Articles

A story from an Arabic sex news site reports an interesting development in Saudi Arabia: female to male sex-change operations: Reports reveal that in 2005, there were no less than five cases of women who underwent surgery to become men in the Kingdom, according to Al Watan…. Some Saudi officials…

While Bush and company scheme to provide the America-hating Iranian theocracy with nuclear technology, some people are thinking rationally and promoting human life. From the Boston Globe: Harvard scientists announced yesterday that they are beginning an ambitious attempt to create the world's first cloned human embryonic stem cells, bringing the…

On Wednesday, Condoleezza Rice announced, in so many words, that the US will indefinitely suspend military action against Iran in favor of "diplomacy," giving the theocracy a fresh green light to fund Islamic terrorism and develop nuclear weapons. Despite millennia of evidence to the contrary, the Bush administration clings to…

I just finished teaching an undergraduate university class on the Ancient Near East: 15 weeks on Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. I read as many original documents and modern histories—and looked at as much art—as I had time to do. I became intrigued by the many parallels between radical Islam and…

Here are excerpts from the expatriate Iranian satirist Ibrahim Nabavi's open letter to President Ahmadinejad, in the online Persian daily Rooz: . . . Oh adorable little boy who makes noise and needs attention! . . . you had written to [President] Bush to present a solution to the problems…

Yesterday on NPR's radio show "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross interviewed Michael Farris, president of the fundamentalist Christian school Patrick Henry College. This regrettably named institution seeks to train home-schooled Christians to be tomorrow's leaders, "ready to reclaim the biblical principles upon which our land was founded." The interview with…

I just returned from the national conference of the Society for Military History (SMH), held at Kansas State University. I presented a paper on the military campaigns of the Roman Emperor Aurelian, arguing that his use of overwhelming force had resulted in a bloodless collapse of two major threats to…

Altruism, the idea that being moral consists in self-sacrificially serving others, is accepted to some extent by almost everyone today. But no reason has ever been given as to why people should sacrifice for others. Of course, alleged reasons have been given, but not legitimate ones. So let’s consider the alleged reasons—of which there are approximately six—each of which involves a logical fallacy.

Demonstrates that the tenets of religion are incompatible with the right to free speech, and shows why those who want to establish and maintain freedom of speech must repudiate religion and embrace the rational, secular foundation for rights.

Thanks to Jack Crawford for sending me this hilarious, 48-second clip of comedian B.J. Novak. Oh to be a Muslim woman. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I37sWKs6k24[/embed]

Craig Biddle introduces the Summer 2006 issue.

Examines two equestrian sculptures—George Washington, by Henry Kirke Brown, and the Cid, by Anna Hyatt Huntington—and demonstrates a method by which to approach such works in order to reap the most enjoyment from them.

Demonstrates the power of philosophy in the field of physics by presenting the 19th-century experimental evidence in support of the atomic theory, and by showing how 19th-century physicists—in the grips of post-Kantian philosophy—belligerently dismissed the evidence and steadfastly denied the existence of atoms.

Demonstrates the irrational, destructive nature of the three prominent schools of thought in moral education; identifies the fundamental philosophical errors underlying these schools; and presents a rational, life-serving alternative: the proper way to teach values in the classroom.

Presents the essential history of Sherman’s march, showing how Sherman developed and implemented his ideas that lead to the North’s victory in the Civil War, and drawing the moral lessons we can learn from this great man about how to properly approach and quickly defeat enemies of freedom.