Dagger in hand

A man of prodigious fortune, coming to add his opinion to some light discussion that was going on casually at his table, began precisely thus: "It can only be a liar or an ignoramus who will say otherwise than," and so on. Pursue that philosophical point, dagger in hand.

--Michel de Montaigne, Of the art of discussion.



Stab back: cmnewman99-at-yahoo.com


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Wednesday, March 31, 2004
 
SHEEEE'S BAAAAAACK....
Oriana's got a new book coming out April 5th in Italy. It's not the novel about her youth in Florence that she's supposed to be working on, but a sequel to La Rabbia e L'Orgoglio. This one is called La Forza della Ragione--The Force of Reason--and she says it was her "duty" to write it. Apparently it addresses (and defends) U.S. actions since 9/11, including the war in Iraq, and (of course) goes after the many detractors of Rabbia. It's sure to be lively reading. Nobody wields a dagger like Oriana. I hope that it's more than polemic this time, though. I hope this book lives up to its title as well as the last one did.


Monday, March 29, 2004
 
Man, is this depressing. As is this. I've cut the administration a lot of slack in being willing to believe that going for democritization in Iraq is a good proactive move in the WOT. But it ain't gonna work if we can't do better than this.


Thursday, March 11, 2004
 
OK, anybody know how to get rid of the annoying blank space at the top of my blog?

And don't just say "get off blogger."


 
Every Breath You Take

Indomitable soul, cold turkey sushi addict, and former cotenant of mine in the Book Review Office at Michigan Law Review, Rosemary Quigley, is guest diarist on Slate this week. She recently (on my birthday, in fact) had a double lung transplant. Go, and read, and marvel at her spirit, and at the miracle of modern medicine. You will never take breathing for granted again.


 
West Side L.A. Story

They're doing a version of Bernstein's magnum opus in Lucas's music program at school. Of course, they had to make a few changes to render the material appropriate for fifth graders. It's okay to sing and dance about gang rivalry, but we wouldn't want anybody dying from it. We certainly wouldn't want any suggestion of racial or ethnic tension. No need for that Bernardo character at all, in fact. (Come to think of it, Jets and Sharks would make good names for soccer teams, wouldn't they?) And most important, we absolutely can't have any glorification of the Greatest Of All Evils. You know what I mean. The one that required the following lyric rewrite:

When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way
From your first knucklesmack to your last dying day.
So instead of "Make Love, Not War," we now have "Make War, Not Smoke Rings."

I can understand the desire to branch out musically, but if you think certain material is inappropriate as written, don't use it. What is the point of butchering it like this? Even leaving "artistic integrity" out of it, how is the end result any less pernicious to young impressionable minds than the original? Now we have essentially a musical comedy about gang violence that studiously ignores the bloody bereavement that such violence causes in the real world. These kids live in L.A. Granted, the Crips don't do much recruiting on the Santa Monica Promenade, but still. If I were a Concerned Busybody Parent, I'd have half a mind to strut in there in high dudgeon and complain about this morally contextless glorification of gang membership.

But I'm not, and Lucas saw the real movie a long time ago. He's even been to Italy, where people still smoke. So I'm really grateful, in a way. They're teaching him a valuable lesson about the silliness of bowdlerization.


Friday, March 05, 2004
 
Yes, I know my case got linked on Drudge
Both Drudge and Smoking Gun are reporting it slightly wrong, by the way. The court hasn't ordered her to pay us anything yet. That's what the motion we filed is for.


Wednesday, March 03, 2004
 
More grist for the mill
Here comes Eugene with a post distinguishing same-sex from interracial marriage, and explaning why, while he supports same-sex marriage as a political matter, he doesn't think the Equal Protection Clause requires it to be made available.