GAMBLING: Amy Welborn has lots and lots of stuff up about various facets of the Bennett/gambling story. To me (=not much of a Bennett fan to begin with–sharply disagree about the Drug War, obviously, and haven’t read the Book of Virtues anthologies), there are three aspects or layers to this: Gambling and betting in moderation are good fun. Bet on the Derby. Bet on the Oscars. Whatever. It can foster camaraderie, it is a way to taste risk without (assuming,... Read more

“THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI“: Finally saw this 1920 horror classic yesterday, after missing it twice in the past two months. It was utterly awesome. A freaky, creepy, twisty little chiller, with truly bizarre sets–the light and shadows are sometimes painted on in order to enhance the weirdness. It’s like Looney Toons Of Evil. Great stuff. Read more

OUCH!: Tepper on politics. A couple quick thoughts: 1) OK, so, uh, why is minimizing pain the goal here? Is it just that it’s easier to get people to agree on what minimizes pain? That seems like a bit of a lowest-common-denominator politics–“Don’t try to institute anything controversial”–and besides, I’m not sure it’s true. What about other possible goals like protecting the ones we love; honor; human dignity and/or avoidance of degradation (I hope we can agree that people who... Read more

BWA-HA-HA!!! More fun with philosophy, via Matthew Yglesias as usual. It’s hilarious even though I’m not at all familiar with the academic-insider thing it’s parodying. Rankings of various philosophy departments… such as: The Lyceum has world-class faculty in Metaphysics, Ethics, Aesthetics, Mind, Politics, Logic, and the Motion of Animals. The fact that all of these faculty are Aristotle makes it hard to fill a dissertation committee. University of Wittenberg, 1512 – 1521: Though the department has several “names,” including Phillip... Read more

MADRASSA VOUCHERS MAIL: Thomas Nephew writes: I read your item about madrassa vouchers, and disagree. First, a pragmatic disagreement: even if rich people already can send their kids to madrassas, if that is dangerous for our society, then there’s a pragmatic case for not enabling far more numerous poor people to do it as well. Second, a principled one: madrassas verge on the ‘child abuse’ you allow as an exception to parental autonomy. Madrassas – as I understand them –... Read more

“PERSON” MAIL: Rob Dakin writes, I think that Nietzsche is correct to this extent: I don’t believe that grace is available to just anyone who, in the end cries “Lord, Lord”. I think it takes an emptying out of that “meanness” and the unintelligence of the personal history, through striving, as Jesus put it, to “be perfect, like our Father in heaven.” Not that one can achieve that, but that one must be constantly approaching that goal by discarding those... Read more

CAT POWER MAIL: I should say again that a) I am glad I have the new album, and b) there are four songs on it that I like (“Good Woman,” “Free,” “I Don’t Blame You,” and “Werewolf,” in that order). But overall the thing was not being all it could be. Idols of the Marketplace writes: I read your review of “You Are Free” and agree with some parts of what you say but what can I say I still... Read more

“Man a little, eccentric species of animal, which–fortunately–has its day; all on earth a mere moment, an incident, an exception without consequences, something of no importance to the general character of the earth; the earth itself, like every star, a hiatus between two nothingnesses, an event without plan, reason, will, self-consciousness, the worst kind of necessity, stupid necessity— Something in us rebels against this view; the serpent vanity says to us: ‘all that must be false, for it arouses indignation—... Read more

FREE TRADE LINKS: Radley Balko defends sweatshops. Regions of Mind on problems with the WTO. Read more

GOOD DISCUSSION OF HISTORY OF JUDICIAL CONFIRMATION FIGHTS here; scroll around. Read more