Defense of Truth

I have plenty of material to get to on the topic of global climate change, but for now let me respond to a caller who caused Rush Limbaugh to rant for nearly a half hour on his nationally syndicated radio show yesterday (full transcript here , but will be archived by 6M next Wednesday). While I wish he would change his terminology sometimes, Limbaugh's analysis of this issue is founded in correct principles. First, let individuals and groups be responsible in their decisions as to how they are affecting the environment around them. As a former Chief Scout (the Canadian equivalent of the Eagle), I believe firmly in the majesty of nature and of God's creation, and my default attitude toward such beauty is to take only pictures from it and to leave only footprints on it. With that basic conservationist philosophy explained, I also believe that we were put on this earth to be stewards of the resources it contains, animal, vegetable, and mineral. This means that we will be held acc...

My advisor recommended a book to me by a comparative lit theorist by the name of Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan, called Theory in an Uneven World . Like the bulk of literary theorists, he is an unashamed Marxist, but I've been reading that type since I arrived here at grad school. It's proved to be an enlightening intellectual exercise to try to read this kind of theorist, holding their false premises in suspension in my mind and thinking through only their internally justified and internally logical merits until it becomes appropriate to remember the false premises and sweep away the entire theory. It's a sort of coping strategy I've developed that I think actually helps me engage with theories I'll have to deal with as an academic, while maintaining my core conservative values and principles. In a way, it's a bit of a Sun Tzu "know your enemy" kind of way of studying, but I find it fruitful. Anyway, Radhakrishnan is concerned with making Marxist theory wo...