Bhagavad Gita
Continuing in the theme of the soldier’s dilemma, we have the Bhagavad-Gita, an excerpt from the Indian epic poem the Mahabharata. It is often read alone however; partly because the Mahabharata is so long...
Monthly Archive: February 2010
Dissecting Machiavelli
Those following Rufus’s excellent “blogging the canon” series may also be interested in James Hanley’s chapter-by-chapter breakdown of The Prince.
In defense of quality not quantity: the case for better safety nets, not more entitlements
Reading this Will Wilkinson piece (which is a follow-up to pieces by Megan McArdle, Tyler Cowen, and Michael Cannon – all of whom you should also read on this subject) has gotten me thinking...
The politics of pettiness ctd.
Scott has a thoughtful follow-up to my anti-pettiness screed. I want to point out, however, that far more than the problems with populism, I was writing about the problems with elites manipulating it for...
Saturday Awesome Sauce: Bill Cosby & Chris Walken Rap
h/t to my boy Drew Raley for dropping this knowledge on me.
Science Fiction Friday (II)
The ultimate guilty pleasure: Alyssa Rosenberg delves into the Star Wars expanded universe.
Hesiod “Works and Days”
Perhaps inappropriately, Mister Kain’s recent post about populist conservatism comes to mind because I’m reading Hesiod, who I’ve heard called a “conservative” more than a few times now. It’s a cringe-inducing term and terribly...
Science Fiction Friday
Because it’s my blog and I’ll post ephemera if I want to: The LA Times on Philip K. Dick and Orange County; io9 on the “soft” (ie not world-ending) apocalypse, which includes a shout-out...
“I had to get my book game back up”
An entertaining article on the reading habits of NBA players, international and homegrown alike. On a related note, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson distributes books to his players every season; here’s this year’s list.
Can blogging prevent plagiarism?
I completely missed the Daily Beast plagiarism scandal, but Michael Roston has an interesting post on how blogging norms prevent writers from inadvertently stealing.
A modest proposal for childhood obesity
Every First Lady is obliged to tackle some trendy and media-inflated crisis. For Hillary Clinton it was healthcare. Laurah Bush focused on literacy. Michelle Obama wants to end the dread childhood obesity “epidemic”. Perhaps...
Credit Where It’s Due
Governor Christie starts making the tough decisions. They won’t be popular decisions, and I take issue with the use of the “state of emergency” device from a distrust-of-power standpoint, but it’s pretty clear the...
The politics of pettiness
I’ve been trying to get at the heart of what bothers me so much about contemporary conservative politics & discourse these days. The closest I can come to an answer is that conservatives have...
Times Square to Stay Pedestrian
Not that we would go there ourselves, mind you, but today’s announcement that Broadway will remain closed to vehicle traffic is a great victory for tourists and a boon for the occasional Brooklynite who...
Marjah Offensive
US Marines along with Afghan forces have begun what is to date the largest offensive since the initial phase of the Afghanistan war. They are entering the town of Marjah, a Taliban stronghold in...
Should We Preserve Modernist Buildings?
Urbanophile has posted some thoughts on preserving buildings from the mid-20th century: “Mid-century modern architecture is now in the same danger zone chronologically that late 19th-century buildings were in during the urban renewal period....
Homer “The Iliad” (2 of 2)
Long before they were recorded, the Homeric legends were the material of traveling oral bards who composed as they chanted, making use of certain stock formulas: the battle, the speech, the ritual, proper descriptions...
