If you’ve been reading Erosophia for a while now, you know I’m working on my first nonfiction book currently titled: Eros and Ethos: The Ethics of Modern Sex. It has been going painstakingly slow for quite some time, but I’m happy to announce that the speed of writing has improved and great strides are being made now! Not only that, but Part 1, the first part that contains the primary theory of Eros and Ethos, is now complete in early draft! It’s 110 single spaced pages and 58,000 words. Seeing it all together was such a thrill for me. Now that the book is really taking shape and writing is going much faster, I’m really thrilled with things and can’t wait to get a complete draft so I can go and start editing and bringing things together really tightly. At the rate I’m going now, I hope to be completely done in a year. Perhaps even sooner if I can really push myself.
I hope you guys are as excited about this as I am!
Incidentally, if you are part of the admissions committee in a PhD program in philosophy…feel free to drop me a line. Or the Kinsey Institute, which would be awesome. Or a joint PhD in philosophy at IU with work at Kinsey. Dream spot.
I hate how everything that becomes politicized becomes covered in layers upon layers of lies and deceptions as people try to bend reality to meet their political agendas. Frankly, I find it disgusting. Firearms are definitely one of those topics where people let their emotions run roughshod over their reason and attempt to pass feel-good legislation that serves the ends of security theater, but does nothing to help real people stay safer in the real world.
Gun crime has plunged in the United States since its peak in the middle of the 1990s, including gun killings, assaults, robberies and other crimes, two new studies of government data show.
Yet few Americans are aware of the dramatic drop, and more than half believe gun crime has risen, according to a newly released survey by the Pew Research Center.
Between the years of 1993 and 2011, as the assault weapons ban expired, more Americans purchased guns, the Supreme Court overturned outright gun bans, and individual states not only loosed gun control restrictions but also issued concealed carry permits to private citizens, incidents of gun violence in America collapsed.
Between 1993 and 2011, nonfatal gun crimes plummeted 69%; from 1.5 million to 467,300. Gun-related murders dropped 40%; from 18,253 to 11,101. Gun-related murders for black Americans plummeted by 51%.
The report also shows that the media-created hysteria over school shootings is wildly misleading. Between ’93 and ’11, the murder rate in schools dropped by almost a third; from 29 to 20.
It bothers me that the media’s selective reporting has completely distorted the truth about what’s happening with gun use in the US and whether are kids are safe in school (they’re much safer now than when I was in school in the 90′s).
Guns are not evil. Neither are they good. They are simply tools that can be used for good or bad ends. To ban guns in an attempt to reduce crime is just misguided. People who want to hurt each other will always find new and creative ways to do so: like “glassing” in the UK.
This reminds me of a conversation I had the other day with a friend who was praising the idea of gun buy-back programs where police “buy” guns from citizens in order to “get them off the streets.” This, at first, sounds like it might be a good idea, except:
- The guns turned in are not going to be the ones used to commit crimes. Criminals are not going to turn in their guns voluntarily.
- The people who are going to be turning in guns are poor people who need the money. Yet, the amount of money the programs pay is much less than the market price, thus cheating people of the money they could get elsewhere
- There have been reports that criminals have used the gun buyback programs to get paid to have the police destroy evidence of their crimes. The programs accept the guns without questions, so this is a perfect solution for the criminals.
Thus, these programs accomplish nothing at all except waste taxpayer dollars on feel good programs. This kind of thing has got to stop.
We need to look always for the facts and not try to impose our uninformed emotional reactions on others via the law. Guns might be “scary,” but that’s no reason to try to prevent law-abiding citizens from owning them.
- AP News scandal: illegally tapped reporters phones and stole records from the Associated Press. VIOLATES 1st AMENDMENT
If you’re not upset about the president, you should really consider the precedents he’s setting and that tyranny never arrives all at once. We must demand freedom in all areas of life: not just personal freedom, not just economic freedom, not just the freedom to have an abortion, to carry a gun, or to invest our money how we wish, but the freedom of a free people whose government’s only role is the protection of rights.
I just had my 3oth birthday yesterday. I’ll be honest, it feels a little strange to be thirty. Not that I feel like I’m old now, I don’t. It’s more just that I expected that I’d have my life more together by the time I hit 30. Well, that’s a little strong, my life is together except for one crucial thing: a career. I figured I’d have one of those things by the time I was thirty. This is not to say I don’t have a job, but rather that I feel like I could be doing something much more rewarding. Oh well, I guess I’ll figure it out sooner or later. (Incidentally, if you’re in charge of a philosophy department looking fro grad students or are offering a lucrative writing career…let me know. I would also love to go and study at the Kinsey Institute for a while!)
I know that some people don’t like celebrating birthdays, but I’ve always liked celebrating my birthday and the birthdays of the people I care about. I think it’s nice to take time out of our busy lives and focus on the value that those who are close to you bring to your life. When it’s my own birthday I try to think about the things that I’ve done in the last year and the things I’ve accomplished. For this birthday, I had a lot to think about with all the things that have happened since I was 20.
Two weeks ago before my birthday, I asked people to donate to Erosophia or at least write me to let me know that you value my work. I didn’t get as many responses as I might have hoped, but I did get some really nice donations, a couple of notes, and even a couple of gifts. One of the gifts I got was from the “Objectively Charming” etsy store whose owner sent me some very nice things, including an Atlas keychain:
If you want to ask a question, contact us at Podcast@JasonStotts.com, on twitter via @ErosPod, on this page here on Erosophia, or via our Facebook page.
Sex Tips
Todays tip: sex is like pool.
Tonight’s Topic: Infidelity, Cheating, and Relationships
The correct form a relationship should take depends on the relationship, but once you agree to it with your partner, to violate the rules you’ve set out for your relationship is cheating. We firmly believe that monogamy can be a good choice for a couple, but it should be a choice and not simply a default in a species that is not naturally monogamous.
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Erosophia Podcast #7 - Infidelity, Cheating, and Relationships[ 57:03 | 27.43 MB ]Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (63)
Diana Hsieh recently did a really great job discussing the issues surrounding abortion and parental consent. These are complicated issues and Diana does a great job cutting to their core. I recommend you take a listen:
Should minor girls be required by law to obtain parental consent for an abortion? Normally, parents are legally empowered to make medical decisions for their minor children, and minors cannot obtain medical procedures without parental consent. How should that apply in the case of pregnancy? Should pregnancy and abortion be treated differently from other medical conditions? Should parents be allowed by law to force a daughter under 18 to carry a pregnancy to term or to abort against her will? [LINK]
My wife is super thoughtful. She knows that I’ve been wanting to try flying a plane for a while now, so what’d she do? She got me a “discovery flight” so I could go up in a plane and try it out.
That’s me, in front of the little Cessna I’m about to fly.
It was a lot of fun to take the plane up in the air. The instructor had me do most of the flying, including driving out onto the runway, taking off (he controlled the throttle), and flying around for half an hour. The only thing I didn’t do was land the plane. It was really interesting how different it is to fly a really light plane than to drive a car or a boat. Actually, it was a little like boating insofar as the waves can throw the boat around. I had a great time and if I had a ton more money, maybe I’d consider going for my pilot’s license As it is, though, I think I’ll stick to less expensive hobbies. I’m really glad I got to go up and try it though!
If you’re going to be in the Atlanta area over Memorial Day weekend, definitely check out ATLOSCon! They’ve got a great line up of people and it’s a really great conference.
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