WORDS

>> Interesting Noodlefood Entries

  • Why the New Atheists Can't Even Beat D'Souza: Morality and Life (6/9/08).  How can people be moral without God? The 'New Atheists' stumble badly in debate against Christian apologist Dinesh D'Souza when addressing issues such as this. In this article, I explain how their struggle flows from three patches of confusion that are widespread in secular thought -- confusions that actually prevent the pursuit of a truly objective, scientific approach to values and morality.
  • Why the New Atheists Can't Even Beat D'Souza: The Gap in Religious Thought (6/2/08) -- where I address how people explain the existence and order of the universe, the staggering complexity of life, the existence of morality, and so on -- without God? The "God Hypothesis" looks stronger today than ever in light of the growth in scientific knowledge, doesn't it?
  • Why the New Atheists Can't Even Beat D'Souza: Science vs. Miracles (5/28/08).  Wouldn't a scientist have to be irresponsible or even hypocritical for dismissing miracles out of hand, without examining the evidence? The 'New Atheists' stumble badly in debate against Christian apologist Dinesh D'Souza when addressing issues such as these.
  • Why the New Atheists Can't Even Beat D'Souza: The Best and Worst in Human History  (5/21/08).  Who is responsible for the body-counts of history? The 'New Atheists' stumble badly in debate against Christian apologist Dinesh D'Souza when addressing issues such as these. This is the first in a series of pieces exploring key weaknesses in their philosophical foundation -- and illustrating how D'Souza wouldn't stand a snowball's chance against an Objectivist.
  • Introducing the Objectivism Seminar (10/24/07) -- where I explain and kick off a new forum for engaging the ideas of Ayn Rand -- one that is distributed in space and time. 
  • The Opposite of Googling for Objectivism (10/2/07) -- where I give productive leads toward understanding Objectivism to someone exploring online.
  • What's Wikipedia Good For? (4/09/07) -- where I offer my analysis of Conservapedia and how they (and many) seem to miss something essential in the nature of Wikipedia.
  • Ground Rules for a Rational Discussion (2/12/07) -- where I try to pick out how things go wrong in intellectual exchanges.
  • A Brillian Tour in 2500 Words (2/1/07) -- where I review a wonderful summary of Rand and Objectivism written for a dictionary of modern philosophers.
  • Dear Virginia in the 21st Century(12/22/06) -- where I give a better (and polar opposite) answer to the classic question of the existence of Santa.
  • DON'T STEAL THIS ARTICLE! (5/2/06) -- where I unravel the fundamental mistakes of the strongest attacks I could find against the legitimacy of intellectual property. This one has gotten a lot of attention.
  • ARI's Funnel: Taking Ideas Seriously (4/3/06) -- where I paint a picture of an organization that is kicking butt and taking names to foster positive cultural change.
  • The Irony of Kindness, Generosity, and Charity (3/20/06) -- where I talk about how peoples' expectations of egoists vs. altruists is backwards.
  • Last Gasp for the God of the Gaps (3/13/06) -- where I write about finally approaching morality like scientists

>> The God Talk

Here's the cleaned-up transcript of my 2003 lecture on religion and Objectivism:

"God, Faith, and the Supernatural: The Objectivist Perspective"

MUSIC

>> Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia's new CD, Some Assembly Required, has been released. We had an excellent CD release party/concert, which was probably the most fun the band has had at any performance because we played almost entirely 'unplugged' and 'in the round' (surrounded by the audience).

You can order it over at Kevin's official Onomatopoeia site. And here's a CD 'Trailer' (4M)I tossed together so you enjoy a quick tour of the various musical textures.

We have an annual Winter concert every year in Boise's historic Egyptian Theater, a gorgeous venue.  Our band photographer, Sean Fresk, did his usual amazing job of capturing our 2/9/2007 concert.  


>> The Sidemen

The Sidemen is the jazz-standards duo where I do most of my playing.  We're having a blast at Piazza di Vino every Friday.

We also playLulu's every second Tuesday of the month, and appear in the Owyhee Plaza Hotel's Gamekeeper Lounge on occasional weekends, a longstanding venue for Boise's musicians. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVENTURE

>> Rides

Here's a fun early-season ride we did (redcliffs->sidewinder->reverse corrals + scotts): map link

>> Climbs

We've been making progress on the fun arbitrary goal of climbing all of Idaho's 12K+ peaks:

Breitenbach