“Why is it I always gotta kill somebody to get them to take me seriously?” –Kevin Dillon, “Misbegotten” Read more

NOTHING TODAY but will be back and on the attack tomorrow–today I am too sleepy to both blog and work. More later! Read more

FROM BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL: Nietzsche aphorisms I really like. See the next post for comments on a few of them. Unsurprisingly, I don’t necessarily agree with them, but I think they’re excellent shards of insight or jumping-off points. For the ones on love, see esp. my senior essay (apologies in advance for the formatting). 67: Love of one is a barbarism; for it is exercised at the expense of all others. The love of God, too. 68: “I have... Read more

SCATTERED COMMENTS. 85: I ran this by a friend of mine, who replied, “Yeah! Women are faster,” which I think is right on and quite subtle. 92 and 95: Dignity vs. honor. If it is the indignity of sin that offends you, you still have a standard higher than the standard of goodness–the standard of your own dignity, your own inviolable self. And so if morality were to require the violation of that self, you would feel shame and reject... Read more

Un mir zaynen alle shvester, Oy, oy, alle shvester, Azoy vi Rokl, Rus, un Blogwatch, Oy, oy, oy… (sorry–have that stuck in my head.) Don’t Link to Us–watchdog on sites w/bizarre linking policies, e.g. no deep-linking. The Homeless Guy: A homeless guy with a blog (via public library computers). For real as far as anyone can tell. Interesting guy. Via InstaPundit, so I’m not sure why I’m pointing this guy out, but there you go. Amy Welborn‘s comments are playing... Read more

“We have a very serious situation on our hands here.” “Situation? What kind of situation?” “This entire area used to be a toxic waste dump. And not only that, we have a mutant form of killer slug in our water system!” –Michael Garfield and extra, “Slugs” Read more

MYSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY: An exchange between me and Brink Lindsey. It all started with this post of his. Then this one from me. Then him. Then three emails, reprinted here. HIM: Allow me to elaborate on my contention that mysticism has been peripheral to orthodox Christianity after the Gnostic heresy was suppressed — a contention you characterized as “a bit odd,” and that your reader Christopher Jones slammed as “preposterous” in that intemperate, puerile tone so distressingly common in e-mail... Read more

AN OXBLOG DEBATE on democratization of Iraq. Haven’t read yet, will report back when I have, but looks well worth your time. Read more

…AND THEN WHAT HAPPENS?: I haven’t seen any explications of how we expect to transform Iraq into a liberal democracy once we’ve bulldozed lots of stuff. I’ve seen comparisons to post-WWII Japan and Germany (to which Unqualified Offerings replied by pointing out that we’d just, uh, dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, so they were smiling and playing nice for reasons that are really not relevant to Iraq’s situation; plus they were staring down the barrel of not one but... Read more

BLOGFEST 2-3: Was lots of fun. Haven’t found a list of attendees (?) yet, but Balko, Healey, The Masked Person, Lex of Files fame, Sanchez, and lots more people were there. I showed up fashionably late (…Metrobus) and missed Tepper. I was antisocial as usual and talked mostly with Jim Henley–will post shortly on some of the stuff we discussed–and Kelly Torrance, who has only just started her site, but she’s got an interesting and accurate take on the world,... Read more