July 2016
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On the “radicalization” of the Republican Party
From Gingrich to Trump. The only future for America is one in which what remains of that Party is vanquished for good, and then the Democratic party can divide into its two factions, the 1970s Republican faction led by Clinton, and the liberal faction led, for now, by Sanders.
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Most-Cited lists: what’s coming
Two more subject-matter areas: Family Law and Legal Ethics/Legal Profession/Professional Responsibility. And then a list of schools by the per capita rate at which their tenured faculty made one of the many most-cited lists. I should have these lists out by mid-August at the latest.
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So what might actually decide the election?
Obsessing over last week's or this week's polls is irresistible, but they are pure noise (see here). This essay in the NYRB makes for timely reading (I've been reading the Achen & Bartels book, on recommendation of Jason Brennan, and it is instructive on a number of points). 10% of the electorate might actually be…
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Philosophy of wine
Who knew? (Thanks to Robert McGarvey for the pointer.) UPDATE: Reader Curt LaFond writes: Scruton says chianti with Hegel. I say Bud Light with Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.” It’d be apropos because as Rand is to philosophy, Bud Light is to wine — improperly categorized, and still pretty lousy when regarded within its proper category.…
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Alice Dreger on academic freedom in the universities
Here. Dreger is an historian of science, who has herself been the victim of the thought police because she has discussed, sympathetically, disfavored views about transgender people. Her main theme is that threats to academic freedom in universities come from three sources: the "left" (as she calls the "identity politics left," which, of course, isn't…
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Robert Paul Wolff on Clinton, Trump and the threat of nuclear war
Everyone should read this. As often happens, Professor Wolff is exactly right.
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Sunday Symphony: Prokofiev, No. 5
I like this version (love Gergiev's facial expressions in particular):
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Lateral hires with tenure or on tenure-track, 2015-16
THIS IS THE LAST TIME I AM MOVING THIS TO THE FRONT FOR THE PAST HIRING SEASON–THE 2016-17 INITIAL LIST WILL APPEAR HERE ON AUGUST 1 These are non-clinical appointments that will take effect in 2016 (except where noted); I will move the list to the front at various intervals as new additions come in. Recent additions…
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Great moments in obscure rock ‘n’ roll: Cactus, “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover,” 1970
An American hard rock/blues outfit, started in 1969 by ex-Vanilla Fudge members Tim Bogert (bass) and Carmine Appice (drums). Led Zeppelin without the polish or the really memorable original songs, but anyone fond of the genre should check out the Cactology collection.
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Shocking: Fox aka “Fascist” News was a hotbed of sexual harassment
I hope, I hope, it will take them down. Roger Ailes and Rupbert Murdoch should be in prison for crimes against the truth and decency. Even Mill would agree.
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The voters have spoken, at least here
MOVING TO FRONT FROM JULY 20–A LIVELY DISCUSSION IN THE COMMENTS! So with nearly 1,000 votes since late yesterday afternoon, here's whom readers are voting for Who will you vote for for President of the United States this fall? Hillary Clinton (Democrat) 62%604 Gary Johnson (Libertarian) 6%56 Jill Stein (Green) 11%106 Donald…
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Donald Trump is a narcisstic sociopath, indeed, actually unhinged
Please sue me. Discovery will be great! Richard Seltzer sends love!
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“Does philosophy have a woman problem?”
Philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers, now a Research Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, asked me to share this recent video (followed by a transcript of it). Comments are open at that site, and Dr. Sommers writes, "I will do my best to reply to questions and objections." As longtime readers know, I'm skeptical that the underrepresentation of…
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A short interview with Illinois’s Colleen Murphy
Here. Although it's a short interview, it contains some good advice! I love her "bucket list" too!
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Brown’s Nomy Arpaly interviewed…
…at 3AM. ADDENDUM: Let me say this is a really good interview, full of memorable insights and funny.
A remembered Dreyfus remark on the Maharishi: I recall hearing Dreyfus say in a recorded lecture, perhaps twenty-five years ago,…