BERNARD HERRMAN IS GREAT. I just thought you should know. Read more

“At the same time, non-custodial fathers with disposable income were setting a standard that no father-in-residence could meet. Even the most dutiful full-time father almost never whisks the children off for exciting weekend adventures–certainly not every, or every other, weekend. Vacations aren’t exotic surprises but are tediously planned and discussed in advance. Allowances may appear regularly, but surprise checks do not. Presents arrive on the holidays when they are expected but rarely between; the occasionaly extras a residential father produces... Read more

UNEASY PREFERENCES: Really interesting piece from The American Prospect on affirmative action. It’s missing a positive program though–it’s all critique–and thus it can’t recapture the hope and inspiration that imbued the King era. I do believe that hope can be regained, and I’ll be writing more about that next week. Read more

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next week you’ll get: jurisprudence mail with replies; lots and lots of thoughts on race and racism and stuff; more on aesthetics and reason; maybe some thoughts on life-as-story, ethics, and Nietzsche. For now, all you get are scraps, sorry–I’m having a much too harried Advent, I’m lame. Read more

ANGELA CARTER UPDATES: When last I blogged about the fun feminist fabulist, I was re-reading Love, one of her earlier novels. I’ve now finished Love and Shadow Dance (which I think was her debut) and am now almost halfway through The Magic Toyshop, which I think was one of my two favorites in high school (along with Heroes and Villains; I thought The Fantastic Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman was a more important book than those two, but “favorite” doesn’t... Read more

“In the end, we found that transsexuals, the most feminine men on Earth, had scores that were indistinguishable from straight or gay men.” Very interesting stuff from Ted Barlow. Read more

JOHN ASHCROFT, UGH. EDITED TO ADD: A Missouri-born and -bred friend pointed out that I may be jumping the gun here, since “Chapter 1” of Jeanne D’Arc’s indictment involves fairly complex Missouri politics (opposing a specific strategy for desegregating schools is not the same as praising segregation), and although “Chapter 2” looks supersketchy and 1950s-literacy-test-like I really don’t know enough about it to link to it as if I understood what was going on. So, consider this your invitation to... Read more

VAMPIRES, MAGES, AND MEANING: Super-interesting conversation about the attractive and repellent aspects of “story,” higher purpose, or theme in role-playing games, via Ampersand. There are big obvious theological questions here that might make the discussion interesting even to people who don’t give a rat’s about dice and such. I’ll probably post more on this tomorrow night–sorry for all the light blogging, it’ll pick up very soon, though not this weekend. Read more

‘TIS THE SEASON…FOR BAD CHARITIES?: My JWR column on choosing a charity. Apologies for the messy links. Read more

RADIO SILENCE. Must-read post on the silencing of Radio Free Iran. (It’s got a different name, but whatever.) Read more