NOTABLOG MONTHLY ARCHIVES: 2002 - 2020
| JANUARY 2004 - JUNE 2004 | SEPTEMBER 2004 |
"Caught
Up in The Rapture"
has been republished at The
Autonomist, which also features a discussion thread.
My L&P post from last night, "Brooks
and the 'Progressive Conservative' Project," elicits a comment or two.
Start here with
Jonathan Dresner's thoughts. And check out additional
posts in the sci-fi thread at L&P.
Finally, I reply (in two parts) to Roderick Long at Light of Reason on the
problems with anarchism (scroll down).
On the eve of the Republican National Convention, I comment at L&P on today's
David Brooks essay, which appeared in the NY Times Magazine: "Brooks
and the 'Progressive Conservative' Project."
The men's
marathon closes out the Athens Olympics today, and I post a brief comment in
reply to Mark Fulwiler at Arthur Silber's Light of Reason thread, "Coming
Out of Another Closet."
Poor Steven Horwitz is knocking himself out making great
points at L&P on the topic of same-sex marriage, and the big discussion
seems to be on sci-fi films. I reply (twice)
to Steve on the topic of "Liberty,
Power, and Geeks." (Check out follow-up on the L&P sci-fi chat here, here, here, here,
and here.)
And I also added another
comment to Aeon's Sci-Fi thread at L&P.
I have a comment on
Arthur Silber's post "Coming
Out of Another Closet" (which cites my foreign policy work). I deal
briefly with the issue of anarchism versus minarchism.
My L&P "Postscript to Rapture"
alerts interested readers to tonight's "Nightline" broadcast on Christian
marketing (also mentioned at SOLO
HQ).
I have a brief
exchange with Aeon Skoble about a projected "War of the Worlds" remake in
reply to his L&P post, "Let Him
Through, He's a Scientist!"
On the eve of the GOP National Convention, protests begin in the Big Apple, but
NYC isn't the only place committed to "Eternal
Vigilance!" (L&P).
The GOP nixes discount tickets to an off-Broadway play on the eve of its NYC
convention; see my post, "Naked
Boys Singing! NOT," at L&P.
Watching the Olympics last night was a bit more uplifting than watching the
Yankees game; after two thrilling wins in Cleveland, the Yanks lost to the
Indians, 4-3, while a squirrel ran
around Jacobs Field from the 3rd inning on. I was particularly moved by a
story about "The Olympic Idea,"
which I summarize at L&P.
I notice that my "Bush
Wins!" SOLO HQ essay has made the rounds, having been re-published at The
Autonomist and Free
Republic, where standing for the separation of church and state seems to
qualify one as an "anti-Christian bigot." Oy.
Props to
Derek Jeter, who, after suffering a bruised
elbow from a Bob Wickman pitch on Monday night, came back last night to
lead the Yanks to a 5-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Derek had
a 1st-inning home run (to score his 1000th career run), and manufactured the
winning run in the 9th inning, scoring on a Hideki Matsui single, after stealing
2nd and 3rd base (bringing his season total to 20 steals). Go
Yanks!
I'm still very busy working on deadlines for a few articles, but I had time to
drop by SOLO HQ to say "Thank
you for a beautiful essay" to James Kilbourne ("The
Day My Grandmother Saved My Life").
I posted a very brief comment on neoconservatism in an L&P
thread started by Irfan Khawaja, in response to Arthur Silber's "What
Motivates the Kerry Smear Merchants."
Bravo to Olympian Jeremy
Wariner and to the 1-2-3
finish in the Men's 400M track & field competition!
Bravo to Brooklyn-born
Olympic runner Justin Gatlin and to Carly
Paterson too!
I've been working on several projects, including a Free
Radical review of Armando Cesari's book, Mario
Lanza: An American Tragedy. I'm a bit behind in my mail, but noticed
today that the June 2004 Logbook of The
Objectivist Center includes various items about my recent and forthcoming
publications. Check it out here.
