[LINK] Saturday Links Roundup

[rfmcdonald]

• Jaquandor at Byzantium's Shores explains just how disorganized his music collection is. Would that my music was at least that organized.


• Centauri Dreams points to research claiming to describe the universe that preceded ours, before the Big Bang. It also takes a look at the prospects for habitable planets in different planetary systems.


• Daniel Drezner notes the continuing debate on whether to respond to the Ahmadinejad letter, and implicitly argues that an answer is required. Consider the semiotics of the situation, not the content of the letter but the fact that a letter has been sent at all.


• Joel at Far Outliers examines European attitudes towards the Confederacy and its struggle for recognition. He finds that, in Britain at least, the Confederacy faced many more challenges than is often believed.


• Among Jonathan Edelstein's posts of late can be found informative studies of the evolution of Indo-Mauritian identity and the introduction of Islamic ideology in Somalia's civil wars. Congratulations on the normblog profile, Jonathan!


• feorag reports, at The Pagan Prattle, about the struggles faced by worshippers of the Greek pantheon in their homeland. Religious monopolies, alas.


• Ken MacLeod's March essay on the origins of his ideas is worth reading, on its own merits and as a prototype for its kind.


• Timothy Sandefur at Positive Liberty takes down the Progressives. His critique comes from a libertarian perspective that I don't necessarily share, but there's good reason to be critical of the Progressives and their attitudes towards individual rights. Take eugenics, say.