What consolation of philosphy?
“Critchley leafs through the pages of his register and concludes, as did Montaigne, that the consolation of philosophy is ‘the stillness of the soul’s dialogue with itself. … It is the achievment of a...
Monthly Archive: May 2009
Sunday Poem Series
from Poem 64 by Catullus, translated by Horace Gregory (Some people don’t like Gregory’s translation because of his somewhat freewheeling liberties with the text. But I find his work to be by far the...
Principles
…When a talk show host accuses someone who disagrees with them of hating their country or expresses hope that a political leader fails or that someone suffer a horrible act of violence, they are...
Ricci, Impartiality, and Empathy
At the risk of beating a dead horse, Jack Balkin pens a magnificent piece on how criticism of the decision in the Ricci case, particularly to the extent that criticism claims it to be...
thursday art walk
A day late – I blame the holiday. This one is “Cathedral in Winter” by Ernst Ferdinand Oehme
But What About the Real Economy?
Noah Millman writes: But if we get a true dollar crisis, that calculus no longer obtains. If the United States faces a situation at some point in the near future where we cannot finance...
John Derbyshire and the Wise Latina
“Judge Sotomayor was raised in public housing? So was I. Her mother was a nurse working late shifts? So was mine. When did white working poor people disappear off the face of the earth?...
it doesn’t matter how horrific they are…
Obama needs to release the photos, even if they do show pictures of the rape of detainees. Indeed, that makes it all the more necessary.
In Defense of Figureheads
Using Geraldo Rivera as a barometer of Latino opinion is probably a bad idea, but there was something oddly touching about this (via): I have goosebumps,” says Rivera, 65, born to a Catholic, Puerto...
continuity and the culture of death
1 a: the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body b: a principle or force that is considered to underlie the distinctive quality of animate beings c: an organismic...
a quote, taken out of context, for the morning
“If this evil monkey god wants to accompany me to the first committee meeting of the fall, he can feast on the dumbass who spent the whole meeting fighting to craft a proposal that’s...
As if you needed another reason to hate LA
How arrogant are the Lakers? Thanks for asking. So arrogant that they feel free to change the lyrics of the national anthem. Now, fans cheer different parts of the anthem for partisan reasons all...
Run Sestak Run
He says he’s in against Specter. Good for him. Pennsylvania is going deep blue. And the Penn Republicans are going hard-right base wackos. Unless they do an about face and talk Tom Ridge into...
Thoughts on the Champions League Final
After an unbearably over-hyped build-up, Barcelona’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United was pretty darn anti-climactic. Adding insult to injury, the match forced casual or otherwise unaffiliated fans to choose the lesser of two (great)...
Stop the attacks?
Matthew Schmitz wants counter-conservatives to stop attacking the right-wing talk radio pundits: If the goal of Conor and others who have attacked talk radio is to save the Republican Party, I’m at a loss...
a quote for the end of the afternoon
“A series of cataclysmic events leads to the annihilation of a war-mongering elite. All that remains is a rogue group of working-class types who are motivated by racial resentment, obsessed with drilling, and led...
The Relevance of Experience
Commenter Mike Farmer expresses an objection to my and Mr. Larison’s defenses of Judge Sotomayor’s “wise Latina woman” comment that I suspect is pretty typical and has strong surface appeal: She might have a...
Larison on Sotomayor
Daniel Larison has put together some excellent thoughts on the current leading objections to Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the SCOTUS. I have my differences with Larison’s preferred jurisprudence, but he does a far better...
Baby all I need is a shot in the arm
Jay Bennett passed away yesterday. He’ll be missed. Wilco hit a rough patch after he left the band.
