TOMORROW: I promised someone that I would compose and post a Spenserian stanza related to some current event. You have been warned. I am feeling less sick, YAY!!!!, but am extraordinarily busy (a good thing), so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to blog, but I would like to post more about that “Virtue of Hate” article, which you should go read if you haven’t already. Read more

DID YOU ATTEND THE “SILENT NO MORE” vigil after the March for Life? If so, would you mind dropping me an email? Thanks so much. Read more

PHILOSOPHY.COM (another guy who clearly doesn’t care to make his URL match his blog-name–yay!) talks a bit about my post on conservative philosophy, but his previous post on the subject is more interesting–he basically takes some standard descriptions of “conservatism as a habit of mind,” points out that he is a lefty who can sign on to them, and speculates about what that means. Read more

TWO INTERESTING NUGGETS–out of my areas of expertise, but well worth your time. The Volokh Conspiracy hosts dueling perspectives on the effect of cigarette tax increases on crime; and National Review Online charges that we’ve got lots more teachers, but they’re making less money and doing less teaching, thus the only beneficiaries are–you guessed it–teachers’ unions. (I note that NRO isn’t arguing that the unions caused these changes, just that they are the main beneficiaries. There’s quite a bit of... Read more

OUCH, THAT STINGS! I got 175 out of 200 on this vocab test. Fun but hard! Via Goblin Queen and Making Light. Read more

BEHIND THE MASKS: What horror movies tell us about our culture. My Jewish World Review column. Will be familiar to longtime blog readers. Read more

MONA CHAREN on why we don’t let children run the world. It’s the second half of the piece that struck me, because I really, really can’t stand the whole “the US vs. its enemies is just like a schoolyard fight, the President is being a big bully, we need the teacher to step in and separate them” naive attempt at childlike wisdom. The innocence of doves minus the wisdom of serpents can be just as deadly as the reverse. (Also,... Read more

PROFQUOTES. In case you haven’t seen ’em yet. Priceless stuff. Via Volokh. Read more

NEW STUDENT PAPER AT GONZAGA. I may not be able to read this, since my computer tends to wig when I ask it to handle PDFs, but I do know one of the guys who does this–very smart dude. The Witness is, as I understand it, a paper that will seek to strengthen and defend Gonzaga’s Catholic identity, thus I’m in favor. Plus, I always get a kick out of administration-needling, fun-having college papers. Read more

PALESTINIAN PRIEST PROPOSES PILGRIMAGE TO AUSCHWITZ: JERUSALEM, FEB. 5, 2003 (Zenit.org).- It was big news in Israel: Father Emile Shoufani, an ethnic Palestinian of Israeli nationality, is organizing a pilgrimage “of knowledge and understanding” to Auschwitz. The Greek-Melkite rite priest, director of St. Joseph’s School in Nazareth, made his proposal for 150 Christian Arabs, 150 Jews and 150 Muslim Arabs. [clipped] Via Cacciaguida. Read more