Monthly Archives: January 2008

I Don’t Know About You…

…but it just feels like things are slow in terms of news worth blogging about. I haven’t seen any feature articles I really want to comment on, either.Am I just imagining this? Powered by ScribeFire.

January 31, 2008 – 10:40 am | By ashok | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (3)

"Stupendous Fabrics:" Notes on Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist No. 9

Outline Federalist 9 begins by stating “a firm Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the States, as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection.” After that opening, and an initial barrage against the “petty republics of Greece and Italy” which never had a stable peace, there are 10 …

January 29, 2008 – 4:09 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Tagged , , | Comments (6)

Should Academics Blog?

Lecture to be delivered in 2025 or whenever this blog gets popular, and not by me, but by whatever android holds my brain. I plan to be dead from drug abuse and an incredible amount of dirty sexual activity that is heterosexual in nature. Shut up now, the android’s about to speak. I have been …

January 28, 2008 – 3:15 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, blogging, media | Tagged | Comments (7)

Expectant

Been in front of the computer for far too long recently, just waiting and hoping. The times I read philosophy and poetry on here, or even promote my work – I feel like I’m going through the motions. Once again the question is salvation. Is our happiness external to us? Nietzsche unloads on Wagner for …

January 26, 2008 – 6:47 pm | By ashok | Posted in personal | Comments (0)

Links, 1/25/08

Movies, movies and more movies: The reliably thoughtful Dana Stevens reviews the latest Rambo; Stacey Nosek’s take on Breakfast at Tiffany’s is as good as it gets; Ted Boynton’s thoughts on Lawrence of Arabia are powerful in and of themselves. Guitar porn – but it’s seriously good. Powered by ScribeFire.

January 25, 2008 – 2:26 pm | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (0)

An Introduction To Emo Rambling: On Frost’s "The Oven Bird"

The Oven Bird Robert Frost There is a singer everyone has heard, Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird, Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again. He says that leaves are old and that for flowers Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten. He says the early petal-fall is past When pear and …

January 24, 2008 – 9:19 am | By ashok | Posted in frost, poetry | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Links, 1/23/08

Josh discusses the fact he’s a Republican and shares advice for making the party better. Ario has fun with links and the collapse of the West. Jennifer’s Pear Dessert entry probably could win some kind of award for food photography: it will make you hungry. I don’t know if I brought this up before, but …

January 23, 2008 – 10:42 am | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (0)

An Introduction to the Politics of Philosophy, Part 5: On Plato’s Crito, 47a-50a

So far in this commentary we have covered the opening of the Crito and all of Crito’s arguments for why Socrates’ choosing to face execution is “unjust.” We are now in the midst of Socrates’ investigation with Crito into the truth of the matter. I want this commentary to end in the next post I …

January 19, 2008 – 11:12 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, plato | Tagged | Comments (5)

Approaching 10,000 Unique Visits…

…and wondering, what does it mean? For comparison’s sake: DailyKos, at this writing: 665,864,413 – even without that number, it is the world’s most influential website, having remade the Democratic party in its image and likeness. Gracchi is at 61,902 – his influence cannot be underestimated. For being as intellectual as he is, to even …

January 18, 2008 – 2:06 am | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (4)

Keeping One’s Online Persona Intact

Amber reports on Ezra Klein’s little problem – I’d quite frankly be more worried about having written articles this awful if I were Klein, though. A long time ago I realized even having a completely clean persona, one was vulnerable to attacks online. In fact, back then I was actually more vulnerable to trolls, because …

January 17, 2008 – 7:31 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging, politics | Tagged | Comments (5)