Collie's Bestiary

Originally posted May 2004 Credits: Thanks to Bob, clear-sighted as always, as well as to George for kindness, and Ian for perspective. Also, if this subject interests you, I recommend my "Firestarter" titled Tolerance FAQ, take II. I've been watching the joy and euphoria spreading through San Francisco and parts of the Bay Area as [...]

by Barbara Ehrenreich & Deidre English A review of one of my textbooks: a tiny little pamphlet — less than 50 pages! – with a powerful message that's both creepily and effectively illustrated with a few small woodcut reproductions. Operating under the premise that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, the authors [...]

Truth is a slippery concept. The only thing slipperier I can think of, at this exceedingly late hour, is contested memory fought over to define truth. It's funny the things that stick in your mind. Think of something incredibly meaningful to you as a small child, then ask a parent about it. Odds are they [...]

It's always entertaining to re-read old college papers, especially when you've learned more since then. In the case of Feminism & the Bible: Examining the Christian Myth of Creation, the handful of later realizations or learnings I had were interesting enough to me that I thought I'd relate them here. For example, most people know [...]

This is a class assignment to critique Huber's article "Biodiversity vs. Bioengineering?" solely on the issue of whether the use of deception was sound argumentation technique. Huber's short but fascinating article appears in The Environmental Predicament, shown to the left. From the article, I quote the most personally relevant portions: [T]here are still transcendentally important [...]

Conclusions Gathering together all the ramblings and data we've gone through so far, we can now hopefully reach some useful insights on dealing with issues such as these (Note: please consider the pronoun 'you' to be a general reference term for myself and any readers): First, let's state the goals for which we performed this [...]

The previous post related just a few examples I've personally experienced, of course. I'm sure there are many more psychological avoidance techniques which can be bent to their cause: to always get their way. If there are problems in their lives, it simply must be someone else's fault — never their own. If there are [...]

What's been written before is all fine and good, but these examples are also pretty clear-cut. Let's try a slightly more ambiguous real-life situation. What do you say when someone asks you the dreaded question: "Does this make me look fat?" A personal belief I feel needs saying: anyone who is foolish enough to ask [...]

Parameters of the Experiment What are the real-life situations I've been involved in, where the reality of falsehood impacts violently with the potential for honesty? So far I've seen two issues, which have appeared repeatedly and in varying forms. One of them got me started on this line of thought, as it was very obvious [...]

Originally posted January 2004 Thanks to Bob, Lou, George, Eric, & Ian, who helped make this a better article. I also extend an (admittedly somewhat grudging) 'thank you' to life in general — were I not exposed to the bad as well as the good, I would not be able to try constantly to improve [...]