The skill in desire and aversion is knowing how to preserve the practical self from dissolution. OAKESHOTT As will one day be elaborated in a dissertation, Machiavelli’s eponymous Prince lived — and killed — by surfeit of this virtu ; Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet . . . . Continue Reading »
Our very own Helen Rittelmeyer has had an article published in the current issue of Doublethink entitled ‘Toward a Bioethics of Love’ . Here’s a teaser: To frame the idea in a different way, we all hope for our friends continual self-improvement: that our favorite . . . . Continue Reading »
The Dutch don’t enforce their “protective” euthanasia guidelines in any meaningful way if the doctor does the killing. But if a non physician assists a suicide, there will be a (minor) consequence. Several years ago, for example, a nurse assisted a suicide and received a two month . . . . Continue Reading »
Okay, so, I’m thinking Dante —Dude, I know he’s a poet. No, I don’t really know what they do, either. Wait, wait, he’s a poet, but he’s, like, a poet . . . warrior. With a sword. You know, “The sword is mightier than the pen.” Whatever. Anyway, so he . . . . Continue Reading »
Assisted suicide advocacy, like effective advertising, creates a demand where it might not have existed before. That seems to be happening in the UK, where 800 people are reportedly on a waiting list to receive assisted suicide at the hands of Swiss suicide clinics. Check out Secondhand Smoke for . . . . Continue Reading »
PAT does a very fine job reminding us that gay marriage only became plausible at a certain point in the long process of the Lockeanization of marriage. If the institution is all about rights with no corresponding duties then we really cant explain why all Americans — including, of . . . . Continue Reading »
So it’s official — GM’s bankrupt. Bring on the PR campaign. Actually, don’t; the agency entrusted with giving Americans “permission to believe” in GM again (as one of the Morning Joe heads just said) is the same bunch of geniuses who embarrassed GM with its . . . . Continue Reading »
If your taste is presidential history, with a penchant for progress or change you will want to venture to the lovely old town of Staunton, Virginia , birthplace of Woodrow Wilson. A museum has been constructed to Wilson’s honor, and the house where he came into this world and lived for a few . . . . Continue Reading »
I’d been sure I’d had the final word on Mark Levin, but with Daniel and Richard Spencer [UPDATE: and Clark Stooksbury ] now falling on — and firing across — opposite sides of the Levin fallout, the bizarre-o-meter has jumped into the red zone. Past the closing sequences of . . . . Continue Reading »
At the Scene, Dara makes a point I start out being quite sympathetic toward: We allow the people making law to represent their constituents in fact, we generally encourage them to resemble their constituents and celebrate their own biographies but we deny the same sort of personality . . . . Continue Reading »