Writin' Friday

Oh, it’s that day of the week again.

Debate Etc. is updated and freshly skinned. Articles on Feminist Perspectives on Rape, J.S. Mill on having some people’s votes count more than others, torture vis-à-vis Zero Dark Thirty, Pinker’s controversial article on Scientism, and, as we like to say, so much more.

When you’re done with that, you should read The House on Summer Street. I mean, it’s a nice weekend, and what else are you going to read on the beach? You don’t need a Kindle to read it, of course. The Kindle software runs on iPads, PCs, toasters, washing machines and electric toothbrushes, and, again, so much more. The book is cheap. What’s stopping you?

Meanwhile, my handlers have told me that I can obliquely refer to a new project that I have begun, that is in fact something of an old project. At the rate I’m going, it should be finished by Christmas, which will mean for many people another holiday ruined, but I can’t be responsible for everything bad in your life.

Non-Menick recommendation of the week: Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. Epic space opera, if that's your cup of tea.

Debate Etc.

As I promised last week, a little something new.

I’ve been seeing articles on the interwebs that I've wanted to pass along since the creation of articles. Most recently, I’ve mostly used the Coachean Feed posts here to get the job done, but that’s just the latest in a long line of attempts, some more successful than others.

Now I’ve got a different venue, but from my point of view, no more complicated than any of the others (and in some way a little easier). Flipbook, which if I’m not mistaken started as an iPad app, now allows you to create your own magazines (or, more specifically, your own flipbook), which you can pass along on the interwebs to anyone, regardless of whether they’re users of the app. And you don’t need an iPad to do it.

In a burst of amazing inspiration, I’ve called it Debate Etc. because it’s articles that have relevancy for the debate community. They’re presented without comment from me, but the format is intrinsically attractive enough to pull you in if you’re interested in the subject. I’ll be adding to it whenever I see something worth adding, but I’ll put out reminders once a week, as if it were a regular magazine. Once the resolutions are released, there will be relevant articles about them as well. Otherwise, the general themes will be basic issues of justice and law, feminism, race, rights—all that good stuff, from various sources.

Give it a try. And if you find nothing of interest this time, come back again in a week. It only takes a second to flip through it, and you might find it rewarding. And, of course, pass it around. The link is http://flip.it/af6Zk

Coachean Feed: College philosophy, children's books, Communism, the latest Rolling Stone cover

More links of interest to the debate community.

• "I've long thought that the debate about whether universities should be offering trades training or educating citizens is something of a red herring -- the discussion should be about whether to study knowledge or nonsense." We all know that university journalism courses are booming while journalism in the real world is going down the tubes. Talk about disconnects. Finally somebody stands up for value in education: Be Employable, Study Philosophy (But not pomo, please.)
  
• Gender stereotypes plague children’s picture books I found this surprising. I guess I was thinking that kids' books were changing with the times. Yeah, right. But then again, are the times changing? "See Jane. See Jane read her first book. See Jane’s ambitions recede."
  
• "A worker creates more value in a day than he gets paid. This extra or surplus-value is taken by the capitalist." Today's lesson in Marxism: What is Surplus-Value?
  
• The picture of a terrorist on the cover of Rolling Stone raises questions. Time summarizes the issue. Four Reasons Why Rolling Stone’s Cover Is Upsetting
  
  

Coachean Feed: Cosmopolitanism, another trolley ride, men and childcare, hate crimes and the Ender's Game boycott.

More links of interest to the debate community.

• The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy updates Cosmopolitanism.
  
• In our novice sessions I pretty much cover all of these ramifications. Still, if you tend to take your trolley straight, Sinister Variations on the Trolley Problem
  
• What? Men aren't doing their share? Oh brave new world, that has such old world wonders in it. Childcare – why don't men pull their weight? This is why Leaning In can only go so far.
  
• "For those interested in a wide-ranging debate about hate crime, this fundamental fact needs to be grappled with: hate crime is about policing people’s beliefs and thoughts. Whichever level of hate crime is engaged (offence, aggravation or sentencing), the thrust of a hate crime is that the offender is punished for behaviours that stem from his beliefs and thoughts." The UK keeps expanding its hate crime parameters without actually examining the nature of hate crimes: Punish criminals for their actions, not their thoughts
  
• Ah, Orson Scott, you're such a Card. I have very mixed feelings about this boycott, On the one hand, it won't accomplish anything, but on the other hand, "it’s not OK to support somebody who’s engaged in hateful discrimination on multiple occasions, and maybe next time people will think that through more carefully." Judge for yourself, but think it through. Orson Scott Card responds to threats of Ender’s Game boycott.
  

Coachean Feed: No more racism, rights of foreigners, women in movies, homophobia and a Wilde treat.

