argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Decline of the left, part 2: Timidity
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-decline-of-left-part-2-timidity.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Thursday, 30 April 2015. Decline of the left, part 2: Timidity. The first post in this series. Asked why some on the modern left behave as badly, and as bigotedly, as those they oppose. This tendency towards self-serving schismatism can be seen in the way the largely technocratic difference between UK political parties is overstated,. So this hyperbolical, and rather self-serving, moral distinction seems to be the cause of the inflated sense of justification, which...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Decline of the left, part 3: Moral hazards
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2015/05/decline-of-left-part-3-moral-hazards.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Wednesday, 13 May 2015. Decline of the left, part 3: Moral hazards. In the previous post. In which the Author. Responds to his Criticks. First, however, a response to some of the feedback I have received so far, and more importantly thanks to all who have given that feedback. As an aside, I’d say too that the reaction of many left-wingers to the Labour defeat in GE2015 vindicates much that I have been saying. However perhaps my expectation of better things from the...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Death 2: Bin Laden
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2014/02/death-2-bin-laden.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Friday, 14 February 2014. Death 2: Bin Laden. A violent loser, and a mutt.'. One death I’ve been thinking about is that of barely-remembered Osama Bin Laden, and in turn the wider policy of extra-judicial killing. This was no Iwo Jima, Mr President. This was no Iwo Jima, Mr President.'. I mean, the killing of Bin Laden wasn't - this picture was. Iwo Jima, obviously. Read the above bit before you read this caption, it'll make more sense). And, frankly, I think in so...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Against critical theory
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2014/06/philosophy-to-rescue-credo-or-something.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Tuesday, 17 June 2014. This post was previously titled: Philosophy to the rescue? A credo, or something like it. It’s time I stopped prevaricating and laid out some basic beliefs. So this one’s about what I think is wrong with the humanities (and therefore us graduates schooled in it), why I think philosophy could be a remedy, and why I have misgivings about my own remedy. I'm avoiding giving examples for brevity's sake, but will provide if challenged. Update.
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Decline of the left, part 4: Ferguson, Baltimore, and race
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2015/06/decline-of-left-part-4-ferguson.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Monday, 1 June 2015. Decline of the left, part 4: Ferguson, Baltimore, and race. Since the previous post in this series. It has become ever clearer that left-wing commentators are wise to the failings of the left that I have been describing. This article by Owen Jones. As well as this one. From now on, then, ‘modern left’ will refer quite specifically to the identity-political left ). Test case no.3: the Ferguson disturbances. Are also relevant, though I’ll f...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Decline of the modern left. Part 1
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-decline-of-modern-left-part-1.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Friday, 24 April 2015. Decline of the modern left. Part 1. Modern left-wing arguments are all too often bad: they are weak, and they are bad-tempered. Why is this? Why are so many left-wing people making such poor, self-defeating arguments despite being overwhelmingly intelligent and well educated? And why, furthermore, with such rancour that the once reliable notion of the ‘nice’ left and ‘nasty’ right is increasingly obsolete? No society can call itself decent th...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Granada! Part Dos!
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2013/11/granada-part-dos.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Saturday, 2 November 2013. Just a brief addendum. The cathedrals and churches of Granada were, as you’d expect, a definite highlight, especially those in the mixed Spanish-Moorish style. Not all of them were open to visitors. Of those that were, the interiors were often very splendid as in this quire:. My photographic skills are less than splendid – see here. Sometimes they were slightly gaudy and over-gilded, as this from Guadix cathedral:. On an incidental note, ...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: Scotland be brave
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2014/09/scotland-be-brave.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Tuesday, 2 September 2014. This is my second post on the Scottish referendum. My first, longer post is here. It doesn't feel like it, but we're on the brink of a national tragedy. In just over two weeks, Scotland might vote to dissolve the union. That alone is heartbreaking. That it might actually throw away so much for the sake of an ideology - one that could do so much damage to Scotland and her relationship with England - is devastating to me. On the face of it,...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: June 2015
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2015_06_01_archive.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Tuesday, 23 June 2015. Decline of the left, part 5: Guilt by resemblance. This is the final post in this series of arguments against the modern left. There's more to say, but then there always is, and there will be time for it. Concerned the town of. Ferguson, the scene of the death of. Argued that the commentators and supporters of the left failed to do what true friends to the people of Ferguson. David Starkey or Enoch Powell. A men’s magazine or a rapist. Admitt...
argumentativerags.blogspot.com
Wild and whirling words: ISIS: Why Obama fiddles
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.com/2015/05/isis-why-obama-fiddles.html
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. Wednesday, 27 May 2015. ISIS: Why Obama fiddles. Yes more depressing news from the Middle East with the ISIS conquest of Ramadi. As Ramadi was falling, the US administration, with remarkable good timing, released the happy news that they had just killed a high-up ISIS financier during a night raid. Here, briefly, are four possible reasons for why the Obama administration is fiddling while the Middle East burns. They get progressively more worrying. Toxic Bush legac...