THE FOOLS FOR PARADOX FILE: Digest of reports!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2019

New year commences tomorrow: Tomorrow, the new year starts at this site.

Tomorrow, we'll start the process of examining a minor bungle—the minor erroneous characterization increasingly known to future anthropologists huddled in caves as "Aristotle's error."

Is "man" [sic] really "the rational animal" in any ultimate way? We'll sift the evidence with great care—and we'll examine Professor Harari's alternate hypothesis.

We'll explore the conduct of our nation's upper-end journalists. We'll examine the lethargy and the indolence of our "elite logicians," and of other academics to boot.

We'll even get to the advances which can be extracted from the jumbled work of the later Wittgenstein. We'll start that examination with a detailed review of Professor Horwich's claims.

Will this add up to a picture in which our stumbling species, Homo sapiens, is best seen as some sort of"rational animal?" For today, we'll only tell you this:

Below, you see one of the seven "Noteworthy Facts" singled out atop page A3 of this morning's New York Times (available in hard copy only). No, we aren't making this up:

Of Interest
NOTEWORTHY FACTS FROM TODAY'S PAPER

[...]

The National Hockey League player Andy Hebenton, who never missed a game during eight seasons with the New York Rangers, lost seven teeth on the ice in a two-week period in January 1961.

But seriously though, folks. That's one of the seven (7) "noteworthy facts" some editor found to be "of interest" in this morning's paper.

That was one of the day's noteworthy facts! Right below that feature on Page A3, Times readers are treated to this:

The Conversation
FOUR OF THE MOST READ, SHARED AND DISCUSSED POSTS FROM ACROSS NYTIMES.COM

[...]

2. In the Pale of Winter, Trump's Tan Remains A State Secret
Katie Rogers's report on the president's "conspicuously sun-kissed glow"—even in the frigid D.C. winter—was one of Sunday's most-read stories. The official line from the White House is that Mr. Trump's glow is the result of "good genes," said one official. (And, O.K., a little powder, the official added.)

It was one of Sunday's most read "stories!" Rational animals wanted to know!

The New York Times was letting us know about the source of Donald Trump's tan. Elsewhere on this morning's Page A3, the daily Spotlight feature ("Additional reporting and repartee from our journalists") excerpts an interview with two actors. They've been asked to discuss what they remember about their first trips to the Sundance Film Festival.

"It was so exciting," the actor Ed Helms said.

In short, the modern failing New York Times wants to be Look magazine. Tomorrow, our new year will begin with a visit to the Times' recent news report concerning the various things we can learn by observing Roger Stone's wardrobe selections.

Can it really get dumber than this? In these ways, our highest-profile national newspaper tells us who and what we actually are. The silly newspaper is Hamptons-based, and, not unlike the way things work with the wider range of alleged elites, the silly newspaper's worthless mindset is Hamptons all the way down.

Tomorrow, we return to full services here at this site. In our last such week, our ruminations ran under this heading: "Fools for Paradox."

In those "stories," we explored the minds and mindsets of our failing society's "logicians." Our reports went exactly like this:

Tuesday, December 18: Lies and the lying Cretans who told them! The ancient Cretan's tale.

Wednesday, December 19: Should foolishness cause the mind to crash? Silliness all the way down.

Thursday, December 20: "Magical, lucid," the Times review said. Are modern elites even conscious?

Friday, December 21: Lord Russell's paradox drew Godel in—to the land of "abstract objects!"

Tomorrow morning, our new year begins. Question:

Can we moderns, in any serious way, be seen as "the rational animal?"