Gene Wolfe interviewed
Interesting stuff from the one of the League’s favorite science fiction writers. Of particular note is his pessimistic conservatism (“The government in Home Fires is doing the thing that I expect them to do...
Monthly Archive: January 2011
Reclaiming Liberalism
Matt Yglesias responds to Freddie’s post on the dearth of truly left-wing voices in the blogosphere, and lists his own economic goals as a way to illustrate his own views on liberalism: More redistribution...
The bureaucratic mindset
Matthew Yglesias has already poked fun at this interview with the new head of DC’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, but the entire exchange really has to be read to be believed. It’s...
Luxury has progressed: the rise of the global elite
I want to comment on this month’s Atlantic Monthly piece by Chrystia Freeland, “The Rise of the New Global Elite,” but before I get to that, I thought it might make for nice companion...
Lucretius, “Of Natural Things”- also Atoms & Atheists
It seems at times we can overstate the religious thinking of the Greeks and tip the balance too heavily towards polytheism. Arnold Toynbee, for instance writes that, “In popular pre-Christian Greek religion, divinity was...
Progressives vs. Libertarians
I really think the two sides in this argument – the libertarians on the one hand and progressives on the other – simply have a very hard time understanding truly where the other is...
No True Leftist
Freddie has a very long post up lamenting the lack of a truly leftist presence in the blogosphere. The vast majority of liberal voices online, he asserts, are part of the broader neoliberal movement,...
Commenter Tribunals
I think the League’s reader community is pretty great, but it’s basically impossible for a bunch of amateur bloggers to mediate comment threads full-time. One possible solution would be to borrow the idea of...
Think Tank Wars
Over at Balloon Juice, I have a long post up about money in politics, pointing out that the much-dreaded Koch brothers are but two among many political donors, and that think tanks and political...
Sport, Spectacle, Decorum, Politics
(This post is part of an ongoing series about Western culture and politics, and how the potential brokenness of one affects the other.) My impression from yesterday’s service is that Obama was genuinely surprised...
Occasional Notes: As the World Turns
Leitmotif: “What are the characters that I discern most clearly in the so-called Anglo-Saxon type of man? I may answer at once that two stick out above all others. One is his curious and...
Some thoughts on Obama’s memorial service remarks
About halfway through Obama’s speech on Wednesday – I think it was just after he used the phrase “moral imagination” – I turned to my fiancé and said, “You think Palin is thinking, ‘wow,...
An Original In Every Sense
Pro football legend, civil rights hero, sports labor icon, and original Buffalo Bill Cookie Gilchrist passed away the other day at 75 after a long bout with cancer. I wanted to pass along two...
While Standing On One Foot
Via Joe Carter, a series of one-sentence summaries of the Bible from various “scholars and pastors.” None of them take a path similar to Rabbi Hillel’s famous line — “What is hateful to you,...
Balloon Juice Actually Makes Sense…
…on libertarianism. For once. The Cato Unbound issue on corporatism seems worth a link as well. It may be the most important thing Cato Unbound has ever published.
Chabon-Inspired Stray Thoughts on Huck Finn
I know, I know. You thought you were done with that whole Huck Finn controversy. But for a final word — and, in its way, maybe the truest — you should take a look...
“The Elements of Clunk”
Are readers may enjoy the thoughts, and concepts, explicated within this humorous essay from “The Chronicle of Higher Education.” While your at it, Jason Peters’ Undergraduate Writing Seminar is also very funny.
Marriage against the State
I’m pleased to announce the publication of my new Cato Policy Analysis, “Marriage against the State: Toward a New View of Civil Marriage.” As I note in the introduction, it’s quite rare that Congress...
Why Originalism?
In our discussion of constitutional originalism below, I’ve been asked a very good question — Why should we choose originalism rather than any other interpretive strategy? Even if we grant that we need a...
Be the Change You Want to See
The “debate over debate” that has arisen in the wake of the tragic assassination attempt of Congresswoman Giffords in Arizona on Saturday, which left 6 dead, including a 9 year old girl, a federal...
