Fractals

After a hellish, nearly 60 hour work-week, I return with a few links and "shorts."

I hesitate to pick out some interesting posts I've noticed of late while making the rounds of the blogs, because I certainly do not mean to imply that those I won't mention aren't valuable and interesting. It's just that a few dovetail well with what I've been thinking recently - in the hypnagogic and hypnopompic states, if you, like, know what I'm sayin' sayin'.

...

David Adesnik has a strong post at Oxblog which exposes the vacuous soul-searching undertaken by some "liberal hawks" over at TNR in light of the question whether they regretted supporting the invasion of Iraq. Perhaps predictably, most credit their own instincts and intuitions, blaming Bush and Co. for every shattered hope and expectation.

...

Melanie Phillips, at times a Bush critic but never a hysterical Bush hater, outlines an interesting case that Bush was foolish to insist that Turkey be admitted to the EU, since, superficial appearances notwithstanding, Turkey lacks genuine cultural affinity with Europe. I'm not sure if Melanie intended this, but she almost seemed to suggest that Chirac's concerns and her own are isomorphic - whereas I would suspect other raison d'Etat as motivating the French President primarily.

...

Saddam shows a sense of humor? In the BBC write-up on Saddam's court appearance:

'Hearing the charge relating to Halabja, where about 5,000 Kurdish civilians died in a single day, Saddam Hussein said, "Yes, I heard about that."'

..

Thinking about intellectual integrity ... I'm not sure whether or not to see "Fahrenheit 9.11." I find Michael Moore to be a loathsome individual, but that's no refutation of his assertions - he could be right, wholly or in part, for all that. But my aversion to his person makes me hesitate to add to his "war chest," though the cost of not seeing the film will be having a considered opinion about it. But if I do see it, I want my attitude to be such that I'm not in attendance simply in order to be able to attack it, firsthand. You know, have the conclusion first, and subsequently find the "evidence" to fit it - like Moore himself seems to do (I can hear it now: "Like Bush did over Iraq too"!). Until then, I'll give provisional ear to critics whose opinions I respect.

...

A considered, sharp post over at The Stopped Clock relating to music licensing and piracy (one of my pet protests). More broadly I addressed this issue in one of my first blog entries.

...

The redoubtable Roger is really on a roll, ranging across the landscape of philosophy, literature, etc. Good stuff, even though we often disagree.