Teen Suicide Archives - CK MacLeod's

Public Lessons: Pedophilia, Bullying, and the Case of Alex Knepper

We are far from having worked this matter out even after 3,000 years of intensive labor, and far from knowing where they will lead, other than, from time to time, to tragedy.

Less Ephemeral: Site vs Blog

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December 1, 2014

Internet, Meta, notes, Web DesignBlogging

Less Ephemeral: Site vs Blog

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December 1, 2014

Internet, Meta, notes, Web DesignBlogging

Though the big, slick, expensive sites and services offer many of the things, and better, that ten years ago we went to (each other’s) blogs to find, they are inadequate for anyone seeking more than “the literature of a quarter of an hour,” but not involved in, supported by, or satisfied with traditional commercial and academic publishing. A blog might seem to belong to that species of 15-minute literature, but, once the all-consuming desire for passing interest has been stolen away or stolen back, the blog-as-log begins to disappear, revealing a virtual location: the site, marked by the non- or anti-ephemeral durability of logos rather than log.

Continued

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Further on Pathos v The Drones: Conventionalizing the Unconventionalizable

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February 17, 2013

Drone as Symbol, Philosophy, The Exception, War4th Generation Warfare Battlespace Discourse Drones libertarianism

Further on Pathos v The Drones: Conventionalizing the Unconventionalizable

(8)

February 17, 2013

Drone as Symbol, Philosophy, The Exception, War4th Generation Warfare Battlespace Discourse Drones libertarianism

The overall dysfunctionality of a political discussion can be the product of countless such lesser dysfunctionalities, though the overall dysfunctionality of that discourse may in turn be what makes it manageable, or manageable enough. We dislike things the way they dysfunctionally are, and that is how we like things.

Continued

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Notes on A Living Originalism

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May 21, 2013

Legal Philosophy, Political Philosophy, The Exception, US HistoryAmericanism Constitutionalism Living Constitution Living Originalism Originalism Paul W Kahn Popular Sovereignty

Notes on A Living Originalism

(17)

May 21, 2013

Legal Philosophy, Political Philosophy, The Exception, US HistoryAmericanism Constitutionalism Living Constitution Living Originalism Originalism Paul W Kahn Popular Sovereignty

The purpose of this unusually long post is to review and expand upon a discussion under a set of posts by Tim Kowal and Burt Likko, who are practicing attorneys with interest in Constitutional Law, on doctrines of Constitutional interpretation. The perhaps still distant objective is a framework for a “synthetic originalism” or “vital originalism” or “living originalism,” or a Unified Theory or at least Adequate Description of American Constitutionalism…

Continued

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Noted & Quoted

Keith Spencer: …data shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate – Salon.com

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Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

Keith Spencer: …data shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate – Salon.com

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Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

TV pundits and op-ed writers of every major newspaper epitomize how the Democratic establishment has already reached a consensus: the 2020 nominee must be a centrist, a Joe Biden, Cory Booker or Kamala Harris–type, preferably. They say that Joe Biden should "run because [his] populist image fits the Democrats’ most successful political strategy of the past generation" (David Leonhardt, New York Times), and though Biden "would be far from an ideal president," he "looks most like the person who could beat Trump" (David Ignatius, Washington Post). Likewise, the same elite pundit class is working overtime to torpedo left-Democratic candidates like Sanders.

For someone who was not acquainted with Piketty's paper, the argument for a centrist Democrat might sound compelling. If the country has tilted to the right, should we elect a candidate closer to the middle than the fringe? If the electorate resembles a left-to-right line, and each voter has a bracketed range of acceptability in which they vote, this would make perfect sense. The only problem is that it doesn't work like that, as Piketty shows.

The reason is that nominating centrist Democrats who don't speak to class issues will result in a great swathe of voters simply not voting. Conversely, right-wing candidates who speak to class issues, but who do so by harnessing a false consciousness — i.e. blaming immigrants and minorities for capitalism's ills, rather than capitalists — will win those same voters who would have voted for a more class-conscious left candidate. Piketty calls this a "bifurcated" voting situation, meaning many voters will connect either with far-right xenophobic nationalists or left-egalitarian internationalists, but perhaps nothing in-between.

From: There is hard data that shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate | Salon.com

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Eli Zaretsky: Trump’s Charisma – LRB Blog

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Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

Eli Zaretsky: Trump’s Charisma – LRB Blog

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Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

Understanding Trump’s charisma offers important clues to understanding the problems that the Democrats need to address. Most important, the Democratic candidate must convey a sense that he or she will fulfil the promise of 2008: not piecemeal reform but a genuine, full-scale change in America’s way of thinking. It’s also crucial to recognise that, like Britain, America is at a turning point and must go in one direction or another. Finally, the candidate must speak to Americans’ sense of self-respect linked to social justice and inclusion. While Weber’s analysis of charisma arose from the German situation, it has special relevance to the United States of America, the first mass democracy, whose Constitution invented the institution of the presidency as a recognition of the indispensable role that unique individuals play in history.

From: Trump’s Charisma

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Matt Yglesias: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying – Vox

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Operation American Greatness

Matt Yglesias: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying – Vox

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Operation American Greatness

[E]ven Fox didn’t tout Bartiromo’s big scoops on Trump’s legislative agenda, because 10 months into the Trump presidency, nobody is so foolish as to believe that him saying, “We’re doing a big infrastructure bill,” means that the Trump administration is, in fact, doing a big infrastructure bill. The president just mouths off at turns ignorantly and dishonestly, and nobody pays much attention to it unless he says something unusually inflammatory.On some level, it’s a little bit funny. On another level, Puerto Rico is still languishing in the dark without power (and in many cases without safe drinking water) with no end in sight. Trump is less popular at this point in his administration than any previous president despite a generally benign economic climate, and shows no sign of changing course. Perhaps it will all work out for the best, and someday we’ll look back and chuckle about the time when we had a president who didn’t know anything about anything that was happening and could never be counted on to make coherent, factual statements on any subject. But traditionally, we haven’t elected presidents like that — for what have always seemed like pretty good reasons — and the risks of compounding disaster are still very much out there.

From: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying - Vox

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All N'd & Q'd →

2014-11-26 1:23 pm
The Decline of Political-Cultural Blogging in One Page
bob
When I set AG coming up on 3 yrs ago, I decided not to include a blogroll because they seemed to me to be generally in [...]
2012-12-22 7:56 am
You know who else used to oversimplify history?
bob
The appeal of this sort of historical what ifs, time travel fictions and whatever permutations I've left out includes (certainly not limited to) a [...]
2014-11-09 12:46 pm
To CK MacLeod
Melhem’s Compulsions (the two-sided failure in Syria contd.)
bob
I don't take such phrases as categorically poor writing, although I leave to your judgment in this case. Whether Chaucer in The Knight's Tale, describing [...]