One of my students says she was so frustrated with an assignment she was ready to throw her computer out the window. “What floor do you live on,” I ask. “Second.” “Oh, well that probably wouldn’t kill anyone, just a bump on the noggin. But you can’t say for sure if it hit them just right. Be sure you’re wearing a mask though when you do that.” She lives in New York. My son also lives in New York so I had to call to warn him to be on the lookout for falling computers. “Because I know someone who may be throwing one out a window. But only from the second floor so you’ll probably be able to see it coming and step out of the way.” If I lived in New York and it came down to being killed by COVID or by a falling computer, I’d take… Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Chess Game of the Day: Queen’s Pawn Game, Chigorin Variation
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . . 2. …d5 Queen’s Pawn Game: Chigorin Variation 12. Ne5 12. Nd2 might be better, as the queen’s bishop runs into a wall in this line. 16. Bg3 A sacrifice that’s maybe not easy to find in a 2+1 blitz game is 16. f4 gxe5 17. fxg5 followed by O-O. 22. Rxf6?! 22. …Qxf6?! 22. …Kxf6 is better just in terms of material but this is playable. 22. Kxg2? This can wait. 22. Rd1 brings another piece into the fray. 29. Rd2? I like 29. h4 because the king can use h2 as an escape square, and the rook is going to be better at d3. 30. Qe4?? Losing. Advancing the h-pawn keeps the game alive. 30. …Bh3+ Mate to follow. Read more →
I Think I Could Turn and Live With Animals
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. — Walt Whitman Read more →
COVID Vaccines
At the start of 2020, when COVID first came to our shores, we didn’t know anything about it, we didn’t have a vaccine, and by the end of the year 400,000 Americans had died from the virus. By the start of 2021, we had a year of research and a vaccine. We’ve been vaccinating people for a year, and yet we have more COVID deaths under the Biden administration than under Trump, every day more vaccinated people are getting sick, so while the vaccine may keep you out of the hospital or the graveyard, it doesn’t provide immunity, it doesn’t stop the spread, I’m not sure it even slows the spread, given that we have more cases and deaths than ever. For a long time now, anyone saying “I don’t think vaccines are stopping the spread of COVID” or something similar have been persona non grata in public discourse. Is… Read more →
Let’s Go Brandon
I have a shirt that looks similar to the one in the photo. The shirt is a conversation starter and the conversation often goes like this: “I don’t like your shirt.” “Mmmm, I don’t really like yours either.” “Ha ha, you know what I mean.” “I think I do and I have to say that it concerns me like a whole lot of nothing at all.” Read more →
Never Retract, Never Apologize
I know you’ve never heard of Ilya Shapiro so first let me tell you that he is on administrative leave from Georgetown University Law Center while the school decides whether to retain him as executive director and senior lecturer for the school’s Center for the Constitution. The rest you can glean from this excerpt from a recent essay by Bari Weiss: I’ve been thinking a lot over the past few days about a tweet by a Georgetown professor. Look at this chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist’s arrogated entitlement. All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes. That tweet was written in 2018 by Georgetown professor Carol Christine Fair about Republican senators who supported Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Fair also writes a blog called Tenacious Hellpussy,… Read more →
Chess Game of the Day: Ruy Lopez
One of my online chess games. White had a significant advantage, squandered it, then misplayed a forced draw. Some annotations below . . . 3. Bb5 Ruy Lopez 3. Bxc6 Exchange Variation 5. …f6 Gligoric Variation 17. …c4? This opens up the b-file for White’s rook, although he ends up not using it. 20. a5? 20. Rb1 is better. 20. …Bxd3?? This looks like a losing move. I could have defused the king-side problems with 20. …b5. 21. Rxd3 21. axb6 was probably worth a try. 22. …b5 This is now a little late. 23. d4? White is still winning but 23. Rb1 Qd7 24. Nxb5! axb5 25. a6 was the way to go. 36. Rb6? At this point, White has pretty much defused his own attack. 36. Rd4, opening b6 for the queen, looks better. 37. e4? Don’t like it because Black can survive 37. …Rxe4 38. Qf7+, and… Read more →
I Wish You Peace
I wish you peace when times are hard A light to guide you through the dark And when storms are high and your, your dreams are low I wish you the strength to let love grow on, I wish you the strength to let love flow on, I wish you the strength to let love glow on I wish you the strength to let love go. — Bernie Leadon & Patti Davis, “I Wish You Peace” Read more →
The Natural Law Argument for God
The whole idea that natural laws imply a lawgiver is due to a confusion between natural and human laws. Human laws are behests commanding you to behave a certain way, in which way you may choose to behave, or you may choose not to behave; but natural laws are a description of how things do in fact behave, and being a mere description of what they in fact do, you cannot argue that there must be somebody who told them to do that, because even supposing that there were, you are then faced with the question “Why did God issue just those natural laws and no others?” If you say that he did it simply from his own good pleasure, and without any reason, you then find that there is something which is not subject to law, and so your train of natural law is interrupted. If you say, as… Read more →
Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?
