I’ve heard a decent amount of buzz recently about the impact of the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court case on political advertising and funding, especially with these new-fangled Super PACs. I’m still not on the Citizens United case hate bus, and I’d like to do some further analysis. To that end, I’d like to publish a case brief I wrote for my “Constitutional Law and Its Practice” class (POSC 207), with intentions to follow this up later in a more detailed analysis of the political ramifications and what could be done instead, if anything. This case brief seeks to understand the rationale behind what the Supreme Court was thinking when they decided this. It’s left in the format we had to submit all case briefs for the class.

Cl and I are currently debating the existence of needless suffering. I have accepted the debate and the burden of proof, and provided an opening statement arguing my case. This contains Cl’s response in his first rebuttal, arguing against what I had to say and showing that needless suffering does not exist.

I spend a lot of time on the internet, and a lot of time working on this blog. The twenty-fourth weekly link roundup is out, where I summarize all this browsing, blogging, commenting in one place to keep you up to date on everything cool that I’ve done and/or liked within the past week. Enjoy!

I’ve decided it would be easier to keep track of everything written on my debate with Cl (of the blog he Warfare is Mental) in one place; rather than have all pieces individually linked from each piece, I can just have all pieces linked here. What follows is an index of all entries in the debate written by Cl or I, all official judes, and any miscellaneous commentary on observers from other blogs. I will keep this index updated as more entries and commentary are written.

Cl and I are currently debating the existence of needless suffering. I have accepted the debate and the burden of proof, and this is my opening statement where I lay out my case for the existence of needless suffering.

Oughtness is a persistent part of our moral language — that we ought to do this, and not that. We also learned that a lot of these claims are linked to the notion that we ought to do what is good. But is this link valid? And what do we mean by the word “ought”? I start summarizing the problem here by looking at the Is-Ought Problem first outlined by Hume, and then attempts to solve it from Moore and Kant.

I spend a lot of time on the internet, and a lot of time working on this blog. To keep you up to date on all the cool things I find and do, I provide this Weekly Link Roundup, where I summarize the past week’s articles, the best discussions on the blog within the past week, and my favourite links that I read within the past week — all in one place for easy consuming. Enjoy!

I am starting a series of posts to review and share my thoughts on the Christian apologetics literature “Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles With His Father’s Questions About Christianity” by Gregory A. Boyd, and my views of the reasoning therein. I wanted to try out this book review format as a new way to address the arguments for various religions, hoping to demonstrate the strength of apologetics literature in their natural habitat, and give better context to the arguments as they are made rather than make an essay per claim. Given that the book starts out with a Preface, I’d like to start out with a Preface of my own…

I have been challenged by cl of The Warfare is Mental to debate my conclusions about the Problem of Evil. I will be defending the position “Needless suffering exists” and will have the burden of proof — the assumption that the existence of needless suffering implies that God does not exist will not be discussed or challenged.

I spend a lot of time on the internet, and a lot of time working on this blog. To keep you up to date on all the cool things I find and do, I provide this Weekly Link Roundup, where I summarize the past week’s articles, the best discussions on the blog within the past week, and my favourite links that I read within the past week — all in one place for easy consuming. Enjoy!