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Thanks to SCOTUS for explaining to us that racism is over. Meanwhile, Six Words: 'Black Babies Cost Less To Adopt'. This is some world we live in.
  
• I've always been disappointed with people who have suggested, around various debate topics, ideas like the one that non-citizens should have the right to vote, because the inherent illogic demonstrates a pretty firm lack of understanding of the meaning of both citizenship and voting. Still, We Need to Protect the Rights of Foreigners, as this short think-starter piece explains.
  
• Casting Call: Hollywood Needs More Women Movies are predominately male, no doubt for all the same reasons as just about every other industry, and this article catalogs the details. But I wonder why, down the street, so to speak, book publishing is predominately female, written by, edited by and read by. Go figure.
  
• A single-slice article, Hollywood's refusal to stand up to Alec Baldwin is shameful does raise the issue that homophobia may have an acceptability, if you will, unlike racism or antisemitism.
  
• Stephen Fry Reads Oscar Wilde’s Children’s Story “The Happy Prince” Well, that would seem to be self-explanatory. 20 minutes or so of pure joy? Fry's reading of Hitchhiker's Guide is spectacular and, of course, he narrates the British audios of the Harry Potter books. And he's Stephen Fry. 'Nuff said.
  

Coachean Feed: Aff-Act, Chomsky on Zizek, racism is over (feh!) and Windsor explained

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Finally! The Fisher decision in Plain English If the legal contusions of the affirmative action decision left you more than a little contused yourself, this is it in straightforward language. AA stands, but under scrutiny.
  
• Chomsky on Zizek and Lacan This video is a little repetitive, as Mr. C dismisses Zizek and Derrida as posturers. Mostly he keeps saying, Where's the beef? Where's the material on which to base action? Sounds like me, if you ask me.
  
• Despite what you might have heard to the contrary, racism is now over. Or maybe the south is just no more racist than the north. Or something. Try this nice batch of articles on the Voting Rights Act for aficionados of such trivia starting here.
  
• And as far as SCOTUS's parting shot, here's a good summary of what really happened with gay rights: A home run but not a grand slam for gay-marriage advocates: In Plain English
  

That's two hits from ScotusBlog.com, by the way. It's a good resource.

Coachean Feed: semiotics, pistol-packin' ER, supererogatory acts, cowboys and noise

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Sometimes very small changes can make a very big difference. It's all in the semiotics. Revamped disability icons coming to New York City
  
• A marvel: Eleanor Roosevelt’s pistol licence. Who wants to get shot by an ex-First Lady?
  
• I used to use a cap E on my flows to refer to arguments in rounds about supererogatory acts, finding this a unique abbreviation as nothing else regularly used an E, and it also reminded me how to spell the word correctly. Supererogation, Repetition and the Experience of Morning Coffee is a nice little piece on Super E and its transformation via repetition. (Do Super E acts ever come up in LD rounds anymore?)
  
• Bibliokept is one of my favorite sites, for cartoons like this one:
  
  
• If you've always scratched your head at the line in "Isn't It a Pity" that goes "My nights were sour / filled with Schopenhauer," why not find out why Herr S was quite unlikely to attach a music player to his sound-cancelling headphones: On Noise. (And if you've never heard the song "Isn't It a Pity," well, that really is a pity.)
  

Coachean Feed: Iraq update, women in Poland, young marriage, groceries worldwide, sexism

More links of interest to the debate community.

• A really clear update on Iraq: Yes, Iraq Is Unraveling You might need to sign in (free) via your Facebook account.
  
• Poland, land of ‘IT’ girls, home of ‘she-geeks’ This article strikes me as quite instructive on a number of counts. Obviously the US isn't Poland, but nevertheless we are moving toward an agency economy (i.e., expectation of personal entrepreneurship in one's career v. working for a company for 40 years until they give you the gold watch) and women, especially in tech, face unique issues that these folks are attempting to solve.
  
• What's The #1 Killer Of Girls Aged 15-19 Worldwide? Also there's this site, GirlEffect.org, that you should look at.
  
• I could look at these pictures all day: a week of groceries around the world.
  
• "It seems to be increasingly difficult to talk about sexism, equality and women's rights in a modern society that perceives itself to have achieved gender equality." Our military, and its problems, arise from our country, and it's problems. Our Military, Ourselves
  
  

Coachean Feed: convict organ donors, sexy Merida, boring American Girls, grumpy Ayn, high school philosophy

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Should convicts be allowed to trade their organs for leniency? Whoa! Bring back Jan-Feb! The Exchange of Inmate Organs for Liberty: Diminishing the 'Yuck Factor' in the Bioethics Repugnance Debate
  
• Merida, a wonderfully feisty adolescent, sadly becomes something of a sexpot: Disney gives Brave princess a body makeover. Another roll model lost.
  
