The Nook version is now available. The last frontier is iTunes, which is a PITA for me because Apple insists on my having an Apple device to set up an account and upload it to their store. I think I can set up an iTunes account if I fire up my Windows laptop, but not sure how to do the book upload.
Boehner’s Plan To Sue Obama
Andy McCarthy says it lacks feck.
That’s a trait of Boehner generally.
Heidegger
Since we were discussing philosophy the other day, Lileks has some thoughts:
The article concerns the anti-Semitism of Heidegger, and how the publication of recent texts the philosopher intended to be the capstone of his output reveals that he didn’t have the easy, lazy cultural anti-Semitism of the era, but really, really thought hard on how the Jews were putting the stick to the decent noble Volk. Not just any kind of Jews, though: worldwide jewry! It’s the richest kind.
..Anything that starts out with “Russia and America are the same” is the product of a mind so high in the clouds it cannot tell the different between red and black ants. But while Russia did indeed have “unrestricted organization of the average man,” an inevitable consequence of the state’s politicization of the entire society, you could say Germany under Hitler had a smattering as well. Or a gerschmatturung, to use Heidegger’s word. Just kidding; he doesn’t. But the article is full of German words intended to set off a Concept, as though expressing a concept in a train-wreck of consonants makes it important. I suppose the point is to be accurate, use the terms the author uses so there can be no misunderstanding. But for my part that would require anything close to comprehension, and I cannot grasp a lot of what Heidegger is talking about, perhaps because there seems to be no point in understanding what he’s saying.
Philosophy isn’t useless, but some philosophers are. Or worse than.
Deunionize The IRS
This proposal doesn’t go far enough. We need to do it to the entire federal government. Roosevelt recognized the dangers of public-employee unions. They’ve been destroying the country for decades, though.
Burned Babies
The militarization of American policing.
It’s not just the War on (Some) Drugs. It’s also all the free goodies that police departments have been getting from the military as surplus.
Trivializing Sexual Assault
First the left went after George Will, and now they’ve chosen a really bad target: a smart law professor:
But really, all that vitriol because Dean is “not sure” that an imprecise reading of what I wrote is correct? Even if she had recounted what I wrote precisely correctly, all that vitriol because she’s “not sure” I’m right?
Nor, for that matter, does Dean ever address my point about a proposed California law providing for judging sexual assault complaints by an “affirmative consent” consent standard, but only for college students in college-run hearings; if this is a good idea, why only for this limited category of people in limited circumstances? Why not make it the legal standard for sexual assault in California? A particular scenario can’t logically change from sexual assault to non-sexual assault because it happens the day after graduation instead of the day before.
As for my broader point, that the extremely broad explicit consent standard incorrectly provided on DOJ’s website means that the vast majority of men and women in the U.S. are guilty of sexual assault, Dean doesn’t bother to disagree. Instead, the best she can muster is “I do not think we are looking at any real danger of people being marched off to death camps for kissing each other.”
That’s obviously not really the question. The question is whether you want to create a sexual assault standard that is so broad that a prosecutor (or other authority, if for example it’s a university matter) can basically punish anyone they want to, so long as someone is willing to file a complaint. And so broad, as well, that it trivializes sexual assault, in that it conflates sexual assault with things like reaching out to hold your date’s hand under the dinner table.
We need to push back against these little fascists, hard.
[Update a few minutes later[
More thoughts from Ann Althouse on “chilling” debate.
The Apollo Model
It’s long past time to abandon it.
It’s hard to do, though. Many just can’t imagine any other way to do human spaceflight. And of course, those in Congress don’t want to lose all their opportunities for graft.
Just How Dumb Is Our Government?
There is no end of examples.
Sadly, it’s dumb because we’ve dumbed down the electorate.
Still Waiting For The Suborbital Future
Jeff Foust has an up-to-date status on the industry, ten years after SpaceShipOne’s first flight. Note also Doug Messier’s status on Virgin Galactic in comments, which sounds about right to me.
Hunter-Gatherers’ Teeth
Did their diet prevent dental caries?