Epicurus taught that true pleasure is gained from intellectual discussion and long-term friendship, that happiness is sitting in the shade in a summer garden discussing philosophy, and that life is to be lived to the full, but with simplicity and moderation.
An official report by Britain’s interception of communications commissioner has revealed that nearly 800 (!) public bodies are making between them nearly 1000 requests per day for "communications data", including phone taps, mobile phone records, email and web search histories. Britain has the largest DNA database in the world. It is proposed to centralize medical …
Continue reading ‘Epicurean ethics: An endemic surveillance society’ »
Were Odysseus to land in modern-day Washington D.C he would be viewed with the darkest suspicion, photographed and finger-printed, his iris-print recorded. He would be handcuffed and interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security. He would be lucky to escape electrocution as a common pirate, a fate he probably richly deserved, and would very likely …
According to the Guttmacher Institute the U.S. abortion rate has declined to its lowest level since 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade was decided. In 2005, the rate was 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44. The absolute number has gone down as well, to 1.2 million abortions in …
“Goldwater’s peculiar version of conservatism rose from the desert like a cactus blooming in the springtime, irrigated by massive federal spending on public works (especially dams and power plants that provided Phoenix with the water and cheap electricity necessary for air-conditioning that made the stifling summers bearable). Suburban-style housing developments were underwritten by federal mortgage …
