ( Read more... )