The next stage of Kass’s education was the “educational prejudice” he acquired at the University of Chicago “in favor of discussing the great questions and reading the Great Books.” There he was inspired by the “exemplary” dignity of the life devoted to . . . . Continue Reading »
Charles Taylor’s monumental (or at least huge) A Secular Age is, I suppose, old news already, but, as usual, it has taken me a long time to figure out how to undo Taylor with his own statements, and so now of course I have to share. Finally I’ve figured out this out, and I thought you . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s WaPo with the scoop of the century on Terry McAuliffe : Likewise, McAuliffe’s traveling chief of staff, Justin Paschal, 34, who has worked for him for eight years, said McAuliffe never lets him see him sleep. “On slow nights, Terry wanders over to the coffin he keeps at . . . . Continue Reading »
This jumped out at me from Daniel today. One of the remarkable things about the Gallup poll I was commenting on in the initial post was the GOP’s remarkable ability to retain conservative identification with the party. Rather, I should say that this is conservatives’ remarkable ability . . . . Continue Reading »
Nick Kristof was just on Morning Joe talking about his latest column , which flirts with reverse causation on the issue of our mores and our political dispositions. But there is this interesting bit: Studies suggest that conservatives are more often distressed by actions that seem disrespectful of . . . . Continue Reading »
There are other equally noteworthy effects of this division of the press; starting a paper being easy, anybody may take to it; but competition prevents any newspaper from hoping for large profits, and that discourages anybody with great business ability from bothering with such undertakings. Even . . . . Continue Reading »
Leon Kass’s Jefferson lecture, as I said before, needs to be read with the lectures of two of his predecessors-the philosopher of manliness Harvey Mansfield and the novelist of manliness Tom Wolfe-as a most instructive way of being introduced to the question “Who is a man?” The . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ve got to say, it’s great having Ross Douthat at The New York Times . I know some people prefer Times columnists when they’re not writing Times columns, but I’m the sort who thinks that glorified blog posts really can be glorious. What elevates a string of 600-800 words . . . . Continue Reading »
Over at New Majority, David Frum complains : “What Obama did not do: pick the most learned or intelligent or wisest lawyer available to him. >What he did do: pick the justice he deemed most likely to secure him a demographic constituency in 2008.” I’ll reserve judgement on . . . . Continue Reading »
There is a lot I could say about Sonia Sotomayor , but for a moment I want to beat a strategic retreat to some more theoretical ground about the Supreme Court and our intensifying problem with it. The motivation for this move is uncomplicated. There is something deeply tiring about gearing up . . . . Continue Reading »
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