Author Archives: Bob Shepherd

About Bob Shepherd

interests: curriculum design, educational technology, learning, linguistics, hermeneutics, rhetoric, philosophy (Continental philosophy, Existentialism, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics), classical and jazz guitar, poetry, the short story, archaeology and cultural anthropology, history of religion, prehistory, veganism, sustainability, Anglo-Saxon literature and language, systems for emergent quality control, heuristics for innovation

Interrogation

State your name, please. OK. I can do that. I mean, I can give you some names. But these are misleading. You intend to give us false names? I did not say this. But a name suggests a finitude entirely … Continue reading

Posted in Existentialism, Humor, Love, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Religion, Teaching Literature and Writing | Leave a comment

Lichtung, Midsummer, No Fairies

Where have you gone, fairies of my childhood?Have I grown too blustering and blundering,Too puffed up with knowledge and opinions? I seek you in the clearing of the woodAnd there find only the luminescenceYou have left behind, hanging in the … Continue reading

Posted in Existentialism, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Poetry | Leave a comment

Kant: Finding a Way In

OK. This is rough, and I’ll be revising it. But I just prepared this for a friend, and I thought I would share it. for BrookeReading Kant is notoriously difficult. One reason for this difficulty is that he didn’t have … Continue reading

Posted in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Time | 3 Comments

The Future Fascists Fashion

“I try to imagine the world, our society, if the [school] privatizers get their way. Kids will be sorted by race, religion, and ethnicity, never interacting with anyone different from themselves. The homeschoolers will know only what their parents know. … Continue reading

Posted in Ed Reform, Politics, Teaching Literature and Writing | 32 Comments

Are Trump and His Supporters in Fact Fascists?

A few years back, a friend, someone whom I respect, challenged me on Facebook, saying that Trump might be a lot of things, but he wasn’t an actual Fascist. Well, I beg to differ. If it steps like a goose, … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Trump (Don the Con) | 63 Comments

A Preliminary Inventory of Trump’s Lies about the Mar-a-Lago Search

Don the Con, how do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways from just the last few days. Trump suggested that the FBI might have “planted” documents when he knew that he and his family members had watched the … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Trump (Don the Con) | 109 Comments

Trump 2024 Campaign Slogans

Please vote for me. Otherwise, I go to prison. Why just documents in the toilet? Why not the whole country? Making America Grate Again TRUMP 2024: 20 for Obstruction of an Official Proceeding. 24 for Seditious Conspiracy MAGA: Moscow’s Asset … Continue reading

Posted in Humor, Politics, Trump (Don the Con) | 7 Comments

Honesty about Religion

I know that people are supposed to “show respect” to religious belief–that that’s a widely held position. But I don’t have any respect for it. I have precisely the opposite. It seems to me breathtakingly ironic that religions make claims … Continue reading

Posted in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Religion | 6 Comments

The Second American Revolution Has Begun, and This New Trump Court Is Carrying It Out

Warning: read this only if you are actually willing to do the minimal work necessary to understand the revolution that the Extreme Court of the United States is effecting right now. It can happen here, folks. It is happening. And … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Religion, Trump (Don the Con) | 40 Comments

What Fascism Looks Like

In the middle of the last century, the United States and its allies fought a world war to end fascism. What did fascism look like? Well, it looked like this: Like Hilter or Mussolini, Donald Trump . . . Has … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Trump (Don the Con) | 1 Comment