Harvard’s Sandel offers a pithy “real-world” introduction to thinking about justice – Aritstotle’s still “da man” – and defense of reasoned, democratic debate. There is a tendency to think that if we engage too directly with moral questions in politics, that’s a recipe for disagreement, and for that matter a recipe for intolerance and coercion; […]
Jazz Is: 9 – Louis Armstrong, West End Blues
Let the jazz revolution begin. The 1928, Grammy hall of fame recording by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, composition by Joe “King” Oliver, with scat and trumpet by Louis and piano by Earl “Fatha” Hines. Listen for Louis’ long, sweet note about 2:35 in. Before there was Miles, there was Louis. ——— Related articles […]
Veiled Threats
I have written several times before on the subject of wearing the burqa or niqab in public. I have argued that A general ban on the veil in public is not defensible in a liberal, democratic society, so I think the recently passed French ban is a mistake. I defend a general right to wear […]
The Fourteenth Amendment
from Michael Gerson, The Washington Post The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people “born or naturalized in the United States” for a reason. They wished to directly repudiate the Dred Scott decision, which said that citizenship could be granted or denied by political caprice. They purposely chose an objective standard of […]
Writers Write
“Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.” Gore Vidal, Réalités, August 1966 —– “Writing doe not exclude the full life. It demands it.” Katherine Anne Porter, from On Writing the Short Story, by Hallie Burnett —– “Literature must […]