Category: Navel-Gazing

Left-Handed Again.

Well, a number of people have suggested that I put the GitM sidebar back on the left side of the screen, so it’s been done. As per usual, I’ve also received a number of blog-comments asking me to try phentermine, gamble online, and procure some cheap auto insurance, but, alas, those requests will not so readily be fulfilled here. Sorry, xysggsll and Cheap Phentermine Now!, and thanks for writing. (Bring on the Typekey, y’all.)

From Plato’s Cave to Lacuna, Inc.


Via All About George, A.O. Scott applies Stanley Cavell to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’m a big Cavell fan…in fact, his reading of Emersonian perfectionism figured heavily in (and, with Michael Sandel’s work, helped inspire) my political philosophy list last week. Can’t wait to see how Cities of Words turned out, and how close it dovetails with his old Moral Perfectionism course at Harvard.

The End of History.

“The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. – Karl Marx” Yeah, well, not anymore. As of this afternoon, the orals process is complete (although I do plan to fix up the subsite quite a bit), and I’m now ABD (All But Dissertation for you folks out there with real jobs.) I’m not going to go blow-by-blow into it here, but the exam went well for the most part…I definitely think I could’ve answered a few of the questions more lucidly, but so be it. At any rate, plan for updates here to resume their usual schedule, once I complete the rest of the week’s goal of doing absolutely nothing. Speaking of which, I think it’s nap-time…

7 Days.

Hey y’all…one week left until my orals, so expect it to be preternaturally quiet in these parts for that much longer. I’ve finished 98% of my reading at this point…I just need to spend the next few days getting psychically prepared for the test and fighting back the starting-to-become-omnipresent nervousness in my gut. Of the mocks I’ve taken, two went well and one went…not so well, but I’m chalking up that last one to sheer dogged tiredness and jetlag (from the recent break-even Vegas trip, which was decently fun, albeit being hampered by dark thoughts of the pending exam most of the time.) At any rate, I think I have the knowledge at this point…I just need to make I sure I can access it through the fog of encroaching anxiety.

Irish Eyes are Reading.


A very happy St. Patrick’s Day to you and yours. (Don’t miss this chance to rent Miller’s Crossing and/or have a Guinness or three.) My own St. Paddy’s should be relatively downbeat, for, as I suspected, it’s been much busier than usual over in these parts. Freelance work aside, I’ve been swimming neck-deep in political theory for a solid week now in prep for the big day. And I’ll be lugging a sack of books with me this weekend on what passes for my Spring Break vacation…Vegas Redux. (I know, I was down on the place last year, but it’s always good to catch up with old friends, and perhaps the glitz of the Strip will seem less jarring this time without the 24-hr CNN greenscreens of war on the other channel.) At any rate, if you want to approximate the GitM experience this weekend, peruse The Road to Serfdom or Democracy in America, while occasionally plying your hand at Deuces Wild. Between Hayek and games of chance, I’m feeling like Bill Bennett’s dream American at the moment.