• American Girls Aren't Radical Anymore "Jennifer Hires an SAT Coach"? Not quite, but the golden age (?) of the American Girl products would seem to be over.
  
• Ayn Rand didn't like C.S. Lewis (or as she calls him, the abysmal bastard). Whatever. The thing is, her marginal comments on his writing are, perhaps, her best work! Ayn Rand Really, Really Hated C.S. Lewis
  
• I like the course outline: An impressive high school philosophy course. Not being in the school business, however, means that when I looked at the textbook (new), I immediately felt the need to grab my wallet for protection. I'd forgotten how much textbooks cost, even when the content is mostly public domain. Yikes!
  
  
  

Coachean Feed: Singer flies thin, significant philosophers, Sedaris IEs, stats on race & economic inequality, women in philosophy

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Weigh More, Pay More I am shocked—shocked!—to see that Peter Singer wants to charge airline passengers by the pound. "Obesity is an ethical issue, because an increase in weight by some imposes costs on others."
  
• Shocker of shocker: no postmodernists. Who are the most significant moral philosophers in the history of Western philosophy?
  
• David Sedaris does pieces for the Speech-Americans among us.
  
• Race And Economic Inequality Well, this is pretty striking. I'm a little dubious about data from a source like CNN, but how wrong could they be?
  
• On Women Students Leaving Philosophy Early On. Not a deep article, but an interesting aside. A comparison is made to computer science.
  

Coachean Feed: The economics of males, gay scouting, cosmopolitanism, politically correct language and fallacious logic applied to same sex marriage

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Study of Men’s Falling Income Cites Single Parents: This article contains a lot of data of varying natures. The single-parent stuff is disturbing. That men are simply not getting the same education as women, well, I knew that already. Curious to posit this against the obvious reality of sexism in today's culture. Bizarre.
  
• An update on the gay ban in Boy Scouts. Critics of Gay Ban Battle Boy Scouts Over Results of Internal Survey.
  
• Cosmopolitans: Nigel Warburton on Cosmopolitanism. A good starter article on the subject.
  
• I like this little piece on the power, or lack thereof, of words. Banning the Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’ Won’t Change the Stigma
  
• It's nice to see our basic logical premises worked in what is, sadly enough, a real-world argument. The Incest Argument & Same-Sex Marriage Of course, for debaters, dismissing slippery slope arguments is Novice Logic 101.
  

Coachean Feed: sexism, classism, Bertrand Russell, racism, our animalistic roots

More links of interest to the debate community.

• From one of the women in the Glasgow debacle: Rebecca Meredith - Why We Still Need Feminism
  
• In short, class has stopped being the basis for a political identity; it has become a form of identity politics. As Wallop puts it: ‘Class is no longer what we do with our hands nine to five, it is what we do with our wallets at the weekend." From class politics to classy products
  
• Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy: I can't say I know much about Russell, but this short piece indicates that he was my kind of guy.
  
• How Racism Is Bad for Our Bodies: Racism, even just the anticipation of racism, leads to a stress response. Stress leads to poorer health. Ergo, racism --> stress among minorities --> worse health for minorities.
  
• Frans de Waal's Bottom-Up Morality: We're Not Good Because Of God: Book review, the subject being the evolution of empathy. Why shouldn't our thoughts have evolved as have our physical selves?
  

Coachean Feed: Dworkin, anti-rights arguments, gender roles, women in prison, Glasgow analyzed

More links of interest to the debate community.

• The greatest legal philosopher of our time: A good introduction to Ronald Dworkin. Take that, you legal positivist you.
  
• Looking to argue against Human Rights? I mean, just for argument's sake... Why Do We Need Human Rights? (34): Which Are the Best Anti-Human-Rights Theories?
  
• Women And The Obligation To Smile: One Story And One Anecdote A woman who doesn't smile is not fulfilling her gender role?
  
• Noting the intersection of mental illness and gender in incarceration nation Note also that the women are "almost without exception victims of severe sexual and physical abuse."
  
• The whole Glasgow idiocy in a nutshell. Well put. Why are some university debating societies havens of misogyny?
  

Coachean Feed: Rape culture, modernists, mental health politics, crappy YA books and prison populations

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Ten Things to End Rape Culture This article gets it right. (via @nicolecata).
  
• Download Walter Kaufmann’s Lectures on Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre & Modern Thought (1960) This has to beat actually reading Nietzsche...
  
• Sandra Jensen: Why She Kicks Ass Very interesting story, and not one at the forefront of a lot of people's thinking.
  
• Speaking of gender issues, look at YA lit: Sick-lit: a symptom of publishing’s decline?
  
