Rand Paul and the Imperial Presidency
Rand Paul has, so far, been pretty good on issues of national security. Maybe not quite as staunchly anti-war as his father, but that remains to be seen. Via Sullivan, however, this really terrific...
Monthly Archive: March 2011
Blog, the Fourth
Our latest sub-blog has arrived. More are in the offing. I would direct your attention now to Tim Kowal and Notes from Babel. His intro post is here. Please welcome him to the League.
Birtherism
It’s time we addressed this sad non-issue squarely, and not just in the 126th comment buried beneath some unrelated post, after a certain commenter — it’s always the same one — sneakily brings it...
Quote for the day
“The glib hubris of Libya is a sign that the change we hoped for really has morphed into the wet military dreams of neoconservatism and the utopian notion of the US as the rescuer...
What do you mean ‘we’, Paleface?
An old joke: Tonto and the Lone Ranger are surrounded by hostile Indians. The Lone Ranger: It’s looks like we’re in a lot of trouble, old friend! Tonto: What do you mean “we”, Paleface?...
Kohelet and Proust
About a week ago, Rufus responded to Jason’s comments on Strauss and philosophy-as-drug by saying: I’m not the first person to say this, but I feel like the best model for doing philosophy in...
After the Fact
America is simply incapable of watching a slaughter take place – anywhere in the world – and not [moving] to do what we can to prevent it. It is against our nature to let...
A few Questions on Local Currencies
I posted something recently about the Baltimore B-Note, a local currency being unveiled next month for use in local businesses in “the city that reads”. After getting some questions here and elsewhere and having...
A reed in the wind
Andrew Sullivan is ‘nibbling on some crow‘ at the moment, apparently over his early and vocal criticism of the Libyan war. Here’s Freddie: I confess: the idea that the rebels winning at this stage...
No country for old dictators
As far as I’m concerned there are no good arguments for intervention in Libya. Reports that we’ve saved 100,000 lives there strike me as no better than propaganda. After all, 100,000 was the number...
On Esoteric Writing
Tom Van Dyke writes: Mr. Kuznicki, who told you Strauss wrote esoterically? His critics, of course. But he did not, and so to read him that way is a bias going in. Strauss hides...
Leo Strauss, Meet John Stuart Mill
At my real job, Professor C. Bradley Thompson is discussing neoconservatism. Here’s a teaser: What did Irving Kristol learn from Leo Strauss? There is an unbridgeable chasm between theory and practice, philosophy and the...
The bad logic of intervention in Libya
Marc Lynch explains the strategic importance of intervention in Libya (via the Dish): Libya matters to the United States not for its oil or intrinsic importance, but because it has been a key part...
Dungeons & Dragons
Here’s Ta-Nehisi Coates on Dragon Age II: Is anyone playing? Apparently there’s a split between the critics and the lay gamers. What I read didn’t seem particularly appealing to me. I’m a really old-school...
Localists Take (B)Note
Coming next month to a store near you, but only if you happen to live in Baltimore, a new local currency the BNote will be available on April 16th and 17th. More on local currencies here....
Euripides: “Hecuba”- Nobility Outs Itself
{Note: Just remembered I’ve previously discussed the idea of a moral order reasserting itself in Hecuba here last year.} I’m not sure if Oscar Wilde’s line about losing one parent being a misfortune but...
“Flight of the Stone Heads”
Here’s something different- one of my paintings. It’s the second painting I’ve ever done, so be kind; it was inspired by a dream I had about floating stone heads.
Libya and the American Interest
[updated] It appears Muammar Gaddafi has called a ceasefire following the announcement of a UN no-fly zone: Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa said the regime would halt all military operations immediately, as Britain and...
On Libya and the Moral Case Against Intervention
~by E.C. Gach a U.N Security Council resolution has been agreed to, and now all that remains is its implementation. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than getting consensus on a resolution is coordinating its...
“Love and Death”
After the jump, a somewhat disturbing pencil and white gouache drawing by Hans Bellmer, which appeared recently at the Thomas Dane gallery in London as a part of their “Contingency” show:
