Academic philosophers and morality
I wrote the following in response to a conversation at bloggingheadstv, in which a professor of philosophy at U.C. Riverside discusses his empirical research into the behavior of philosophy professors who specialize in ethics, morality, or political philosophy. http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/30202 Having known a substantial number of academic philosophers engaged in ethical/moral inquiry, or in political philosophy, […]
Brief Eulogy
Last week our friend Tony died. He died very suddenly of a cancer that was diagnosed too late, but which possibly could not have been arrested in any case. He was one month older than I, 60-years-old. Tony was one of the sweetest men I ever met. Requiescas in pace, Tony.
Is there a risk of a real US-Israel rift?
This op-ed in today’s NYT by a Princeton academic draws an analogy between US-Israel relations today and France-Israel relations 1967. http://www.nytimes.com//2010/04/01/opinion/01bass.html Generally speaking, people seem to take the rift between Obama and Netanyahu (or between the US and Israel, if one wants to depersonalize things) more seriously than I would have expected them to do. […]
Health-care reform passage, preliminary reaction
How do I feel about health-care reform? Better than if it had not passed, but not very enthusiastic, in the end. I found this interview by Doug Henwood (March 25, 2010) of a single-payer advocate, Steffie Woolhandler, rather convincing on the question of cost-containment, and for months I had been hearing Robert Scheer say that […]
“Accidental Husband” – should have been aborted
“Accidental Husband” is a 2008 romantic comedy directed by Griffin Dunne and used as a star vehicle for Uma Thurman, but it also enjoys the presence of Colin Firth and Isabella Rosellini in supporting roles. It was released to theaters in the UK but went direct to DVD in the US because its distributor went […]
Doug Henwood, often indispensable
Everyone should listen to this edition of Doug Henwood’s “Behind the News” (March 13, 2010). http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#100313 First, you will hear one of the best interviews I have heard about the financial crisis. The first interviewee is a woman who has written a new book about the financial crisis, and who blogs at Naked Capitalism, under […]
America’s relations with Israel
My friend Chris asked via email whether I think that Hillary Clinton’s recent 43-minute phone call to Netanyahu, in which the latter was apparently rebuked for the embarrassing authorization of over 600 new housing units for Israelis in East Jerusalem, represents an important turn in US-Israel relations. My answer is that I doubt it. My […]
Don’t cry over spilled rice
There are 31,536,000 seconds in a year. Is that a lot or a little? If one lives for eighty years, that is a bit more than 2.5 billion seconds. Is that a lot or a little? Most people have thought that life is too short. When old age arrives, though, and if it brings serious […]
A Serious Man – an existentialist movie?
We just saw “A Serious Man” in English at one of our local theaters, in a sparsely attended screening. We tend to be more than a year behind in our viewing of films. Now I have read seven or eight reviews of the movie. I don’t want to say too much about it until I […]
Ben Ratliff interviews Bennie Maupin
When I heard about Ben Ratliff’s new book, in which he talks with jazz musicians about their reactions to recordings they listen to jointly, I was extremely excited. And I will acquire and read the book. But I hope that this video is not representative of the book’s contents: fora.tv/2008/11/12/Ben_Ratliff_in_Conversation_with_Bennie_Maupin In this video, Maupin provides […]