LAST SUNDAY, in sunny New Haven (it really was, for once–my face is tawny and one shoulder is still a bit burnt), I saw Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” for the first time. Fun stuff! “The Family Guy” was just whatever, maybe I saw a lame episode. But “Harvey Birdman”–Hanna-Barbera characters are Soprano-style mafiosi–I thought I’d fall off the couch. Awesome. The one with the Yalies was really funny too. Sadly, though, no “Space Ghost: Coast to Coast,” a truly stellar... Read more

MADRASSA VOUCHERS AGAIN: Andrew Stuttaford wonders how we should think about the possibility that school vouchers would be used at radical Islamist madrassas. Here’s my take. Read more

SOME SELECTIONS FROM THE ABOLITION OF MARRIAGE to whet your appetite. Stuff in brackets is from me. I’m quoting the more theoretical bits here, but the book is chock-full of examples, anecdotes, stats (and she’s careful with them, too, unlike most policy-popularizers), and moving personal stories, breathing life into the philosophical discussions. You can see, I hope, why Lingua Franca described Gallagher’s prose as “bodice-ripping”–that’s a compliment. “[C]ohabitation thwarts as often as it satisfies the impulse to marry. Cohabitation comes... Read more

WHAT I LEARNED ON MY VACATION: Everybody should read Maggie Gallagher’s Enemies of Eros and The Abolition of Marriage. EOE is a grab-bag, and some parts are better than others; I was not so much struck by the earlier sections, but by the end the book is just terrific, and life-changing. AOM is the most philosophically rich, personally and socially important policy book I’ve ever read. You should do yourself a favor and check them out. More on this above. Read more

“The founder of Christianity had to pay for having directed himself to the lowest class of Jewish society and intelligence. They conceived him in the spirit they understood– It is a real disgrace to have concocted a salvation story, a personal God, a personal redeemer, a personal immortality and to have retained all the meanness of the ‘person’ and ‘history’ in a doctrine that contests the reality of all that is personal and historical–“ —Will to Power Well that just... Read more

HI HONEY, I’M HOME. Back. Did you miss me? Sorry for hiatus, when I got back things were super-hectic and I’ve been stressed. Better now, I think. Anyway, real blogging will resume tomorrow (Friday). I have some cool stuff stored up. For now, Julian Sanchez points me to Our-DC.com, a site dedicated to showing you the delights of DC-the-hometown not Washington-the-dateline. Awesome. Read more

MIDEASTERN GEOGRAPHY MAP QUIZ. I actually did (much) better on this than I expected–in general, as my mother knows and has long lamented, I am about as good at geography as I am at math. (Yes, I know, this is a huge problem for anyone interested in politics or history.) The following are the countries I couldn’t accurately place on the first try: Niger (I thought it was Chad, d’oh); Western Sahara; Morocco; Mauritania; Tunisia; Pakistan (I got this on... Read more

CRONACA has a wealth of important posts on the Baghdad museum looting. Via the Cranky Professor. This one is perhaps most relevant to the “don’t be so sure” post below, but you’ll find many, many more articles at the main Cronaca site, so please check it out. Read more

I’M GOING OUT OF TOWN tomorrow (Wednesday). Below you will find gobs of chocolatey blog goodness–including reviews of “Richard III,” “Jezebel,” and Cat Power’s new album, plus stuff on Fides et Ratio and the nuptial meaning of the mind. I’ll be out of town until Monday or Tuesday. At some point when I get computer access, I’ll post on forgiveness and humor, political theory vs. political philosophy, whether jurisprudence is whatever they’ll let you get away with, and anything else... Read more

I STARTED SOMETHING, AND NOW I’M NOT SO SURE, so I have to fill this space somehow, since Blogger seems to be denying me the right to just eliminate posts. Therefore: This is not the best ice cream in the DC metro area. York Castle, on GA Ave. in Silver Spring, is far superior. Sorry, I had to put something in this space. Link via Tepper. Read more