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Category Archives: Philosophy

See the other side

December 23, 2009 – 3:43 am

Legal Eagle’s post on Lisa Pryor’s rather misguided criticism of the lawyerly tendency to see both sides of an issue got me thinking about the essence of one’s occupation as a lawyer. I think being able to see that the other fellow has a point is often part of it, although things like a careful [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Law, Politics | Tagged , , | Comments (35)

Calling history, come in history

September 21, 2009 – 1:27 am

Lawyers (and others) with professional expertise in a given field often complain when a film, television program or book makes use of their discipline for purposes of popular entertainment and then gets it wrong.
I’ve lost count of the number of times (as DEM can testify) that I’ve wanted to throw things at the telly during [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in History, Law, Popular culture | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (43)

Pride comes before a fall

July 9, 2009 – 6:10 pm

Writing a post for Jim Belshaw on things that make me proud got me thinking about pride more generally.
In religious tradition, pride is not viewed as a good thing. For example, Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Of course, pride is also one of the Seven Deadly [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Religion | Comments (17)

To cheer up Legal Eagle

April 13, 2009 – 10:43 pm

One of Russia’s most famous statues of Vladimir Lenin has been bombed, leaving the Bolshevik revolutionary with a gaping hole in his rear.
The bronze statue, in the city of St Petersburg, was badly damaged before dawn on Wednesday, when the blast blew a hole in Lenin’s coat. No-one was hurt in the attack, the motive [...]

By DeusExMacintosh | Also posted in Fark!, Funnies, History, Politics, The Left | Tagged | Comments (27)

The Dawkins Delusion – Guest Post by ‘G’

February 22, 2009 – 1:34 am

[SL: G is a lurker and occasional commenter on this blog who describes himself as an 'amateur theologian'. I'm not sure what he means by that, because he seems pretty knowledgeable to me. His home blog is here.

In this piece, he turns his mind to Richard Dawkins's popular piece of God-bashing, The God Delusion. [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Religion, Science, Skeptics | Tagged , , , , | Comments (88)

Have fishtank, will travel…

January 29, 2009 – 7:19 am

Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that my personal blog Sunday Funnies continues from strength to strength, the bad news is that I now have independent posting privileges on Skepticlawyer and am not afraid to use them [insert demonic chuckle here].
As a former British tech journo now living in [...]

By DeusExMacintosh | Also posted in Blogging, Funnies, Personal | Comments (8)

Not worthy, not well: excursions in horrible history

January 11, 2009 – 6:03 am

History is mostly horrid. Our ancestors lived lives that were, on the whole, nasty, brutish and short. It does one good to be reminded sometimes.
This evening I went with some trepidation on a guided tour to one of the streets buried under Edinburgh’s Old Town, called — less fetchingly than it might be, as though named [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in History | Comments (40)

Enforcing social rules: you can’t plan that

November 13, 2008 – 7:00 am

Hayek’s great insight was that command economies don’t work because you can’t, ahem, command economies. Individuals in the marketplace always know more about their preferences than the state ever could. This is coupled with the problem that state management of the economy is subject to the law of unintended consequences, once again largely due to [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Economics, Law, Personal liberty, Politics | Comments (29)

52:48

November 9, 2008 – 2:08 am

While the vitriolic Red States v Blue States meme carried over from the last two elections was often darkly amusing, there does seem to be a genuine attempt to reduce the rancor on both sides this time. This link goes to a site that tries to do something a bit more mature with the differences [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Politics | Comments (11)

On reporting in an election year

October 25, 2008 – 9:08 am

If I were a father and had a daughter who was dishonored I would not despair over her; I would pray for her salvation. But if I had a son who became a journalist, and remained a journalist for five years I would give him up. Possibly, I should have been wrong in this particular [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Politics | Comments (3)