Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Why Bush the C.E.O. Would Surely Be Fired

This is well-done.

Even the conservatives notice some of the similarities...

to another time and another place. Herewith right-wing journalist Andrew Sullivan remarking on the Republican convention and President Bush's speech last night:

"In this way, the whole convention was a very mixed message - but also a very effective one. They presented a moderate face, while proposing the most hard-right platform ever put forward by a GOP convention. They smeared and slimed Kerry - last night with disgusting attacks on his sincerity, patriotism and integrity. And yet they managed to seem positive after tonight. That's no easy feat. But they pulled it off. Some of this, I have to say, was Orwellian. When your convention pushes so many different messages, and is united with screaming chants of 'U.S.A.', and built around what was becoming almost a cult of the Great Leader, skeptical conservatives have reason to raise an eyebrow or two.

"But conservatism as we have known it is now over. People like me who became conservatives because of the appeal of smaller government and more domestic freedom are now marginalized in a big-government party, bent on using the power of the state to direct people's lives, give them meaning and protect them from all dangers."

Except, of course, the dangers emanating from that party itself.

UPDATE: And the liberals notice too--herewith Jack Balkin (Law, Yale) on Zell Miller's lunatic performance:

"Does the Republican leadership, or for that matter, the Republican rank and file actually believe that political opposition to the President's policies is truly disloyal? If so, this is a serious problem for the health of American democracy. It's fair game to call your opponents stupid and their policies unsound. It's even OK to say that what they are proposing will be bad for the country and for the cause of freedom around the world. But you cross the line when you argue that political opposition is designed to weaken America at the hands of its enemies, and that the other party seeks to sell America out.

"That is one reason why I thought Anne Coulter's recent book entitled 'Treason' was a sorry comment on the state of American democracy. One can dismiss Coulter as a freak show, although she gets plenty of air time on the cable channels. But when Coulter's basic message-- that political opposition is disloyal-- is delivered by a keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention to a wildly cheering audience, these sentiments can no longer be seen as isolated examples of fringe lunacy. Instead, they now are being employed as a key campaign strategy.

"Terrorism around the world makes the world a dangerous place. What happened the other night at the Republican Convention makes things dangerous in an entirely different way."

AWOL Bush

At last, some details from a witness. Let's see now whether this gets half the attention the Smear Boat Veterans got.

Police State Lite at the Republican Convention

This from CNN. This from a blogger on the scene: here and here.

This is "police state lite," since, one assumes, most of these folks wrongfully detained, and detained for excessive periods of time in order to deprive them of their putative First Amendment rights, will be released alive, and probably not physically abused, or at least not extensively, beyond the original manhandling of the arrests.

But why, in the United States, in New York City no less, are we having police state lite?

The Little Police State that Couldn't

A timely summary of the failed "terrorism" prosecutions by Ashcroft & co., in which lots of innocent folks had their lives wrecked and mangled.

(The title of the posting is a reference to a popular children's book, at least in the U.S., called "The Little Engine that Could," about a small train that, through willpower, pulls its cargo up and over a mountain.)

PBS Program on Rawls

Hosted, unfortunately, by a right-wing hack, but featuring, fortunately, two philosophers: Samuel Freeman (Penn) and Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt). Details here.

Which liberal media?

Oh, the one whose "media coverage of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's baseless attacks on John Kerry's war record has been more than twice that of the coverage of the controversy over George W. Bush's service in the Alabama National Guard."

There is a puzzle here, isn't there? If, as my conservative friends like to note, most journalists support Kerry, how is it that they spend twice as much time on what is largely a non-story about Kerry (the only newsworthy part is his anti-Vietnam War activities) than an actual story about a self-serving, draft-dodging President who poses as a tough guy?

And, of course, this isn't the only example.

The Prayer of Australian Philosophers...

...or at least those at the ANU. Written by Daniel Nolan, distinguished ANU grad now at St. Andrews, philosophers will find it very funny, everyone else will scratch their heads.

(Thanks to Brian Weatherson for the pointer.)

"Zell Miller"

By accident, I just caught on TV about 20 seconds of Senator Miller--conservative and nominal Democrat from Georgia, who has long been a Republican--speaking at the Republican National Convention in support of George W. Bush. It is rare that one hears someone who immediately provokes the instinctive reaction, "There is something deeply wrong with this person." (Gary Bauer comes to mind.) But there is, indeed, something psychologically and emotionally wrong with this man. (Any readers from Georgia have insight?)

What a freak show. What are these people doing in the same country with my children?

UPDATE: Josh Marshall captures some of the weirdness rather well: "There's a lot of rage and anger in that man -- and I can't imagine a viewer coming to that speech with an open and politically-uncommitted mind who wouldn't wonder where it was from. The tone struck me as a bit ranting and wild, barking and angry, with Miller channeling some mix of Heart of Darkness and Deliverance, which I can't quite decipher but did not want to be near." The good news is the Republicans put this on prime time, where it could do maximum damage to their ability to sway the famous "swing" voters. (Thanks to Bill Childs for the pointer.)

ANOTHER UPDATE: Keith DeRose calls my attention to this unusually rigorous questioning of Zell Miller on CNN.

AND STILL ANOTHER UPDATE: A roundup of reactions to the lunatic performance by the Senator from Georgia. I will confess to being surprised that some of my conservative friends don't realize how bad this was for the Republicans. Of course, it may be not enough folks will have seen it for it to impact the election.