As follow-up to my
brief mention of the passing of film score composer Elmer Bernstein, here's a
note at L&P by Aeon Skoble, "Goodbye
to a Great," with a link to a fine NY Timesretrospective.
Arthur Silber has referenced one of my
earlier foreign policy articles on the "New Fascism" in his pieces, "How
Alleged Defenders of Capitalism Become the New Monument Builders" and "Trashing,
and Burying, Ayn Rand." Whatever my ultimate affection
for the World Trade Center, its origins as a state capitalist public works
project are undeniable. Unfortunately, that is a large part of the reality
in municipalities such as NYC, and, of course, it goes without saying that
whatever its origins, nobody had the right to bring it down or to murder
thousands of civilians. I will be featuring, on "Not a Blog," an interview
with a dear friend of mine who witnessed the devastation of 9/11 up close; it
will debut next month in commemoration of the third anniversary of the tragedy.
I sent a brief
congratulatory note to SOLO HQ in reply to Joe Rowlands' "SOLO:
Past, Present, and Future."
In a thread inspired
by "Cage
Fright" (an Eric Rockwell essay at SOLO HQ), Sir
George of Cordero tries to inspire a bout between Her
Majesty (Barbara Branden) and Emperor
Linz (Lindsay Perigo), calling
me in to announce the fight. I respond (and
there's follow-up too!).
Meanwhile: BRAVO
PAUL HAMM!
And, on a sad note: Elmer Bernstein,
R.I.P. ... one of the greatest film composers who ever lived, whose work
from "The
Ten Commandments" and "The
Magnificent Seven" to "Thoroughly
Modern Millie" and "Far
From Heaven" continues to inspire.
Somedays, I just get pissed off. Arthur Silber posts interesting passages
from a recent John Judis piece, adapted from his book, The Folly of Empire.
A "critic" comes along, using a mysterious handle, and proceeds to engage in
subtle ad hominem, as if the mere mention of "Sciabarra" as a source invalidates
Arthur's arguments. Well. Check out Arthur's "Back
to the Last Century, and 'Civilizing' the World By Force," where I have
several comments.
I got a little carried away with hyperlinks, but check out my L&P post for the
day, "The Return to Olympia,"
which deals briefly with my own Greek-Sicilian background. (And see some
follow-up chit-chat with Steve Horwitz, starting here.)
Check out Steve Horwitz's L&P follow-up to my "Tempting
Tidbits": "More
Scholarship on Rush (the band)."
Lindsay Perigo speaks "Of
Belly-Laughs and Anal Retentives" at SOLO HQ. Linz knows me very well:
"There's Chris Sciabarra. The only thing that impedes Dr. Diabolical's
belly-laugh is the fact that he must stop talking in order to emit it---a
prodigious feat that Diabolical nonetheless manages with alacrity."
A brief blog entry at L&P about Talk Radio responses to the McGreevey story:
"Odd Couple: McGreevey &
Limbaugh."
There has been a bit of discussion of my "Caught
Up in The Rapture" essay on the Atlantis
II Yahoo Group. I have collected excerpts from some of my responses in
the Selected Internet Posts section under the heading, "Pietists,
Liturgicals, and 'Red Pawn'."
Education and Nation-Building in Iraq
is my newest piece at L&P.
And I have follow-up SOLO HQ posts here, here,
and here in
good-natured exchanges with George Cordero. I think I make good use of a
fine insight from Fareed Zakaria on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos":
"History is made by angry minorities, not by passive majorities."
Oh, and finally: Happy
Birthday to Cyrano from his girlfriend Blondie! It think it's Cyrano's
Sweet Six ... and Blondie turned 15 back
on July 6th!
The Olympics got off to a rousing
mythologically themed start last night, and the weekend is already shaping up
into an exercise in discourse. Over at L&P, a few follow-up
points about the McGreevey resignation.
