... those weeds won't ever go away.
The inimitable Siris notes the problem with the myth that the US Electoral College is a restraint upon democracy (when it makes presidential elections possible where previously they weren't, so how can it be a restraint?). The article in the New Yorker he links to also notes that it was an Australian, no even a Victorian (my home state's) innovation to have the state produce the electoral ballots. Yay us!
Siris also notes what I should have realised: that before Descartes, philosophers thought animals had the rudiments of cognition. Given the Great Chain of Being, that should have been obvious...
And this is obvious too:
The lovely Kate Devitt has a nice post up on fighting rumo[u]rs here.
And the Philosophy of Science Portal reprints an 83 year old essay by Alfred North Whitehead, one of the forgotten greats, on religion and science.
Oh, and I got my grant to study the evolution of religion! I eat for another three years!
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Yes!!! (to the last sentence there)
Congrats on getting the grant. I'd miss this blog if you starved.
Thank you. So would I.
Congratulations, uh, Weasley. :-) Seriously, that's great!
If all the grant allows is eating I can provide a roof, a couch, and a modicum of liquid for drinking.
John exaggerates. Thanks to Australia's relatively generous welfare state, there was never any doubt about whether he would eat. It would be more truthful to say that he now gets to drink for the next three years.
Shh. If the Americans suspect we are a welfare state they may invade. Communism must be defeated, you know.
I wouldn't worry too much. If Obama wins, you're safe enough if you can show that bin Laden isn't hiding somewhere in the Blue Mountains. If the other guy wins, just keep telling him you share a border with Pakistan.
Many congrats on the grant! Yay!
John Sheridan aka me says Mazel Tov! Guess that means I can stop checking the California university jobs available postings for a while?
Congrats on the grant. The right money to the right person for the job.
Congrats, yes, but I'm looking forward to the paper! Go John! I await your conclusions with delightful expectation. (And if the grant money gets thin, I, too, will contribute to the beer fund. One must keep the attitude lubricated for this sort of work.)
Congratulations on your continued eating!
P.S. I'm revealed to be Jean-Luc Picard!
So your prayers were granted!?
Now you just have to get some extra money to keep the wife and wains fed :o)
Many congratulations on a well deserved grant.
What will you do for the rest of the 3 years after you've written the paper next week?
Now that's a stupid question, go drinking of course! After all he's an Aussie Anthropoid!
Congratulations - always good to know you can eat for a few more years. Sounds like it will be an interesting project as well.
Jean Luc Picard (who knew!)
Congrats!
(Gandalf)
Congratulations, John (and on the book too).
All coming together?
The Americans might have to invade themselves now. That well-known socialist George Bush is nationalising the banks.
It's going to take you three year to study religion? Hell, I could do it in three days.
Congatulations.
I'm glad you'll be able to eat. Do you need another grant to feed your kids and buy gas for the bike?
Congratulations to Ensign Crusher from Lt. Cmdr. Data for a grant well-earned!
I'm thinking, though, that researching the evolution of religion is unlikely to endear you to IDeologues and creosots.
Speaking as one who may soon have dual US/UK citizenship, I would like to point out that it may not be necessary for Australia to invade the US. What most people have not grasped is the significance of Barack Obama being born in Kenya in 1961. At that time Kenya was still a British colony so Barack is really a British subject and when he is elected President he will undoubtedly begin the process of returning the US to its rightful status as a Crown colony.
If Obama had been born in Kenya, that might be the case. However, since his birthplace was Honolulu, Hawaii, it would not be unreasonable to regard him as a U.S. citizen.
Congrats, John. How do I rub off some of the grant-getting mojo onto myself?
I wish I knew. The success rate for Arts/Humanities was even lower than the average 20.4%, and for APDs (postdoctoral fellowships) as low as 17%. I simply don't know what went through their minds, but I'm happy this year that it did.
The coded messages in the application that read "I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE" may have had something to do with it...
Congratulations on the grant, John. I'm really looking forward to your posts as the study progresses.
Congratulations!
Congrats on the grant John, we wouldn't want you to lose too much weight.
Evolution of a culture eh, cool.
Hey Matt S.
Agent Smith here, John you are being paid to study religion, how quaint. A self proclaimed philosopher analyzing the reactions of the deluded to the unreal. Right up your alley. I suggest dissection and negative reinforcement as the most effective tools.
Does it matter that historically the Electoral College made presedential elections possible?
The problem is that the electoral college can make it so the person elected president is not the person supported by the largest fraction of the voters?
Its conceivable that a person is elected president with oly say 25% of the votes, when the opponent got 75% because of the electoral college.
Is that not a restraint?
Sure, if the rules were changed so that the mandates from each state was divided by the popular vote, and not by districts, then it would fix the electoral college to some degree, so you could say that it is not the college per se that is a restraint