My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilization. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others. — Bertrand Russell, “Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?” Read more →
Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth
Then Christ says, “The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth,” and he goes on about the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It comes in one verse after another, and it is quite manifest to the reader that there is a certain pleasure in contemplating wailing and gnashing of teeth, or else it would not occur so often. . . . I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture, and the Christ of the Gospels, if you could take Him as his chroniclers represent… Read more →
Could Right and Wrong Exist Without God?
Kant, as I say, invented a new moral argument for the existence of God . . . One form is to say that there would be no right or wrong unless God existed. I am not for the moment concerned with whether there is a difference between right and wrong, or whether there is not: that is another question. The point I am concerned with is that, if you are quite sure there is a difference between right and wrong, you are in this situation: Is that difference due to God’s fiat or is it not? If it is due to God’s fiat, then for God himself there is no difference between right and wrong, and it is no longer a significant statement to say that God is good. If you are going to say, as theologians do, that God is good, you must then say that right and wrong… Read more →
If we were not afraid of death, I do not believe the idea of immortality would ever have arisen. — Bertrand Russell
Chess Game of the Day: French Defense
One of my online chess games. Black builds a probably winning advantage but is running short on time (in a 3+2 blitz game). I offered a draw, which Black declined. This was followed by some not-so-good moves on both sides, including a losing blunder by Black on the last move. Some annotations below . . . 1. …e6 French Defense 39. Qa5? Black has probably a winning advantage and it’s hard to find a strong move. 39. …Ba6+? Black could start to capitalize on the pawn advantage with 39. …c4. 41. Qa1? I didn’t see it coming but 41. Kh2 would have avoided the upcoming knight sacrifice on g3, which opens up the diagonal to the White king. Black is winning but has only 21 seconds left (I have 43) so I offered a draw, which Black declined. 42. Qa4? 42. Qc3 would have guarded g3. It’s too late for… Read more →
Whence Then is Evil?
EPICURUS’s old questions are yet unanswered. Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil? — David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Read more →
Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?
I do not myself think that the dependence of morals upon religion is nearly as close as religious people believe it to be. I even think that some very important virtues are more likely to be found among those who reject religious dogmas than among those who accept them. I think this applies especially to the virtue of truthfulness or intellectual integrity. I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, although it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs. — Bertrand Russell, “Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?” Read more →
Djokovic is Not Your Big Problem, Mate
Thirty days ago, Australia had reported a total of 247,000 COVID cases. As of today, the case count has risen to 1.8 million. And they think their biggest problem is Novak Djokovic?! Note that Djokovic was not even deported for public health reasons. He’s had a positive COVID test, followed by a negative COVID test, and everyone agreed he was safe via natural immunity. He was deported because as some point in the past, he expressed skepticism about vaccines and to have him in Australia, well, he might influence others in the country to become skeptical about vaccines. I’d say what’s more likely to cause Australians to become skeptical about vaccines is the fact that COVID is spiraling out of control while 80 percent of their population is fully vaccinated. Read more →
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: “Science”
Here’s a meme finding its way around the internet: If you are not a scientist, and you disagree with scientists about science, it’s actually not a disagreement. You’re just wrong. Science is not truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn’t lie to you. It learned more. That is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. “Science” doesn’t have an opinion. Scientists have opinions but they often differ. When a scientist disagrees with another scientist, which one is wrong? If science is not truth, why is it wrong to disagree? If “science” can change its opinion, then everyone who previously held the new opinion was right, and “science” was wrong. Why must people who know nothing about science attempt to give science lessons to the rest of us like we’re all morons? OK, I know the answer. It’s this COVID… Read more →
2021: The Year in Books
These are the books I read in 2021, roughly in the order listed. The ratings are mine. They don’t represent a consensus of opinion. Books of the Year: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (fiction), Zeroville by Steve Erickson (contemporary fiction) and Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell (non-fiction). My Library at LibraryThing Read more →
Is It Humane to Believe in Everlasting Punishment?
I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those who would not listen to His preaching — an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. You do not, for instance find that attitude in Socrates. You find him quite bland and urbane toward the people who would not listen to him; and it is, to my mind, far more worthy of a sage to take that line than to the the line of indignation. You probably all remember the sort of things that Socrates was saying as he was dying, and the sort of things that he generally did say to people who did not agree with him. You will find… Read more →