August 22, 2018

I’m seeing a great deal of effort from the usual suspects to argue that the sex-abuse-and-coverup scandal is not about homosexuality. The two key premises of the argument are: (1) Homosexuals are no more likely to be pedophiles than heterosexuals; and (2) Like all rape, the statutory rape of minors is about power, not sex. As usual, there’s some truth in those statements, but it’s vitiated by fallacious inferences. Strictly speaking, (1) is true. At least, the stats I’ve seen... Read more

August 17, 2018

During my extended undergraduate days at Columbia, I had friends from every region of the country, and from every continent on earth except Antarctica. One of them was Korean. Among his favorite sayings was: “Don’t phanic!”, meaning “Don’t panic!” I was never sure why he had such difficulty with the fact that ‘p’ and ‘ph’ are not homophonic in English. But it hardly mattered. For he meant to reassure, and often succeeded while amusing us in the process. My main... Read more


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