And then, there's SOLO HQ. Where to start? Well, there's an
additional exchange on the Rapture thread (see here,
and my reply here)
and additional thoughts by Lindsay
Perigo and Irfan
Khawaja.
But the real discussion follows George W. Cordero's essay, "An
Open Letter to Chris Matthew Sciabarra," which takes issue with my Rapture
essay. The discussion thread begins here,
and my reply to Cordero is posted here and here.
Finally, one year ago today, the Great Blackout of 2004 struck my home, and the
homes of millions of others in the Northeast. For a trip down memory lane,
check out my 16 August 2003 post to Light of Reason: "Where
Were You When the Lights When Out?"
"Caught
Up in The Rapture"
is making its way around the blogosphere. It has been cited by Jesse
Walker at Reason
Online Hit & Run and Chip Gibbons at The
Binary Circumstance. More to come...
A brief post at L&P, "In the
News: From Gays to Greeks," offers links on everything from the resignation
of Newly-Out New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey to the Summer Olympics in Greece.
Follow-up discussion: Aeon Skoble, whom I introduced as
a regular blogger the other day at L&P, has a few follow-ups of his own, here, here,
and here. And I have follow-up at
SOLO HQ on the Rapture
thread.
I have a few
reflections on the privatization of marriage at Arthur Silber's Light of
Reason. Arthur mentions my "Caught Up in the Rapture" article (with
apologies to Anita Baker), in his own post, "Reconsidering
Gay Marriage--and the Great Danger of the 'Incorruptible' Theocrats" and in
"Another
Religious Crusade---And Five Million Forced Converts."
I have posted what amounts to another
essay at SOLO HQ, in reply to comments made by Michael
Newberry, Adam
Reed, and Cameron
Pritchard. My newest reply discusses the relationship between popular
culture and social change, and the limited effectiveness of voting; it also
explores briefly the implications of Rand's understanding of how ideas are
filtered through a society, and how such ideas can affect social and political
trends.
I welcome my pal and colleague Aeon Skoble onto the list of regular contributors
at L&P: "Aeon Skoble is
Back!"
"Caught
Up in The Rapture"
is my newest essay in The Free Radical. Written
in June, and published in the August-September 2004 issue of the magazine, the
piece makes an early online debut given its topicality as the GOP convention
nears. Ironically, Ayn Rand's legal heir, Leonard Peikoff, recently made
some similar observations about the fundamentalist upsurge and its implications
for the Presidential election. As cross-posted on both the Mises
Economics Blog and the Liberty
& Power Group Blog, I offer a prelude to my "Rapture" essay, which includes
a brief discussion of Peikoff's insights. Follow the dialogue, as I answer
the critics, at SOLO
HQ (which begins on the heels of announcements here and here;
Lindsay Perigo does apologize, however, here and here for
shooting from the hip...). I have posts here and here.
Also see the L&P discussion, starting here.
A PDF of the article is available here.
I post an L&P greeting to two long-time colleagues of mine: "Welcome
Aboard Grinder & Hagel."
I see that Arthur Silber refers to one of my posts in
his essay, "The
'Reagan Revolution' and Its Consequences: Taking Us Straight into Another
Dark Ages."
Funkster Rick James has passed on...
despite a troubled life, he leaves behind a lot of classic, danceable R&B music.
A couple of brief follow-ups today: Regi Firehammer posted an abstract of
my "Bush
Wins!" essay. Mark Fulwiler adds
a thought to the Theroux thread at L&P.
"It's
a New York Thing"
is a brief L&P post on a hilarious Denis Hamill piece in the New York Daily
News.
So, first baseman John
Olerud made his debut with the Yanks last night, as did pitcher
Esteban Loiaza, who gave up 5 runs in 6 innings. But Olerud
went 2 for 5, driving in two runs, and the Yanks tied the game in the 9th
inning on a Gary Sheffield two-run homer, with Derek Jeter aboard. The
Team went on to win it in the 11th inning with another two-run homer, this
A-Bomb by A-Rod. Welcome to Yankee baseball, John and Esteban!
