One of my undergrad professors told us about sociology's view of god. Someone recently told me this narrative has been empirically supported quite a bit. I mean, great. But I have lots of doubts about the social sciences. Not that they don't provide knowledge, but I'm not sure it can quite be considered rigorous scientific knowledge at this point ( Read more... )

Look at this! I figured out my LJ password!

I wonder if anything I've ever done matters in any way. :P

So it turns out I am really bad at philosophy ( Read more... )

The other day I was listening to music, and I saw an album I hadn't listened to in a long time. Secret Samhadi, by Live. Now, Live has a special place in my life. I liked them when I was 15. I guess that's a magic age. Because music doesn't make me feel like it used to. Something about a band you like when you're 15 stays with you forever. Secret ( Read more... )

I'm reading an article in the April 15th New Yorker, about the passing of one of the first radical feminists, Shulamith Firestone. I'd never heard of her. There's a bit in there about she and her co-activists went to see the woman who drafted the first ERA in 1921, Alice Paul. I'd never heard of her, either. Ms. Paul was suspicious of them, and ( Read more... )

So I just learned about Cat Marnell from Gawker, and that she's this spiraling, self-proclaimed drug addict, and she's blogged in women's magazines about fashion and beauty and health, and she's heroin chic for the internet age. She got maybe half a mil for her memoirs at the tender age of thirty one or two. My age. Her posts at the women's mags ( Read more... )

I watched Amanda Palmer's TEDtalk today. "The Power of Asking." When I was last out with colleagues, I totally forgot what band she was with. I thought it could have been the Scissor Sisters or the Decemberists, but it's the Dresden Dolls. I even bought the Dresden Dolls' last album. I didn't listen to it fully. I sometimes fall down music vortexes ( Read more... )

What does a counterculture mean to me?

Hello there, journal. I've been away. I've done a lot since my last postings: took a bunch of philosophy classes at the undergraduate level, applied and got into a philosophy PhD program. Yay! I'm a TA, for philo 101. We are reading the entirety of Plato's Republic. A major theme of the work is how best to ( Read more... )

Jon Stewart does not give many interviews, but recently he sat down with Rachel Maddow for 49 minutes, and I disagree with almost everything he says. More later, but here's the link ( Read more... )

I am actually pretty happy that my friends and I had a fiery argument, as it's made me think about some things! :) Here are some more thoughts. Yay friends ( Read more... )