http://www.nazg.com/iqrai Sliding down the banisters of the ivory tower. Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:40:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Serious philosophical questions and midterms do not mix well. I have so many things floating around in my head, including some thoughts on capitalism vs. culture, but it's mostly responses to the responses. Some of my favorites (and you should really read the whole things, because they say far more than ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/11/pay-no-attention-to-caesar-caesar-doesnt-have-the-slightest-idea-whats-really-going-on/ Freddie dissects me and comes up short: ...I was sure I had missed something: where was the resolution to Karras's existential crisis? Where was the moment where she found her access to the truth that frees her from the spiritual emptiness that pure intellect had left her with? I couldn't find ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/09/burke-is-dead/ This video has made my week. (Title: "My Dogs greeting me after returning from 14 months in Iraq.") Search Keyword Location (City, State/Province or Country) Category All Afghanistan Celebrity Citizen Journalism Education Entertainment Iran Iraq Liveleakers News Politics Sexy Your Say User (Via.) http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/09/happiness-is-a-warm-puppy/ The West at Yale has the most moving response I've seen yet to Tuesday's Presidential Debate. It's a lament for the dearth of serious philosophical commentary in this election cycle, in a world in which a Presidential candidate can declare healthcare "a right" and, instead of a public debate about ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/09/elegy-for-october/ I mentioned this "political autobiography" project for class and a few people were interested. I am one of my favorite topics, so I'm happy to share it; find out All About Me after the jump. (I feel very silly about this.) This is more of an attempt to trace my ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/08/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-vast-right-wing-conspiracy/ Often I ask myself: what's the "tipping point," new-content-wise, that distinguishes a comment on another blog from a post on this one? Today I figured out the answer. Comment: wondering what Alicia Keys is doing in the new James Bond theme. Post: realizing that -- of course! -- she's there because she's supposed ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/06/object-lesson/ ...and to tide you over until Iqra'i gets a collective handle on schoolwork, social lives, senior essays, jobs, and the increasing amounts of blood in our caffeine system, HuffPo has just posted speeches from September's YPU debate. Sadly, no one asked for mine. On the other hand, I have a blog, ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/05/the-meta-it-burns/ "La Contre-Révolution ne sera pas une révolution contraire, mais le contraire de la Révolution." -- Maistre. From the end of my "political autobiography" (for class): More than anything else, I am concerned with how we think about things, and what that means to us in terms of living both virtuous and fulfilling ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/10/05/ten-pages-down-ten-to-go/ Intellectual history is in large part the geneaology of ideas. We try to understand the backdrop, the implicit assumptions, the unconscious past meanings that present use still carries. Sometimes it's fun to do it to yourself. Over at LadyBlog, through children's books, I try. http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/09/30/coincidence-i-think-not/ Are you looking for something to add to your Google Reader that isn't quite as taxing as "Diaries of the Greats: Commemorative Blog Edition" (Pepys; Orwell) but has a bit more intellectual meat to it than, say, that cluster of Mad-Men-character Tumblrs that was hot for about a minute and ... http://www.nazg.com/iqrai/index.php/2008/09/20/but-what-would-sartre-have-thought-of-social-networkin/