It was the 42nd time in 67 victories that the Yanks have come from behind to
win.
Update on SOLO HQ discussions: Another post by me in answer to Regi
Firehammer on the need for "parallel
institutions." There is also additional dialogue in the Bush Wins!
thread at SOLO
HQ and Mises
Economics Blog (where I posted a very brief follow-up).
In a major discussion at L&P, there are a number of follow-ups to the question I
posed to David Theroux back on July 29th. See one post by Arnold
Shcherban, and especially today's exchange among David
Theroux, Irfan Khawaja, and me. (Khawaja also provides a
few chuckles in our exchange to my post, "It's
a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...") I have been a critic of those who
have advocated the war in Iraq; I have even criticized the way in which the US
waged war in Afghanistan. But I am equally critical of those anarchists
who act as if a viable libertarian alternative to current US policy can be
implemented, without fundamentally changing the system and the culture in which
we currently live. See my reasons for navigating between the Scylla
of being a "Saddamite" and the Charybdis of being a "Statist," here.
The SOLO
HQ thread on "Bush
Wins!" is really heating up over issues as varied as electoral politics and
torture. I, however, focus on the subject of the thread, and offer some
additional thoughts here and here about
the cultural forces that may very well give Bush four more years in the White
House. (Also, check out the comments on the article posted to Mises
Economics Blog.)
Though I have no thoughts to add to the discussion, the thread on "SOLO
and Stolyarov" continues here, here,
and here,
with some references to points I made in yesterday's
post, which seems to have been duplicated here as
well. Go figure!
Lindsay Perigo, who has several nicknames for me, some of which are
not printable here, refers to "Her Royal Whoreness Dr. Diabolical Dialectical"
in today's "Miscellaneous
Good News!" at SOLO HQ. By making this announcement, of course, I live
up to Linz's statement that while I do mention SOLO all over the web, as a
"typical academic!" I "tend to confine [my] whoring to those occasions where
[my] own articles are involved. Damn!" Well, my long-time pal Lou
Torres once said that I was a regular P.
T. Barnum of self-promotion. Ah, the virtues of selfishness...
and not-a-blog.
SOLO HQ publishes my Free Radical column,
written this past May, entitled "Bush
Wins!" This particular incarnation of the article includes a little
postscript, added in the days after the Democratic National Convention, giving
an up-to-date a*ssessment of the President's chances. I still think Dubya
is going to pull out an electoral victory. The cultural and political
forces that bring him that victory are the subject of my newest Free
Radical article, which will make its SOLO HQ debut in due course: "Caught
Up in the Rapture." Be sure to check out the dialogue thereafter, which
includes posts from Barbara
Branden and others. (I also mention the essay at L&P and
the Mises Economics Blog.)
The article is also available as a PDF here.
Speaking of SOLO HQ, I defend the site for its willingness to sponsor open,
nay, wide open discussion. Take a look at my post here,
which is a comment on Lindsay Perigo's essay, "SOLO
and Stolyarov."
Also at SOLO: Another exchange between Regi
Firehammer and me on
the nature of social change.
A friend of mine observed recently that "Not a Blog" officially celebrated
its two-year anniversary on 26
July 2004. In actuality, this page has been around for many years,
under the title "The Sciabarra Update" and "What's New." And it wasn't
actually re-named "Not a Blog" until 1 May 2003. But, yes, the
weblog-style was adopted here on 26
July 2002óand I'm happy to mark this milestone, a little late, with the
registered domain name: notablog.net.
Yes! For those of you who find typing all those NYU-related letters rather
irritating, just type notablog.net and
you'll be brought here! Which reminds me... you can get to my "Dialectics
and Liberty" website with a variety of domain names too, including: chrismatthewsciabarra.com, chrissciabarra.com, dialecticsandliberty.com,
and dialecticallibertarianism.com.
