The NY Times will be free!

August 7, 2007August 10, 2007 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Well, free access to much of its online archives, anyways.

We know the Times does the Arts pretty well. We know they’re concerned about global warming, and how this new-fangled technology will destroy the written word. They are deeply human and value all things humanistic.

But they can’t destroy the written word more than English departments have in the last fifty years or so, chasing the morsels of Continental Philosophy. And yes, the Times often chases English Departments.

In addition, the Science section sometimes reads like a psychology section, and it’s unpleasant to watch the paper cling to ideas that just don’t hold water, when all it needs is right in front of it, in bustling New York.

Well, it’s free, anyways, and a lot of it is still pretty good.

Time to ‘fess up: Michael Ignatieff

August 6, 2007August 11, 2007 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Michael Ignatieff has a good article in the NY Times Sunday. Here’s the link. (Registration required for now).

He’s something of an historian, liberal public policy director, public thinker, Harvard professor, and potentially useful person to have around.

He also made some strong arguments for the Iraq war and has come to change his thinking.

So, here’s September, 2003 then March, 2004, and now this past Sunday’s piece.

It seems like most of us can be swept away by our fear of shame, our sense of honor, as well as believing in the conviction of moral action. It happened to a majority of people leading up to the war. It’s still happening to many people, including those on the left now. By this I mean a fear of shame, a sense of honor, and not examining your own ideas because your own failure and the failure of others.

This is not as easy as it seems.

Update: An Arctic Tale

August 5, 2007August 7, 2007 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Last week, I posted on The New York Times article about what strikes me as a potentially sentimental and morally heavy-handed movie, An Arctic Tale. (Where can I get that jazzy marketing?) At the very least, the Times article about the movie was pretty sentimental and heavy-handed.

So, I’m in Starbucks today, and they’ve got plush polar bears and walruses (mingling peacefully together, no blood-stains around the bears’ faces) in a basket by the cash register.

Live by your lights, but just sell me the coffee, please. Sell me the coffee.

Camille Paglia

August 5, 2007August 6, 2007 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Like H.L. Mencken, I suspect that one of Camille Paglia’s greatest influences is Nietzsche.

Her criticism of art seems genuinely useful, and she has pointedly described the problems that face liberal arts education in the U.S. She also has a sharp-tongue, and it’s good to see English departments, (and various other spritualists) get taken to task for their excesses and failures.

I would truly enjoy seeing her on her own show or with a more steady job than the one she has at Salon.com. No one has a finger on American culture as well as some deep and complex ideas like Paglia.

My biggest problem with Paglia, though, is the lack of sustained, reasonable arguments that methodically support her ideas. I’d like to see her take that extra step. She’s always making the same mistakes (wild generalizations, snarky asides, personal characterizations) as the people she criticizes. In my mind, this can push someone with with serious and deep ideas into the role of entertainer, or spectacle.

A fascinating spectacle, though. It’s good to have her around.

Slummy Mummy: How to be a bad mother

August 4, 2007August 5, 2007 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Here is a link to Katie Roiphe’s Slate article. This topic is serious, very serious. It’s about morals, and art, and being a mommy, or “mummy,” as the case may be.

So, here’s the first line of the article: “I have nothing against a light summer novel. In fact, I like a light summer novel….Still, I can’t help but think….”

So, as I join this discussion, I’d like to add: “I have nothing against an article about a light summer novel. In fact, I like an article about a light summer novel…Still I can’t help but think…”

1. Britain is echoing some of the cultural changes that we had here about a decade ago. (The book is British).
2. The British will probably wake up soon and realize they’ve been following Americans around in cultural matters. A certain percentage of them won’t mind this realization.
3. Arguing that “Moralism is bad in books” and that the people who read Slummy Mummy should go read Betty Friedan is pretty moralistic.

Addition:

I suspect most moms will do fine without reading the book, the article, or my post about the article. Such is life.

Allegory of the Cave

August 2, 2007August 5, 2007 / chr1 / Leave a comment

The last post reminded me of this. There are always people out there ready to foist their ill-concealed righteousness and ill-conceived ideaologies onto the rest of us. You can feel free to ignore them…at your own risk.

So, when was the last time you read one of the most influential dialogues ever written?

If This Is Progressivism…

August 2, 2007January 12, 2008 / chr1 / 1 Comment

Matt Stoller, of Open Left, made an appearance yesterday on bloggingheads. Click here for the link. A quick summary:

1. Apparently, America will go through four transformative periods. These are the Revolutionary period, the Civil War, The Depression……and the one we’re headed towards…”Massive institutional fights period.” Happily, Stoller is ready to define and participate in this period.

2. Stoller is working to make the internet available for all citizens, hopefully so they will become progressives like him. This could be useful….. Here’s some advice to Stoller: People will likely eat your food and throw out the box. But work away, work away…

3. The media is clearly not representing the work he does to unify people, nor his progressive views. Therefore, they are corrupt.

Well……if this is progressivism….

The Same Note to Self I’ve written twice already: Beware of people who want to control or blame “the media”, they are not willing to think through their own ideas.

Addition: Althouse has more on progressive loopiness.

Andrew Sullivan on Hillary and Obama

August 1, 2007August 5, 2007 / chr1 / 1 Comment

Here is a link to Ann Althouse on Andrew Sullivan’s recent Obama v. Hillary post.

I like Sullivan’s blog, and it’s easy to sit in judgment, especially on a blog so visible and so well done.

Sullivan, as he claims to be, is a true believer. It’s one trait among many that gives him uncommon depth. He is often refreshing with his mix of Oakeshottian conservativism and Catholic faith, British upbringing and American citizenship, homosexuality and fiscal conservativism!.

However, Sullivan adamantly supported the war, and now he adamantly wants the Bush administration out. He’s adamantly against Hillary as a person, and pro-Obama for similar reasons……right now, anyways. He has been honest about his mistakes, but I can’t help thinking he’s going to make similar mistakes again.

If it’s faith in God that leads to such positions, then it’s likely he could ask more of his reasons as he puts them foward. And if it’s faith in God that leads him to such positions, it’s likely he won’t ask more of his reasons as he puts them foward.

Addition: Because it all goes back to God, you see. Who can sort that out?

More No Child Left Behind thoughts

August 1, 2007August 5, 2007 / chr1 / Leave a comment

I know a student who was given access to textbooks and materials he wouldn’t otherwise have gotten, as well as take an AP class that was created with No Child Left Behind Funding. For kids who are poor, this kind of program can a make big difference. You often have fewer chances to make mistakes if you’re poor, and you often work against a lot of the influences in your life, instead of with them.

This could be an example of some of the intent of No Child Left Behind. Compassionate Conservativism at its best; trying to give help where it’s needed most.

Still, it’s easy to step back and criticize how fumbling No Child Left Behind seems. I would like to support fiscal conservativism without having it be so removed from what education’s like in the schools. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative, maybe.