pam-mentations.com

Social & Political Commentary, Philosophy, Satirical Cartoons

September 18, 2021

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. There’s a Reason It’s Called a Fairy Tale.

What REALLY happened to the boy who cried, The Emperor has no clothes! The Emperor’s New Clothes Continue reading

Pam-Toons

academic freedom, ad baculum, Andersen, art, censorship, drawing, fear, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, pencil, photo, reality, rhetoric, silence, sketch, story, The Emperor's New Clothes, threat, vain-glory
August 27, 2021

Freaky Night (poem)

One more poem from my long forgotten CD. I wrote Freaky Night mostly in my head as I walked around a neighbourhood lake late at night. My footsteps were a metronome and the words fell into their rhythm. The moon sat low in the blue-black sky, It looked ten times its natural size, It shone… Continue reading

Arts and Leisure

creative, meter, metre, metronome, poem, poetry, rhyme, rhythm, slide, writing
August 26, 2021

The Fine Art of Thumb Twiddling (poem)

I wrote the following poem at least a decade ago. I’d forgotten until this evening when I unearthed a CD from a dresser drawer and had a look. I help my mother ease into the passenger seat, guiding her by her elbow with one hand and balancing her canes with the other, I tuck her… Continue reading

Arts and Leisure

aging, care, elderly, generation, impatience, mom, morbidity, mother, mum, old, patience, poem, sandwich generation, thumb twiddling
August 20, 2021

Small house in a big world. The power of perspective.

I don’t know how old I was when I first heard I live in a very small house, but my windows look out on a very big world. But as one of my dad’s favourite quotes, I’ve known it as long as I can remember. Up until recently, I’ve attributed the quote to Thoreau. But… Continue reading

Catch-All

adapt, adversity, advice, change, Confucius, contemplation, curiousity, inspiration, learning, life, perspective, social, survival, thought, transitions, travel
July 16, 2021

Thoughtlets. XLVI. Observing patterns of human behaviour.

Some find Tacitus’ Annals tedious. Some of it is. But his work keeps me riveted. I’m not so interested in history, per se. Rather I’m interested in identifying patterns of human behaviour, events that repeat over millennia, and asking why they repeat themselves. But then, so was Tacitus, “Perhaps there is a sort of cycle… Continue reading

Thoughtlets

ambiguity, ambiguous, Annals, behaviour, control, Darwin, hard sciences, hisotry, meme, memes, memic slection, occurences, patterns, Philosophy, political, prediction, social, social and political, Tactitus
July 3, 2021

Thoughtlets. XLV. Theodicy revisited.

News media characteristically brings us one story after another about the kinds of things humans to do each other which are broadly characterized as ‘evil.’ And these stories tend to generate accusations of ‘evil-doers’ which are then dispatched with the speed and clamour of emergency vehicles headed to a five alarm fire. I’m not here… Continue reading

Thoughtlets

discourse, emotion, evil, Mackie, media, Philosophy, politics, problem of evil, rhetoric, theodicy
June 29, 2021

Saturday Morning Pam-Toons. A Speakeasy in the Age of Prohibition. (Repost, 2020/09/14)

Hey Sweetheart. Are you here to have a drink or to speak your mind? Continue reading

Pam-Toons

academic, cancel culture, cartoon, censorship, compelled, first amendment, freedom, hiding, Marranos, moriscos, Orwell, political, politically correct, prohibited, prohibition, secret, speech, underground
June 26, 2021

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Pursuant to Its Commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, the University Students’ Union Welcomes the Neo-Knotsies Macrame Revival Club.

Continue reading

Pam-Toons, Social and Political Commentary

academic freedom, commitment, DEI, diversity, drawing, EDI, elect, equity, exclusion, free speech, freedom of expression, graphic, humor, humour, inclusion, office, pencil, perspective, photo, sketch, student, university
June 12, 2021

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Psychic Surgery Removes Hatred.

Continue reading

Pam-Toons, Social and Political Commentary

academic freedom, education, fad, freedom of expression, hate, hate studies, hatred, implicit bias, magical thinking, McCarthyism, ordeal, political, pseudo, pseudoscience, psychic, psychic surgery, religion, research, SJW, snake oil, social, spiritual, surgeon, test, thought, university, witch hunt
April 30, 2021

The Lesser Known Logical Fallacies.

If you’ve ever taken a logic and critical thinking course, you’ll have learned about logical fallacies. Logical fallacies are patterns of bad reasoning that occur so often they’re given their own special names. Ad hominem arguments are directed at the person holding a position rather than at the position she holds. Ad populum or ‘bandwagon’… Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

argument, behaviour, critical thinking, fallacy, logic, logical fallacies, logicians, Philosophy, psychology, reasoning, rhetoric, social, strategy