AND ANOTHER: A reader, who asked to remain anonymous (because engaged in a job search currently), writes:

"I saw your post on Zell Miller this morning. I am a Democrat living in Georgia, and for the life of me I can't figure out what's wrong with this guy. He used to be very popular here, now the left hates him (WSJ had an article on it Monday I believe -- they call him "Zig Zag Zell" because he doesn't stand for anything) and I'm not sure how the right feels about him. I had the impression that he was credible as a senior-statesman type, but after his bumbling Meet the Press performance about a month ago and what I've heard from him lately (including interview with Peter Jennings aired on ABC News last night), he just comes across a bit looney. You aren't the first to question his mental well being. I wish the Democrats would boot his sorry ass out of the party, but I guess he's retiring soon enough (with his position likely to be filled by someone not much better, Johnny Isakson, but at least he has the proper "R" by his name)."

My esteemed colleague Basil Markesinis...

...receives yet another honor, in recognition of his exceptional scholarly achievements. My late great colleague Charles Alan Wright liked to say, "You make your own prestige." Basil has done that, and he has been kind enough to share it with us.

Chomsky's Olof Palme Lecture at Oxford: "Doctrines and Visions: Who is to Run the World and How?"

The audio of his lecture (in different formats) is here. (There is also a transcript.)

(Thanks to reader Thomas Smith from Oxford for the pointer.)

Is there really a more extraordinary academic figure anywhere in the world today? On the one hand, he revolutionalized an entire field--linguistics--establishing himself as the preeminent 20th-century figure in the discipline, at the same time producing theories and ideas that have had major ramifications in cognate intellectual fields such as philosophy and psychology. On the other hand, he has, with uncompromising integrity, analyzed state power and its apologists, always speaking directly and concretely, and on the basis of an unwaivering moral vision of human beings and their worth. And he has continued to do so while being subjected to astonishing and relentless abuse by legions of pea brains, moral charlatans, and intellectual piddlers and tinkerers. (I omit the more obvious apologists for state terror--of course, they would attack him!) As I remarked on a previous occasion, it clearly takes great courage and fortitude to be Noam Chomsky. We are all lucky he was granted those traits along with his intellectual talent and energy.

UPDATE: This libertarian site has a nice article on Chomsky.

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More Embarrassments for the Fake Bush "War [sic] on Terror"

Orin Kerr (Law, George Washington) has the details. Perhaps it should just be called the Bush Administration "War on the Rule of Law," and leave it at that?

Events like those recounted by Professor Kerr are significant because they indicate the crazed mindset that now has a grip on law enforcement and prosecutors. In this case, at least, lawyers with conscience finally put a stop to it; but how many other cases are there where the crazed mindset drives things forward unchecked?

Galeano on Venezuela

Galeano is a wonderful writer; here's an excerpt from a recent essay:

"Strange dictator this Hugo Chávez. Masochistic and suicidal: he created a Constitution that permits the people to throw him out, and he risked this occurring in a recall referendum. This referendum that took place in Venezuela was the first of its kind in Universal history. He was not cast out. And this makes it the Eighth election that Chávez has won in five years, with a transparency that would have sent dear Bush on a holiday....

"Up until now, the presidents interrupted their rule only for death, a putsch, an uprising or parliamentary decision. The referendum has inaugurated an innovative form of direct democracy. An extraordinary accountability: How many presidents, of what countries of the world, would be enthusiastic to allow for that? And how many would continue being president afterwards?

"His tyranny, invented by the large media corporations, the fearful demon, just gave a tremendous injection of vitamins to democracy, which in Latin America, and not only in Latin America, frailly stumbles along in need of energy....

"The torrent of the election, enormous lines waiting until dawn, standing firm, for hours and hours, overflowed all the structures of the voting apparatus. The alluvium of democracy also made difficult the application of the latest model of technology created to avoid fraud in this country where the dead have a bad custom of voting, where some of the living vote many times in each election perhaps due to Parkinson disease.

"'Here there is no freedom of expression!' claim the television screens, the radio waves, and the daily pages with absolute liberty of expression. Chávez has not closed even one of the mouths that routinely spit insults and lies. Unpunished the chemical war continues destined to poison public opinion. The only TV channel that has been closed in Venezuela, channel 8, was not a victim of Chávez but of those who usurped the presidency, for a couple of days, in the fleeting hours of the coup d' etat of April 2002.

"And when Chávez returned from prison, and recovered the presidency amid crowds of immense multitude, the large media corporations themselves did not disseminate the news. The private television spent all day running cartoons of Tom and Jerry....

"Until just very recently, in the Saudi Venezuela, petroleum paradise, the census officially recognized a million and a half illiterates and five million undocumented Venezuelans without civil rights.

"These and many other invisibles are not willing to return to Nothingland, a country inhabited by nobodies. They have conquered their country that was so alien: this referendum has proven, once more, that here they will remain."

Michigan makes bid for Philosopher of Physics Halvorson

Michigan has made a tenured offer to Hans Halvorson (philosophy of physics), currently an assistant professor at Princeton. There is not likely to be a decision before the new PGR surveys, but it would be worthwhile for students interested in philosophy of physics to keep an eye on this. With van Fraassen at Princeton on phased retirement, Halvorson's departure would make Princeton a problematic choice for students with interests in that field--though bear in mind that Tim Maudlin (philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, metaphysics) at Rutgers may still make the move to Princeton (that is also still "up in the air").

CORRECTION: Adam Elga, also an assistant professor at Princeton, works in philosophy of physics as well, among other areas.