A Conundrum or Not?

From The New Republic:

WHAT LINCOLN KNEW ABOUT WAR
Resolved
by Paul Berman


Post date 02.21.03 | Issue date 03.03.03

Tocqueville figured that a liberal society could not, in fact, wield power. The vitality of American life confirmed his belief that social equality ("democracy," in his usage) was the wave of the future, even in Europe. But government in the United States was based on unusual principles--on popular sovereignty, federalism, and liberal rights--and those principles added up, in his estimation, to weakness. The United States consisted of 24 states and seemed to function well enough--for the moment. But someday the number of states was going to swell, he imagined, to 40, with a gigantic population of maybe 100 million. And, sooner or later, America's flimsy political system, under that kind of weight, was bound to break down.

( Read more... )

Back to School

Well, the first day back to school went well.

For my HIST 312 project, I've decided to do Campbell and MacLean's Beyond the Atlantic Roar (on the immigration of Scots to eastern Nova Scotia and subsequent developments) and Harris' The Resettlement of British Columbia (on the post-Confederation repopulation of British Columbia). I'll examine them from the standpoint of the perspective of historical sociology, examining the influences of that school upon the two books. It'll help that both are about immigration into virgin-land territories; the comparison will be that much easier.

I was also lucky enough to find a book that I thought I'd lost--The Czechoslovak Republic: a survey of its history and geography, its political and cultural organisation, and its economic resources, compiled by Jaroslav Cisar and F. Pokorny--last September. I got back the 50 dollars that I had to pay the Robertson Library by way of compensation.

Now, to work!

[FISKING] The Stupidity of the Anglosphere, and Other Things

Let's see if I've got this format right:

Today the 24th of February, the The Globe and Mail published John Ibbotson's article "Canada, be warned: A new alliance is taking shape". Let's take a look at it:

In the next week, we will learn whether weapons inspector Hans Blix's increasing impatience with Iraq will convince members of the UN Security Council to support a new resolution authorizing force against Saddam Hussein.

So far, so good.

( Wanna read my first fisking? )

</lj-cu

Site of the day

Sol Station

Ever curious about what near-Solar interstellar space was like? Sol Station has all of the stars within 20 to 30 light years, and excellent Javascript animations too.

Parents and Family Counselling

The parents have an appointment to see a family counsellor--the same one I've been going to myself--for 5:30 tomorrow evening. Fun, fun.

I have to admit that I think our current relationship is dead. I just want to see if anything can be salvaged from it, and a new polite distant one built. Moving away, I'm told, will erode still more of the ties, which is good. I don't get anything from Dad, and I get the feeling from Mom that whatever she does she wants me to be incessantly and stupidly grateful for the good things she's done in the past.

They had their chance last year. Time to see whether they deserve a new one.

(That sounds awfully harsh, but I don't care. If they hate having the idea of having an independent-minded faggot son, to hell with them.)