A life in words

  • Obamanymy

    One of the great things about the impending presidency of Barack Hussein Obama is that his name is awesome. I guess that’s what you get when your last name begins with an open syllable (meaning that it starts with a vowel). I predict that a whole new subfield of onomastics dedicated to the study of…

  • The Voice of the People

    Had I gotten my address updated and my absentee ballot arrived in the mail, I would have either voted for John McCain, or abstained on account of my concerns over Palin’s qualifications. But most of America was more responsible than I was, and they voted. And they voted decisively. John McCain’s concession speech was magnanimous…

  • Why My Blog’s Seemed Boring Lately

    Hello dear, devoted(?) fans! I owe you an explanation. Those of you who have just been visiting my site directly may have thought that nothing interesting has happened since sometime in August. Well, I’ve actually posted a lot since then, but there was a problem with my site configuration so that you couldn’t see those…

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations…. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form….John Stuart Mill, On LIberty