Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

 I'll all in favor of the new proposed club, but of course only if the Satan they have in mind is the one frequently portrayed in South Park. Goat horns, cloven hooves, a goatee, and a skull over his penis Any other Satan is conceptually confused and a school would be impugning its pedagogical mission by giving it any credibility. 

  I recently encountered a tweet that said, "teachers should be able to tell a child simply, 'that's something you should discuss with your parents.'" This was intended to defend Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill. But ... seriously? Imagine a child (of any age) who brings a question about sex/gender orientation to a teacher. Isn't it a good guess that he (I'll say 'he' for convenience) has in fact tried to discuss it at home already and has been shut down there?   He's likely been treated to some version of "So long as you're under MY roof, Mister, you will not say such things ever again."  Or maybe, "You'll understand when you're older."  A teacher is not a confused child's first resort in such matters. Anyone who thinks he is going to benefit from "that's something you should discuss with your parents" is living in a fantasy world a lot stranger than the one DeSantis wants to pu...

  Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Dunn said that he did not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19 for religious reasons. He did not identify a specific religion whose belief system leads him to this. But let us suppose it is Dunnism, and he is the Pope of it. He naturally doesn't want to be forced to excommunicate himself.   Six Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court said, "tough luck, soldier, you're in a chain of command." the other three --  Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch -- said that Dunn should NOT be relieved of his command for this reason. His religious rights should trump the chain of command.  (And yes, I know I'm using the word 'trump' there as a verb and that one could interpret that punningly as a reference to the guy who appointed Gorsuch. Grow up, folks. I use "trumpet" for such purposes. And you can spell it if you like with a silent "s" in front.)  What I would like to point out, though, is that in 2022 when on...

  I'm looking at "Business and Human Rights," a new book by Florian Wettstein. With a mammoth title like that: what more specific can we say about its subject?  Well, apparently the subject named in that title, BHR for short, is an academic discipline now, encompassing ethical, legal, and managerial perspectives. And this new book is intended as a textbook, for use in BHR courses.  The author, Wettstein, is a luminary in the field. He is the editor-in-chief of the Business and Human Rights Journal, apparently published out of Switzerland, where Wettstein is a professor at St Gallen University.  There is another body of literature about "corporate social responsibility" or CSR, but Wettstein seems to be eager to consider CSR and BHR separately, and to consider BHR (as the title of the book hints) at much more length.    Here is a random quote from the book's discussion of indigenous peoples around the world as examples of targets of corporate nastiness....

  A word on Power Point presentations.  It has come to my attention that young people, digital world natives, look down on Power Point as a matter of graphic design.  My initial response to queries (or, rather, to ridicule from the young-uns) has been simply that I don't want to buy anything expensive. Power Point comes with the box.  But now I'm told there are other free resources, including one with the amusing name GIMP. GIMP means GNU Image Manipulation Program. Let's not get into what GNU means.  So I appeal to the readers of this humble blog. Is GIMP effective? Is it easy to learn how to use? Do people who have used it come to prefer it to PowerPoint? I await your wisdom.

  No reasoning here. Just prediction, as the headline says. I'm looking into a crystal ball.  Let's see if I get this one right. It won't take long. The Republicans hold their primary in the U.S. Senate race on May 3. That's only two weeks away now.  The Dems hold one on May 3 too. But that campaign is a more decorous affair and the vote counting will probably be boring too.  Let's look to the Republicans.  My prediction is in an envelope. It has been inside a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnell's porch since noon today. Am I the only one left who remembers the talents of Carnac the Magnificent? Anyway, the prediction?  The Hillbilly elegy guy wins the primary. J.D. Vance. You heard it here. Sim sala bim. 

In the matter of BROWN v BOARD, Justice Earl Warren was sensibly desirous of ensuring that the Court would speak with only one voice. He wrote the opinion, and the only opinion, for all nine Justices. Warren knew of course that there would be blow-back from the politicians of the former confederacy -- and not only from them -- and that it would be good if the politicians engaging in blowing back at this opinion were not aided by any divisions within the court itself.  He seems to have had some trouble persuading Justice Robert Jackson of this necessity. Jackson was dying at the time but was participating in deliberations and worked on several drafts of what he expected to be a concurring opinion.  I suspect that Jackson thought he would help Warren's cause by making Warren and the other seven judges seem moderate. He may have deliberately sought to outline a position that would seem to segregationists more extreme and outrageous, so they would react to Earl Warren's position a...