December 2010
22 posts
Robert Reich: New Years Prediction (I): The Tea... →
robertreich:
Next week starts the new Congress, and with it the Tea Party conservatives. What’s their strategy? What will they rally around?
They’ll grouse endlessly about government spending but I don’t think they’ll use any particular spending bill to mobilize and energize their grass roots. The…
On the right to privacy
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965),[1] was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution protected a right to privacy. The case involved a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives. By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the “right to marital privacy”.
Although...
westerners view future as in front of us, past as behind. easterners view past behind us, as we cannot see it, and past in front, as we can.
this difference in perception the direction of history is cultural.
that there is a direction is universally human.
causation.
x-y= z
causation has a direction
in quantum physics, backwards causation happens all the time. (an event is caused by an event...
Generative grammar
The Chomskyan approach towards syntax, often termed generative grammar, studies grammar as a body of knowledge possessed by language users. Since the 1960s, Chomsky has maintained that much of this knowledge is innate, implying that children need only learn certain parochial features of their native languages.[39] The innate body of linguistic knowledge is often termed Universal Grammar. From...
On school prayer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engel_v._Vitale
The case was brought by the families of public school students in New Hyde Park, New Yorkwho complained that the voluntary prayer to “Almighty God” contradicted their religious beliefs. They were supported by groups opposed to the school prayer including rabbinical organizations,Ethical Culture, and Judaic organizations. The prayer in...
On the Separation of Church and State
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Together with the Free Exercise Clause (“… or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”), these two clauses make up what are called the...
On mandatory bible reading in public schools
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abington_School_District_v._Schempp
The Abington case began when Edward Schempp, a Unitarian Universalist and a resident ofAbington Township, Pennsylvania, filed suit against the Abington School District in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to prohibit the enforcement of aPennsylvania state law that required his children,...
Dad: “Yeah, she posted that on her Facebooks the other day. Or. Status statement. (old person groan) whatever you call it…”
Me: “Status update?”
My Dad: “No one ever says ‘daughter of a bitch.’ Guess that’d be too redundant.”
Gay kiss happens in movie
My Dad: (jokingly) “EEEEEEEWWWWW DONT ASK DONT TELL”
BLOGGING via TYPEWRITER.: The twelve leaks of... →
mabelmoments:
On the first day of Christmas, WikiLeaks gave to me; The love-notes of Berlusconi.
On the second day of Christmas, WikiLeaks gave to me; One Saudi King, wanting bombs ‘cross the Caspian Sea.
On the third day of Christmas, WikiLeaks gave to me; Russian crooks, Cooking the…
Bertrand Russell's Introduction to The History of...
The conceptions of life and the world which we call ‘philosophical’ are a product of two factors: one, inherited religious and ethical conceptions; the other, the sort of investigation which may be called ‘scientific’, using this word in its broadest sense. Individual philosophers have differed widely in regard to the proportions in which these two factors entered into their systems, but it is...