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Mauve Gloves & Madmen, 2010 Version
Self-pity is the great vice. Or entitlement, to give it another name. It's socially un-useful, in making people grasping and uncharitable. And it's personally bad too, in focusing attention on what's...
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NYT Magazine on Livescribe
Good to see a long, very interesting story on the Livescribe pen today in the NYT Magazine. For background info, and on the hallowed "get your tech news early and often from the Atlantic!" principle,...
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More on "Muslim Life is Cheap"
I've already had my say on the merits of this one. My purpose now is to summarize several developments in the "Muslim life is cheap" controversy surrounding Martin Peretz, editor in chief of The New...
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'Muslim Life is Cheap' Cont.
A reader in New York named Yasser writes to ask: >>Is it unfair to say that part of the Muslim life that is cheap is my three-year old. I can't tell you the anguish I feel right now raising a...
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It's Not Just America: Halal "Outrage" in the UK
A reader writes from England: >>>Sadly, the kind of "permissible" bigotry which appears to be gaining ground on your side of the ocean is common currency here in the UK, too. Yesterday's Sun...
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Resolution of the Peretz / Harvard Controversy
The "final" version of the planned program honoring the 50th anniversary of the Social Studies program at Harvard has been published on the Social Studies website. I won't quote it all here, but the...
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Please Watch This Space
For reasons of, sigh, "work" I cannot do more at the moment than express thanks for a large inflow of fascinating material on the "cheapness" of life, the nuances of halal vs kosher butchery (the...
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On Halal and Kosher Butchery
As mentioned yesterday, it's time to start working through reader responses on "bigot" issues, interesting new software, aviation innovations, beer, etc. Let's start with butchery.Earlier this week a...
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Now, This Is How a Checking Account Should Look
In the right-hand column, how the balance sheet of Carl Malamud's Public Resource organization looked yesterday.One column over to the left, how it looked today: The two-million-dollar difference, as...
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On the Home Front (Dreaming in Chinese Dept)
This coming Sunday's New York Times Book Review has a wonderful review, by Lesley Downer, of Dreaming in Chinese, by Deborah Fallows (the missus). Wonderful not so much in the sense of "very positive,"...
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Peretz and the Power of Shaming
Today the Social Studies program at Harvard will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and at noon Martin Peretz of the New Republic will (as noted here) be recognized, along with other past head tutors in...
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If You've Wondered How People Could Ever Have Liked Jimmy Carter...
... you could well invest seven minutes, or even a couple, in watching his appearance with Jon Stewart earlier this week. I saw it only now; preoccupied with, sigh, work when it first aired.I am sure...
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Memory Holes, Self-Pitying Professors, and Stoic Chinese
(See correcting UPDATE at the end.) Last week I mentioned a post that was then in the process of becoming infamous, by a University of Chicago law professor lamenting how hard it was to make ends meet...
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More on the Wealthy Poor and a "Fair" Society
The report I'm about to mention has been actively discussed in other parts of the online world, so by my normal triage rules I shouldn't say anything about it. But I hadn't heard about it until...
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What You (and I) Missed in Portland, OR Last Night
First stop on gala West Coast Dreaming in Chinese tour, at the legendary Powell's Books. You have your make-up chance in Seattle tonight, at Town Hall. Hey, I'm the proud husband, I can't help myself....
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Peretz-Harvard Finale
For the record, a compendium of reactions and events at this weekend's 50th Anniversary of the Social Studies program at Harvard: 1) As mentioned before, a dramatic video has been posted of Martin...
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'The Poverty of Experience'
Responding to the University of Chicago law professor-initiated discussion about who feels "rich" and "poor," and why, a reader in the US writes: I had a remarkable conversation with a very savvy woman...
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Get Well Soon Jimmy Carter
He got sick on a flight to Cleveland. If he was feeling good enough, he would probably have followed that setup line with the requisite "second prize: two weeks in Philadelphia" line. (No no, we kid...
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A "Global Movement of Moderates": Speech of a Muslim Prime Minister
There is lots in the queue about different observations of Islam in different parts of the world, about America from afar, and all the rest. For the moment, a notable speech yesterday at the United...
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The Self-Pity of the Harvard 'Poor'
Context is the ongoing discussion provoked by 21st Century America's Marie Antoinette, the University of Chicago law professor who worried how his family would survive if taxes on income above $250,000...
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