Monthly Archives: August 2014

Rod Spared. For Now.

Had just been thinking about castigating you – commenters, lurkers, and passers-by – for being lazy haters of children and ruthless exploiters of free range bloggers, when someone very generously availed him- or herself (he/she prefers anonymity) of one of

Posted in Meta, Monetization Tagged with:

Fact, Value, and the Destruction of Daesh

Not very long ago, “Islamic state” might have referred to a Western stereotype of “Mohammadean” passivity and fatalism. Today, while the West sometimes seems to have been overtaken by the condition or some version of it, the phrase now stands

Posted in Neo-Imperialism, War Tagged with: , , ,

Incredibly Obvious Solutions to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

According to Freddie deBoer, Israel has been astonishingly successful (emphasis added): “In every meaningful sense… Israel is one of the most well-off nations on earth.” Therefore, Israel should radically alter its policies. Meanwhile, as deBoer observes in some detail, the

Posted in notes Tagged with: ,

“Genie, you’re free.”

In a Daily Beast article warning against “glorification” of celebrity suicide, Russell Saunders focuses on an enthusiastically received tweet that I have screen-captured below: The “Academy” is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the “Genie” is, of

Posted in notes Tagged with: ,

ideal liberalism cannot derive a positive content from its own concept

(Excerpt of a comment at Crooked Timber, from that extended Schmitt discussion of a few months ago, dug up now for purposes of continued discussion with Faheem Hussain, because helpful on a point I frequently return to – in short:

Posted in Political Philosophy Tagged with: ,

The Egyptian Exception and the Other Islamic State

The alternative resolution or the other Islamic state, the one that avoids the tyrant’s despair – or, put more politically-philosophically, allows for a liberal-Islamic assimilation that would also be integrative or unitary rather than irrecuperably conflictual – would appear to rely on modes of idealization of religion that would evolve simultaneously and bi-conditionally, or, as Fadel or Fadel’s Khaldun puts it, “organically.” Their current impermissibility is a reflection of the same problem.

Posted in Anismism, Featured, Liberalism v Islamism as a Syncretic Problem, On Liberal Democracy in Relation to Islamism, Political Philosophy, Religion, The Exception Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

If only you’d been less confident in your counterfactual!

Confidence in a counterfactual conclusion, which is always a falsehood built falsely on some other one, invariably contradicts its necessary presumption: of a reasonable comprehension of historical cause and effect. Of course, claims that all counterfactuals are utterly useless and

Posted in History, Philosophy Tagged with:

genomisia

Proposed definition: genomisia- n. – from genos (“race, stock, kin”) + -misia (“hatred of”) : hatred or actualized animus toward any group as characterized by common religion, ethnic or national origin, ideology, customary conduct, or orientation; also misogeny.

Posted in Featured, notes, Philology, Philosophy Tagged with: , , , ,

Down with the Wall! Long Live the Open Thread!

Old-timers at this blog may mourn the passing of “The Wall,” but the same functions, and the at last count 2,510 comments since the last major move, are still accessible under the new “Open Thread” tab.

Posted in Meta, Web Design

OBL’s Argument (5): Shapes of Justice

The de-construction of rules for the resolution of serious political disagreements, politics of the end of politics, is the drawing near of danger: War is or occurs for us, and escalates, as that de-construction, in search of a foundation of

Posted in Philosophy, Politics, War Tagged with: , , , , , ,