Author Archives: ashok

What’s on the minds of young people?

In less than a day back to working with young people, doing odd-jobs tutoring. What I think I have to keep in mind this time around: Nearly everything on their minds is about relationships. This isn’t just because of the world MTV has created, where shows like “I Just Want My Pants Back” are probably …

February 5, 2012 – 5:04 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (3)

Updating the blogroll…

…and I’m bad at this. The old rule was linking to anyone and everyone. Now I’m pretty sure the blogroll is getting a solid number of visits. Before I stopped counting, quite a few people were using it. And this place is getting plenty of attention nowadays with more to come. So while I haven’t …

January 31, 2012 – 6:01 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (3)

“What I will never see again I must love forever.”

It need not be said that the full implications of this statement take a lifetime to realize. Of significantly less consequence is how ‘love as memory’ affects what we profess. I’ve been curious recently about the structure of a short essay by Strauss featuring this passage: In Cohen’s deliberately exaggerated expression, God’s being becomes actual …

January 31, 2012 – 10:49 am | By ashok | Posted in christianity, love, philosophy | Comments (1)

The fight over college athletics is really a fight over what the University means

1. In some ways, it was natural for the university to become a type of sports franchise. I think of the pettiness of various professors, administrators and students I’ve encountered at a number of schools – schools that may not have Division I teams – and can’t help but wonder what end that spirit of …

January 29, 2012 – 9:39 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (0)

“When Plato attempts to establish the existence of natural right, he reduces the conventionalist thesis to the premise that the good is identical with the pleasant.”

This is something I have to work harder to see in Plato, partly because Strauss is working with a more refined definition of conventionalism than the one I typically use: Contrary to our first impression, conventionalism does not assert that the meaning of right or justice is altogether arbitrary or that there is no universal …

January 27, 2012 – 9:01 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, politics | Comments (1)

Re: Eliza Griswold, “Everyone Is an Immigrant”

Eliza Griswold, “Everyone Is an Immigrant” Griswold visits Lampedusa, an Italian island receiving refugees while the civil war in Libya is raging (not to mention the Arab Spring generally). If you’re a refugee who survived the violence of others back home and the violence of the sea, you had this to look forward to: As …

January 26, 2012 – 12:57 am | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (0)

Marcin Świetlicki, “April 1, Wągrowiec, Poland”

April 1, Wągrowiec, Poland (trans. Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese) Marcin Świetlicki Woken up. At once entangled in the business of the lake. A few hours before dawn. Most probably. And the lake already lives, breathes, sends off the swans to eye him: a shadow in the darkness seeking the path to the human terminal. Awake. At a …

January 23, 2012 – 11:00 pm | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Comments (0)

Welcome new readers! Some posts of interest

Not sure why the subscriber count jumped, but my thanks to all involved. It’s fun to be read. I realize this site is a mess in terms of organization. I also realize that I have quite a few entries which rant and make no sense. This blog is a continual work in progress. A few …

January 23, 2012 – 8:49 am | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (1)

The South Carolina Primary is a PR Disaster for the Republican Party

The candidates are making a mess of this, but they’re nowhere near the biggest problem. I do think Newt was right to fire back after the question asked about “open marriage” (btw: not approving of anything he said. The media is liberal. But as a whole, it is not some grand conspiracy to discredit conservatives). …

January 20, 2012 – 10:20 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (1)

Links, 1/19/12

Steve Jobs (h/t Josh): If we gave vouchers to parents for $4,400 a year, schools would be starting right and left. People would get out of college and say, “Let’s start a school.” You could have a track at Stanford within the MBA program on how to be the businessperson of a school. And that …

January 19, 2012 – 4:05 pm | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (0)