Inviting Someone to Debate a Person, Not an Ideology

Last updated on: January 2, 2014 at 12:23 pm By Leah Libresco

Scott of Slate Star Codex has a good essay up that was prompted by the whole Duck Dynasty fracas. Phil Robertson’s comments on homosexuality aren’t a first amendment issue; it was A&E that might be firing him for his speech, not the government cracking down, but Scott points out that, for speech to flourish, we need protections beyond legal guarantees: Constitutional freedom-of-speech is a necessary but not sufficient condition to have a “marketplace of ideas” and avoid de facto censorship.... Read more

The Wicked Fairy at the Manger

Last updated on: December 28, 2013 at 1:18 pm By Leah Libresco

During Christmas, I got one present for myself: U.A. Fanthorpe’s Christmas Poems. Fanthorpe is a poet, and every year she writes a poem to send out with her Christmas card. This book is a collection of her annual poems to date. I picked up the book after a friend read me a couple from her copy. And one of them seemed very appropriate for today, the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The Wicked Fairy at the Manger My gift... Read more

6 Quick Dragons

Last updated on: December 27, 2013 at 1:38 am By Leah Libresco

— 1 — I had a lot of fun making my Christmas present for my gentleman caller this year, and, since it’s no longer a secret project, I think I can share it now. The first thing I quite admired about him was his Dungeons and Dragons worldbuilding (he ended up using me as the basis for a major villain, which I think was a compliment), so when I saw io9’s post about Dice Dragons (ornamental dragons that hold your DnD... Read more

Taking the Measure of Friendship

Last updated on: December 27, 2013 at 12:05 am By Leah Libresco

My family enjoyed our annual viewing of The Muppet Christmas Carol (still the best, still the source of two of my mental images for Harry Potter characters: The Ghost of Christmas Present as Hagrid, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come as a Dementor). But there is one lyric in “Thankful Heart” (above) that tends to strike a wrong note with me: I will sail a friendly course, file a friendly chart On a sea of love and a thankful heart... Read more

The Marleys Were Dead, To Begin With

Last updated on: December 21, 2013 at 9:25 am By Leah Libresco

I’m home with family, wrapping presents, baking cookies, and watching the best Christmas movie ever made. (The runner up is Mrs Santa Claus – Angela Lansbury at the turn of the century as the eponymous character, who sings, marches with suffragettes, and organizes labor). But the best movie has the best songs, including the best encapsulation of virtue ethics ever set to music. When a cold wind blows it chills you Chills you to the bone But there’s nothing in nature that freezes your heart... Read more

7 Quick Takes (12/20/13)

Last updated on: December 20, 2013 at 1:47 am By Leah Libresco

— 1 — Let’s start the Quick Takes with a link about beginnings. Keen envisions a better way to start players off in an MMO instead of dumping them all in the same newbie tutorial land. Players start hours apart, and in areas of the world so different from each other that the social mechanisms are different. I remember seeing people say, “We do things differently in this part of the world.” Someone hunting in Crushbone might be used to... Read more

In Praise of Particularity?

Last updated on: December 20, 2013 at 1:22 am By Leah Libresco

The newest issue of Fare Forward is out, and I have a review of Stephen T. Asma’s Against Fairness in the magazine. You can read the review in full on Fare Forward‘s website, but here’s a teaser: Stephen T. Asma’s book is titled Against Fairness, but it doesn’t take too long for the reader to discover what he is for. Asma thinks we’ve neglected nepotism, favoritism, and particularity in our relationships and our moral reasoning. Our natural impulse to play favorites is, in... Read more

After a Year with Pope Francis

Last updated on: December 18, 2013 at 6:32 pm By Leah Libresco

Time, The Advocate, and The New Yorker are just the latest publications to find Pope Francis front-page worthy news and the symbol of a spiritual year in review. Meanwhile, I’ve gotten an email from a friend who wants a recommendation for a Pope Francis book for a relative who is unexpectedly excited about Catholicism again, and I see non-Catholic friends sharing interview excerpts and photos, talking about the first pope they’ve liked. And, the whole time, I’ve felt a little... Read more

It is not good that man should be alone

Last updated on: December 17, 2013 at 3:23 pm By Leah Libresco

As some of you have gleaned from off-hand comments, I’ve returned to Washington, D.C. I really liked my job as a curriculum developer at CFAR, but I turned out to be terribly homesick for D.C. In January, I’ll be starting a new job as an Editoral Assistant at a magazine. Meanwhile, in the two weeks or so that I’ve been back home, I’ve felt great about my decision. I was welcomed back with snow, emails scheduling a Tempest reading, the opportunity to... Read more

Pope Francis and the Mendicant Christ

Last updated on: December 17, 2013 at 2:49 pm By Leah Libresco

Pope Francis gave an interview to La Stampa, and, all caveats about translation aside, these two questions and responses caught my eye: What does Christmas say to people today? “It speaks of tenderness and hope. When God meets us he tells us two things. The first thing he says is: have hope. God always opens doors, he never closes them. He is the father who opens doors for us. The second thing he says is: don’t be afraid of tenderness. When... Read more