Just different vantage points on the same object.
I post some reflections on the newest terror alerts in New York City at L&P:
"It's a Beautiful Day in the
Neighborhood..." My friend Chip Gibbons notes the post in his blog
entry, "Powers
That Make Martial Law Look Like Anarchy." Speaking of which: I
received a very nice gift today from Chip, who runs The
Binary Circumstance. Check out his cool T-shirts here,
and you can order them here.
Regi Firehammer responds to
my challenges at SOLO HQ, and I respond to him here on
the nature of social change. Meanwhile, Andre Zantonovitch adds another comment
to this thread on
"First, A Revolution from Within."
As promised, I'm posting some of the dialogue I've had over the last couple of
weeks on two Yahoo forums: Atlantis II, where I posted some "Reflections
on Academic Discourse" (concerning the editorial policies of The
Journal of Ayn Rand Studies and my co-edited anthology, Feminist
Interpretations of Ayn Rand); and SOLO Yahoo Forum, where I posted on "M.A.D.,
Foreign Policy, and the U.S. Election" as well as on "Iran
and the War on Islamic Terrorism" (which assembles links to all of my L&P
posts on the subject).
Yahoo has given birth to a new forum, Salon_Total_Freedom,
which "derives its name from Chris Sciabarra's dialectical vision of
libertarianism; a politics of liberty intertwined with a desire for social
change." I was not involved with the founding or operation of this group,
am not a moderator, and have no formal relationship with it. In fact, I
was told about it after it was founded. Still, I popped in to say hi and
to wish the participants well. That's the nature of unintended
consequences... even in the arena of ideas.
Also, today, there's some more dialogue on the Ed
Younkins thread at SOLO HQ; I reply to Regi
Firehammer on the nature
of Rand's vision for radical social change.
Finally, there is word that the Olerud deal has not yet been finalized by the
New York Yankees... but the New York Daily News does publish that photo of A-Rod
lifting his pal Jeter in the air. See it here or here.
The discussion continues at SOLO HQ over Ed Younkins' essay. Take a look here and here,
where I defend the idea that social problems actually exist. Other
discussions continue as well: I have an exchange with
Andre Zantonavitch on my 7/24 post, "First,
A Revolution from Within," and I have an exchange with
Jason Pappas on my other 7/29 post, "Weighing
in on a Foreign Policy Debate, Again." In the next couple of days, I
plan to post here a few comments made on two other discussion lists, the SOLO
Yahoo Forum and the Atlantis II Yahoo forum.
In the meanwhile, the Yanks picked up pitcher
Esteban Loaiza and first baseman John Olerud before the trading deadline; Jason
Giambi is on the DL with treatment for a benign tumor. And for two
victorious games in a row, third baseman Alex Rodriguez hugged shortstop Derek
Jeter from behind, lifting his pal up in the air at the end of each game.
Given the bench-clearing brawl that featured a fight between
A-Rod and the Boston Red Sox' Jason Varitek last
weekend, I'd say this is a refreshingly affectionate trend in the opposite
direction. Of course, it helps if you're on the same team. Go Yanks!
I post a brief
comment on Ed Younkins' SOLO HQ essay, "Marketing
A Free Society: Education, Persuasion, and Conversion."
In "Kerry Stays the Course,"
at L&P, I offer brief reflections on John Kerry's speech at last night's
Democratic National Convention.
My discussion with David Theroux on "Afghan
and Iraq Wars and U.S. Interventionism" continues at L&P.
A fair-minded review of my monograph, Ayn
Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation, has just been published on The
Atlasphere. Kurt Keefner's essay, "Sciabarra
on Ayn Rand and Homosexuality," is summarized here as
well. I don't have any "official" response to Kurt's review except to say
that I agree with those post-Randians who believe that homosexuality per se is
not a philosophical or moral issue, and I see no need to write a "positive
defense" of it. My purpose in writing the monograph was partially to
celebrate Rand's "uplifting portrait of the human potential for greatness," and
her "exalted view of love as a response to values" as a "legacy that belongs to
all rational men and womenóof whatever sexual orientation." In any event,
thanks for the review, Kurt!