• In the proverbial nutshell, if drug laws/enforcement change, so apparently will the prison population. Interesting figures. New Sentencing Project report notes recent changing racial make-up of prison populations
  

Coachean Feed: Arendt, incarceration/mental health, hate speech, racial imbalance in prisons, cosmopolitanism/globalism

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Hannah Arendt’s Original Articles on “the Banality of Evil” in the New Yorker Archive Remember the Eichmann trial? Of course you don't. You should.
  
• The title says it all: Notable new research exploring connections between incarceration and mental health
  
• The Harm in Hate Speech - a review of Jeremy Waldron's book Free speech expert Nigel Warburton explains a few things in his review, even if you don't want to read the whole book.
  
• "African Americans suffer from high rates of incarceration and crime. Here’s how to drastically reduce both." Then again, since it's such a great source, you could just follow The Sentencing Law and Policy Blog yourself.
  
• What is cosmopolitanism? What are the pros and cons of globalism? Filip Spagnoli explains.
  

Coachean Feed: college degree$, human organ sales, rights, the rise of Africa, guns in Japan

More links of interest to the debate community.

• 8 College Degrees with the Worst Return on Investment Chances are you probably will end up with one of these. Trust me: turn yourself around and go for high finance. You may end up in jail, but at least you'll be rich enough to pimp your cell out properly.
  
• The Ethics of Human Rights (68): The Case Against the Sale of Human Organs We intuitively think it must be wrong. Here's some arguments beyond just gut reaction.
  
• What Are Human Rights? (45): Negative or Positive Rights? Ctd. Spagnoli on core rights issues.
  
• Talking a bit about Africa while thinking about China makes me believe that this article, agree or not, is crucial: Sorry, but Africa's Rise Is Real
  
• Even gangsters live in fear of Japan's gun laws Interested in some details about a country where they don't go around waving guns at each other because they don't have the "right" to do so?
  
  

Coachean feed: A new theory of retributive justice, prisons for veterans, and the feminist battle is not quite over

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Empirical desert theory has nothing to do with apple pie after the meal. LDers might find it interesting for Jan-Feb. I mean, who's not interested in a new theory of criminal justice?
  
• New wing in Virginia prison just for veterans That sort of speaks for itself. The Sentencing Law and Policy blog is pretty valuable overall.
  
• Why you need to be a feminist: Priest Blames Women For Femicide
  
  

Coachean Feed: the 6th Amendment, indirect limits to freedom, what exactly is a person, economics and prison, anti-gay movements

More links of interest to the debate community.

• The sixth amendment? The one about how everyone is entitled to a fair trial? How quaint, in a world where there are no trials anymore. The Sixth Amendment Rights to Fairness: The Touchstones of Effectiveness and Pragmatism
  
• Indirect limits to freedom are still limits to freedom: What is Freedom? (10): The Ability to Do Things
  
• When does an animal count as a person? Not just a protected species, but a person due the rights protections of any other person.
  
• Another article that dances around Jan-Feb: Foreword: Criminal Justice Responses to the Economic Crisis My bet is that you won't regret having too much data in rounds.
  
• Meanwhile, back at the ranch... There are those of us who worry that SCOTUS will make gay marriage unconstitutional, or immoral, or some damned thing fueled by Scalia-esque homosexual agenda arguments. Will someone please tell him that he's safe, and that there isn't a homosexual in the universe that wants to have sex with him? In other countries, they are not quite as blessed as we are, able to joke about things: Nigeria pushes “Jail the Gays” bill.
  

Coachean Feed: public speaking, standardized tests, sexism on campus, compulsory voting, software patents

More links of interest to the debate community.

• Fear of public speaking is as common as can be. Having once painfully suffered from it myself, I am a true believer that the best cure is to do it, hence the best way to beat nerves as a debater is to debate more. That's also some of the advice in The neuroscience of stage fright — and how to cope with it. Plus there's other interesting stuff about the problem.
  
• Why It’s Time to Get Rid of Standardized Tests Hurry up, please, it's time. Except, in one form or another, I've been hearing this all my life. Since I used to be one of those people who, as they said, tested well, and since I knew there was no particular reason for that (brilliant I was, but not all that brilliant), I believe the underlying truth of this. Changing it? Something else altogether. Where's the PF topic on it?
  
• Sexism on campus? No way, right? Wrong. Is Student Life Becoming More Sexist?
  
• Our war on drugs is an abject failure. Why doesn't this surprise me?
  
• On compulsory voting. It could be a topic this year, or some year.
  
• And then there's software patents:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Coachean Feed Single: Pinker on Red and Blue

I've never found anything Steven Pinker writes uninteresting. Here he looks at the odd problem of why states are so predictably blue or red, over and over again. His answer brings in history and philosophy, and while perhaps not definitive, it's fun and thoughtful.

Why Are States So Red and Blue?