Nasty and bitter: two adjectives that seem to go with the GOP right now.
K-Lo Self-Parody Watch
A beaut:
The president was absolutely giddy around nuns in the crowd there this morning. He was drinking in the gratitude. He clearly was delighted these pro-lifers cared about his life and what he’s done for others’.
Giddy around nuns?
Thinking About Whale Brains
I think it’s cached now:
We’re now wondering, essentially, what goes on in a whale’s head — and why, if it’s supposedly so smart, it doesn’t have great works to show for it. Many have argued that humans dominate the planet because we have manipulative hands that enable us to make tools, be they harpoons or missiles. What would be the cetacean equivalent? One wonders how different life on earth might have been if humans, big brains and all, had flippers instead of hands — and, perhaps, a lot more glia.
Duuude.
Touchy, Touchy
Jonah Goldberg has a very thin skin. But there are only so many hours in the day and it’s primary season and a discourse on the fascistic tendencies of left-liberalism in the early twentieth century is not that urgent a topic. I promise I’ll read the thing. And yes, of course, every author is envious of another author’s success. And I’m actually sympathetic to the notion of fascism’s leftist origins. Sounds about right to me. But airing a few obvious rejoinders is not exactly a mortal sin.
Meanwhile, I have a new book coming out! Alas, it isn’t called anything as catchy as "Liberal Fascism." In fact, it’s called
Intimations Pursued: The Voice Of Practice In The Conversation Of Michael Oakeshott.
While stocks last, heh. Actually, the burgeoning (okay, you need some context for that adjective) field of Oakeshott scholarship has spawned new interest in publications about the great man’s thinking. This book is my doctoral dissertation – eighteen years on. It’s about Oakeshott’s grappling with the philosophical place of practical wisdom within his own world of ideas. Only the third dissertation ever written on Oakeshott, and relying only on the work he authorized to be published, it’s now available for pre-order.
In his time and place, few dedicated themselves more thoroughly to the debunking of state power and the pretensions of liberal rationalism than Oakeshott. And he wasn’t doing it to make a buck either. If you’re interested in a very close reading of many of his more obscure writings, this book is for you!
From Rats To Bats
A creepy experiment:
By outfitting mice with a chunk of DNA that directs wing development in bats, scientists have created rodents with abnormally long forelimbs, mimicking one of the steps in the evolution of the bat wing. Their work gives weight to the idea that variations in how genes are controlled, and not just mutations in the coding regions of genes, are a driving force in evolution.
Obama In South Carolina
A glowing endorsement from The State.
Ledger
It’s rare to actually be shocked by a young actor’s possibly drug-related death. But Ledger was a really fine actor, in my opinion, and his performance in Brokeback Mountain was a gut-wrenchingly under-stated evocation of the terror and pain of the closet. I was looking forward to his Joker. How horribly sad.
If Obama Wins South Carolina
The Clinton spin is obvious:
"He only won it because of black votes, so it doesn’t really count."
Face Of The Day
A Kenyan girl looks on as Kenyan Internally Displaced People (IDP’s) stay in the show ground stadium on January 22, 2008 in Eldoret, Kenya. International mediators have attempted to unlock political gridlock in the East African nation after 600 people died in post-election violence amid allegations that the incumbent president had manipulated the December elections. By Uriel Sinai/Getty Images.
Ask Your Spouse
It’s every pundit’s final resort.