At L&P, I post brief reflections on this week's Democratic National Convention
("Al Sharpton and Dem Dems"),
as well as a distillation of my various foreign policy points ("Weighing
in on a Foreign Policy Debate, Again"). The debate over foreign policy
has included contributions from Roderick Long, who mentions my work here.
I also ask "A Question"
in response to David Theroux, who argues against "Misguided
Libertarian Support for the Afghan War."
I'm immensely busy with the Fall 2004 issue of The
Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, preparing it for publication. In the
meanwhile, check out additional follow-up to
Saturday's "Revolution from
Within."
I was just informed that Hypatia:
A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, published by Indiana University Press, and
described as the only academic periodical "for scholarly research at the
intersection of philosophy and women's studies," "a leader in reclaiming the
work of women philosophers," recently printed a long overdue review of Feminist
Interpretations of Ayn Rand. Excerpts from that review have been reprinted here on
the book's website.
I post a few L&P reflections on the Red Sox-Yankees series this past weekend at
Fenway Park: "Of Sox and
Socks." Comments on whether John Kerry is guilty of "throwing like a
girl," when he threw out the first pitch on Sunday night, begin here.
Check out comments here and here,
as follow-up to Saturday's "Revolution
from Within" post at L&P. There are also a
few more comments on the Japanese
translation of The Fountainhead at SOLO HQ, including one that references my
own words from a Chronicle of
Higher Education interview concerning the "inexorable" impact of Rand on
academic culture.
First, A Revolution from Within
is my L&P post for today. One can agree with the 9/11 Commission that we
are facing an ideological conflict; it is therefore imperative to adopt the
right ideology in combating oppression abroad... and at home.
A brief
discussion about the Japanese translation of The Fountainhead has begun at
SOLO HQ; the chat includes comments by Kayo Fujimori, the translator, and
follow-up from me.
Arthur Silber mentions me at LOR ("Thank
You") for having recommended Sheila Fitzpatrick's fine book, Everyday
Stalinism. And it is a fine book...
I'm super busy proofreading the August-September 2004 issue of The Free
Radical today, but had time for a very brief
exchange with Jonathan Dresner at L&P about the
new Japanese translation of The Fountainhead. Meanwhile, my
forthcoming essay in Free Rad, entitled "Caught Up in the Rapture," deals with
the alarming rise of religion as a cultural and political force in contemporary
America. More to follow...
I added a postscript at L&P on my continuing discussion of academic
fragmentation: "Three
Cheers for the Generalists!"
It's the 35th
anniversary of the first moon walk, and I do have an announcement today that
is certainly global in its implications. It's nowhere near as dramatic as
Neil Armstrong's "great leap for mankind," but it should be of interest to fans
of Ayn Rand's fiction. In a "Not a Blog" exclusive, read all about it:
"The First Landing of Ayn Rand in
Japan!" (I also mention this at L&P and SOLO
HQ.)
In other news, I see that Jim Henley has mentioned my piece on "Comics
and Conservative Critics" in his blog entry, "Spider-Blogging:
On the Right Hand." I wish I knew the answers to Jim's questions!
Friend and colleague Stephen R. C. Hicks has published his book, Explaining
Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, for
which I provided a blurb. Here's what I had to say about it:
Stephen Hicks has written an insightful and biting commentary on the nature of
postmodernism and its revolt against the Enlightenment. He situates the movement
in a larger historical context and analyzes its cultural and political
implications. Even when one disagrees with Hicks's interpretations, his work
will challenge and provoke. This is must-reading for anyone interested in
philosophy-by-essentials.
Congratulations, Stephen!
