Monthly Archives: June 2009

If I want to get started reading Leo Strauss, where do I begin?

Amazon sent a promotional e-mail this morning informing me there is a Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss, and I took a look and yeah, there are some big names writing the essays: Stephen Smith, Laurence Lampert (whose work on Nietzsche I really need to spend more time with), the Zuckerts (whose work generally I need …

June 15, 2009 – 10:36 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, philosophy, politics | Tagged | Comments (16)

Links, 6/13/09

The Golden Age of Conspiracy (h/t aldaily.com) – too long, attempts to cover too much, but lots of good information. Fta: A 2006 poll by the Pew Research Centre asked Muslims in Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan whether Arab terrorists carried out the September 11 attacks. A majority in all countries — and a …

June 13, 2009 – 8:30 pm | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (3)

Just upgraded to WordPress 2.8, and this site has been giving problems…

…if you find anything buggy about the site – links that don’t work, code appearing where things should look normal, etc. – let me know immediately. I should let you know that permalinks in particular have been giving me trouble: not all my plugins are compatible with 2.8, and I’ve disabled most of them.

June 12, 2009 – 8:18 am | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (2)

The Problem of Twitter: A Rant

Presented at the Inaugural Cool Twitter Conference in Washington DC on 6/11/2009. By “presented” I mean I stuck my head in my notes and never looked up and talked too fast – you’ll see that on the video, if I get a link (you might have to pay to see it, I’m money like that). …

June 12, 2009 – 7:33 am | By ashok | Posted in media, politics | Comments (0)

That Invisible Weight: On Charles Wright’s “Words and the Diminution of All Things”

Thank you to Lisa Mahaffey & Ario Farin for their thoughts Words and the Diminution of All Things (from poets.org – there’s a particular format to this poem, do take a look) Charles Wright The brief secrets are still here, and the light has come back. The word remember touches my hand, But I shake …

June 8, 2009 – 1:08 am | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Comments (1)

Nature and Law, Woman and Man: On Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, Book VII

Socrates discusses part of an encounter with a perfect [noble and good] gentleman in Oeconomicus VII. The gentleman’s name is Ischomachos; Socrates is relating his discussion with him for the sake of moderating the ambitions of the primary interlocutor of the Oeconomicus, Crito’s son Critoboulus. One of Critoboulos’ problems is moderation (cf. Memorabilia I.3.8-10; Symposium …

June 6, 2009 – 9:47 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics, xenophon | Tagged | Comments (0)

For Bloggers: An Introduction to Twitter

I. Twitter isn’t for everyone, but it may be necessary for anyone wanting an audience I’ll confess: I started using Twitter because I had to; when promoting a blog, you have to go where the audience may be. I’m very grateful for the people I’ve met on Twitter, many of whom are generous, willing to …

June 3, 2009 – 9:29 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Tagged | Comments (2)

Re: NJ Gubernatorial Primary, 6/2/09

I voted for Lonegan in the GOP primary b/c of things like this coming from Christie: “It’s a bad plan at the wrong time,” Christie said of Lonegan’s proposal, while promising tax cuts every year in office. He said he would detail tax plans once in office, when he would be able to better assess …

June 2, 2009 – 1:06 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (1)