Monthly Archives: September 2009

Note on Alice Shapiro’s “I”

I Alice Shapiro I am the sum of all my parts. They blow back like dominoes one after another falling into place converging time’s bits and pieces meeting in one breath. In this way time disappears. The  past is now the past is how now looks – not spread out in year-by-year increments but at …

September 30, 2009 – 9:44 pm | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Comments (1)

What does success on the Internet look like?

Still thinking about how all this adds up, if it does. I’m aware there are gaps in the reasoning. 1. Been saying to people recently stuff like “look at the top bloggers, look at Kos, who basically transformed the Democratic party into his vision – no one knows who these people are, yet you can …

September 30, 2009 – 5:44 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, blogging, education | Comments (3)

Rethink in Review: September

Yeah, I don’t like the title of this either – it’s too cutesy, but I don’t want to think about this too much. The truth is I have to write more posts like this because I can barely find anything on this blog anymore, and right now I know I have a few new readers …

September 29, 2009 – 2:49 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging, links, personal | Comments (2)

Rant: The Banality of Conservatism

I certainly don’t want to go “look how smart I am,” because if the latter is said people might actually start looking and I might get in trouble. But this passage from Joseph Epstein’s obituary of Irving Kristol leaped out at me: At the same time, he liked to play with ideas. I remember a …

September 28, 2009 – 5:09 pm | By ashok | Posted in personal, politics | Tagged | Comments (9)

Links, 9/27/09

On Afghanistan: “What Bush got right offers clues for Obama.” fta – Obama’s war-fighting promise was to scale down Iraq and ramp up Afghanistan, which he argued was the necessary war. He has the strategy and the men to do just that, thanks in large part to the man who is least likely to be …

September 27, 2009 – 11:45 pm | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (0)

Establishment: On “As sad as the scent of smoked fish,” by Ario Farin

["Jacob's children"] (my title) Ario Farin As sad as the scent of smoked fish is up in the attic as loving the chimney leans against a tight sky, an erratic ladder seeking a gap in the stream of yellow cloud. The wall holds up the sudden drop of a branch, the flight of sweet cherries …

September 27, 2009 – 3:37 am | By ashok | Posted in christianity, poetry | Comments (5)

I’m Quiet Because I’m Working

I’m about done reading what I want of Gish’s dissertation, then I need to finish the reread of the Oeconomicus (I’m halfway done, but have some notes that are getting out of control) and figure out more exactly how that bears on the Memorabilia. I wish I had something to share with you, but I’m …

September 26, 2009 – 9:12 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging, personal | Comments (0)

Blog feature suggestions welcome…

…you’ll notice I’ve brought back the “related posts” feature, and added a thing called “CommentLuv” whereby your comments here can help promote your blog more easily. I’ve also made the blog’s comments “dofollow,” which I didn’t know I could do before. I’m probably going to implement a few more plugins and features – anyone have …

September 22, 2009 – 4:23 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (5)

If you want to do me a favor…

…alexa.com & technorati.com encourage site reviews. If you like what I write and get a chance, please do review this blog there. Let me know in the comments if you write something, you have my thanks in advance as always, but those of you who have been promoting my site relentlessly I owe a lot …

September 19, 2009 – 11:22 am | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (2)

Re: Irving Kristol and Partisan Generosity

John Podhoretz’s obituary for Kristol in Commentary (h/t Instapundit) is notable for this anecdote: Just an example of Irving’s approach: In 1979, as a first-year student at the University of Chicago, I started a magazine called Midway (later Counterpoint) with my friend Tod Lindberg, now the editor of Policy Review. I sent the first issue …

September 19, 2009 – 10:53 am | By ashok | Posted in personal, politics | Comments (0)