richh.com | a personal + political blog by rich halvorson

What is Global Fast?

Beginning this year, Ash Wednesday comes with a new twist – millions fasting not only for personal piety, but to create global change.

One American giving up one day’s food cost can provide clean water for one person in Ethiopia for ten years. Ten Americans giving up their day’s food expense can provide a micro-loan to help a struggling family start a business in the Philippines – a business that will help provide food, employment, and shelter for years

Global Fast is about personal charity as collective action – giving of ourselves for others – on a large scale.

( view full article >> )

Comedy Central -- Interview with President Bush's "Speechalist"

Here's a great Comedy Central sketch. It's an interview with President Bush's ostensible head speechwriter who knows that "The American people of today's Americas want a President who can speak their language and speak it badly." ...Enjoy a good laugh with this one.   :-)

http://www.xroadsfilms.com/batescomedycentral/

Demystifying Global Justice

This article challenges many of the conventional ideas political theorists put forward about a moral and just response to global poverty. I assert that their thinking has been overly simplistic and one-minded on the matter, and suggest various questions, definitions and ideas that have yet to be explored. But, these are necessary concepts to explore if we are to have an informed and helpful discussion on the matter. Be warned: this is a longer, academic article.

Questioning Cosmological Superstition

Cosmology is the study of the universe--how it works, its origins and its future. Some of the foundational principles of this science have been influenced by superstition rather than scientific reason and observation. In this longer article, I challenge those assumptions and suggest that cosmologists would get further and more accurate with their theories if science played a more fixed role than secular mythology.

Published in the archives of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design (www.iscid.org)

Confessions of a Skeptic

This short article was published in The Harvard Crimson after being censored by the editors for over a month. Despite the strong merits of the article, and other articles representing opposing viewpoints being printed, this barely got the editors' approval -- after quite a bit of insisting and bantering.

Poverty and Property: Global Justice and Property Rights

This monster is my 100+ page senior thesis from completing my 2003 double major in Philosohpy and Government. The topic, basically, is how to solve global poverty, since we live in a world where over 20,000 children die each day from hunger and malnutrition. If something can be done, it must. I argue that there is much to be done, but it is not at all what most writers on global poverty suggest.

Toward a Modest Cosmopolitan Framework

Prepared for a Political Theory panel at the 57th annual conference of the New York State Political Science Association, this paper was a precursor to my thesis, focusing on the natural rights aspect of theory and development.

Suffering and Evil: The Problem of Pain

This essay discusses different answers to the problem of pain, evil and suffering. One of the main objections to religious belief is the problem of pain and evil -- where is God in times of personal suffering? -- yet, it is often ignored that atheists and secularists must deal with the problem also. This essay discusses how atheism, theism and Jesus Christ provide three very different answers.

More Than a Feeling

This paper critiques the moral philosophy of sentimentalism in Frances Hutcheson and David Hume. It discusses the nature of moral motivation and obligation.

Functionalism and the Chinese Room

This essay discusses John Searle's thought experiment called the "Chinese Room," which serves as an argument for the functionalist theory of mind. I critricize the experiment and the theory as coming up short and failing to explain important aspects of human mental life.