The quote of the day comes from commenter AaronS1978. In a comment to my last post, Aaron brings to our attention MMA fighter Fallon Fox, a man posing as a woman and fighting in the woman’s division. He has smashed the faces of multiple woman. Aaron writes that in our brave new world: beating the crap out of a woman is OK as long as you think you’re a woman Where are the feminists?

Some have responded to my last post by saying “take a chill pill dude” (not kidding; one commentator actually resorted to that inanity). They argue that I should settle down because Lia Thomas’ posing as a woman to crush real women in athletic competitions does not harm anyone. Nonsense. He is causing harm. Former collegiate swimmer Jenna Stocker writes this about her swimming career: Whether on a court, rink, or in my case, a pool, the ultimate goal is to win. The drive to be the best in my sport and my events — distance freestyle — is why I rode my bike through the snow for predawn practices at the University of Minnesota. It is why I swam countless laps, pushing Read More ›

For two reasons, it is a mistake to argue for self-evident propositions.  First, it is impossible to argue for a self-evident proposition because the definition of a self-evident proposition is a proposition that is known to be true merely by understanding its meaning.  Consider the challenge “I deny 1+1=2.  Prove it.”  Don’t fall for it.  If a person denies the glaring truth of such an analytic statement (i.e., 1+1 actually means 2), they are a hopeless fool. Nothing you can say to them will reduce the proposition to more basic terms.  Secondly, arguing for self-evident truths is rhetorically self-defeating, because the very act of trying to argue for them concedes the proposition that they are “arguable.”  And they are, again Read More ›