As a follow-up to some discussion links offered here and here on
the Janet Jackson-Super Bowl controversy, check out Arthur Silber's post, "The
Bland Leading the Bland, Or: Saved by 'The Simpsons'," which refers to some
of my earlier thoughts on the subject.
Meanwhile, Arthur offers a discussion of "James
Bond's Real Life Crime," a comment on the failure of US intelligence.
I offer some additional thoughts about "Democrats,
Republicans, and The Failure of U.S. Intelligence" (cross-referenced
at L&P) in response to a compendium of quotes from Democrats that has been
circulating around the Internet.
I posted a comment about
a very unpleasant memory from my youth, in reply to Alec Mouhibian's SOLO HQ
essay, "The
Euphemism of Anti-Semitism."
My friend David M. Brown posted some comments on 7/10/04 (scroll down at the LFB
blog), dealing with "Dinesh
D'Souza on prosperity, America," wherein he mentions a recent discussion of
D'Souza's Virtue of Prosperity that appeared in the Spring
2004 issue of The
Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. Check it out. I'm currently
preparing the Fall 2004 issue of JARS, which is going to be the first of two
special issues devoted to the Ayn Rand Centenary (officially celebrated on 2
February 2005). The Fall issue focuses on "Ayn Rand: Cultural and
Literary Impact," while our Spring 2005 issue focuses on "Ayn Rand Among the
Austrians." The forthcoming Fall edition has terrific essays by a wide
variety of fine contributors, including authors Erika Holzer and Alexandra York,
literary theorists Stephen Cox & Kirsti Minsaas, journalist and literary critic
Jeff Riggenbach, and historian Bernice Rosenthal, among others.
I send a warm welcome out to my friend and colleague: "Peter
Boettke Joins L&P."
Take a look at follow-up
discussion on my "Simple Question" post at L&P.
I posted a brief
follow-up to SOLO HQ on Lindsay Perigo's TOC appearance. Additional
comments have been posted from others on the Mises
Economics Blog and at L&P (where Jonathan
Dresner posts on my "simple question").
I commented on
Lindsay Perigo's SOLO HQ essay, "TOC,
SOLO ... and KASS." At L&P, I've written a brief postscript to last
week's musings on comics, "Comics
Lit," as well as brief post asking "A
Simple Question" about the debate over the war in Iraq: "If You Knew Then,
What You Know Now..."
Nothing new from me today, but some comments on yesterday's entries have been
posted. Steven
Kane and Harry David comment on my Mises
Economics Blog post. And a small
discussion has begun at SOLO HQ on the rock band Rush, sparked by my
brief entry in the new Objectipedia.
In the meanwhile... GO
KEN JENNINGS... who now has over $900,000 in Jeopardy winnings. I've
been watching this Mighty Mormon religiously every night. He's quite
remarkable...
Ilana Mercer,
over at World Net Daily, reviews my
monograph Ayn Rand,
Homosexuality, and Human Liberation. Thanks, Ilana, for a fair-minded
review and for focusing attention on an important subject. (A summary of
the review appears here; but why read a summary when you
can read the original?)
I notice that Ari Armstrong has cited yesterday's L&P post, "Comics
and Conservative Critics," in his review
of Spider-Man 2. Thanks, Ari! And thanks to Matthew
Humphreys for adding his voice to the L&P discussion (Matthew references a
comic book discussion at SOLO HQ).
I posted a brief entry at the Mises Economics Blog highlighting an article at Common-Place: "The
Campaign Against Counterfeits."
Joe Rowlands announced today the creation of SOLO-HQ's "Objectipedia,"
which will "document sightings of Objectivism in the culture." I've posted
the first few entries: Ditko,
Steve; Miller,
Frank; Rush;
and The
Simpsons.
Holy Conservative Claptrap, Batman! Pow! Splat!! Crunch!!!
I come out swinging at John Podhoretz's National
Review Online tirade against comics in my L&P post, "Comics
and Conservative Critics." See follow-up comments at L&P here and here.
I added a comment in
reply to Irfan Khawaja, part of
an L&P thread inspired by Gene Healy's "Antiwar
Libertarianism, Cont."
I made a brief
comment on The Red Shoes, the 1948 film with Moira Shearer, in response to
a SOLO HQ
mini-review by Marnee
Dearman.
The L&P foreign policy discussion continues; check out Roderick Long's essay, "The
Logic of Jihad," which references my essay, "Understanding
the Global Crisis: Reclaiming Rand's Radical Legacy."
Today is my dog Blondie's 15th birthday. She'll have new summer pics in
her Photo Gallery soon; for now, take a look here for
a trip down memory lane.
I continue posting on the "Great Foreign Policy Debate," a discussion that
includes contributions from Aeon
Skoble, Irfan Khawaja, Roderick Long, and David Beito at Liberty
& Power (keep scrolling down...)
For those who have expressed interest in the Fall 2004 "Dialectics and Liberty
Cyberseminar": It has been postponed due to significant research
obligations. Watch this space for
future updates. (A note was sent to SOLO
HQ about this, along with an update from Lindsay
Perigo on his TOC 2004 Summer Seminar appearance.)
I pride myself on being a big promoter of ... my own activities, every
opportunity I get. Today, however, I see that Liberty
& Power has been added to the SOLO
HQ Web Directory (under "Libertarian") ... and I didn't even do it!
Thanks Matthew
Humphreys!
At L&P, I added a follow-up comment (directed to my fellow blogmate Pat
Lynch) to my post on the July
1st Red Sox-Yankees game, "That
October Feeling ... in July." This follow-up deals with this past
weekend's bruising baseball for our respective favorite teams: "Wha
Happened?"
Roderick T. Long tells
me that "Not a Blog" could indeed be read as "Nota Blog" as I say here,
but that it could also be "NOTA Blog," as in the ol' slogan "None
of the Above," which the Libertarian Party has
wanted to put on every ballot. I'm glad to see that my fellow dialectician continues
to look at things from different points of view ...
In the meanwhile, a Happy
Independence Day to all! And... we'll get 'em next time, Andy
Roddick!
The Don is Gone!
At least we have many miles of celluloid to view, by which to remember Marlon
Brando.
Today, my chat continues with Irfan Khawaja and Aeon Skoble continues at
L&P (just keep scrolling down...).
My brief reflections on last night's thrilling game between the New York Yankees
and the Boston Red Sox are posted at L&P: "That
October Feeling ... in July." Also, check out my little
chat with Pat Lynch on those other Sox (White, Chicago).
Update: The discussion with Irfan Khawaja on the Iraq war continues at
L&P. See my follow-up comments here and here.
"Not a Blog" might very well be read as "Nota Blog" in a way that recalls the
Latin phrase "Nota Bene." It is my hope that the entries linked here will
be the kinds of things of which one might take particular notice. And so,
from now on, I plan to use this space consistently in the first-person to link
directly to various posts, messages, and articles that I've authored. If you'd
like to see the links to previous "Not a Blog" entries, take a look at the 2001-2003 archives,
and the more recent January
2004 - June 2004 archives.
Today, I have written two posts for the Liberty & Power Group Blog (L&P is now
more easily accessible at either libertyandpower.org or libertyandpower.com;
mentioned by Randy Barnett here.)
The first post deals with the complex relationship between the United States and
Saudi Arabia, entitled: "US-Saudi
Chickens Coming Home to Roost." The second is a postscript to my L&P
blog entry, "Academic Curricula:
At War with Radical Thinking." This postscript, "The
War Against Radical Thinking, Revisited," cites superb passages from the
work of Georges Charpak and Henri Broch on the role of reason in keeping the
citizenry vigilant.
Update: I added a comment to
a discussion that includes posts from Irfan Khawaja and Aeon Skoble, in response
to David Beito's thread, Volokh/Liberty
and Power: The Great Foreign Policy Debate.
