Applied Epistemology

The NYRB's Elizabeth Drew is evidently charmed by Jim Webb.

Jay Cost has, as usual, an excellent analytic perspective on the (mercifully ended) Democratic nomination.

It's funny. When I assessed Obama's chances before the primaries began, I thought he'd never connect with ordinary folks; he has always struck me as sounding rather like, well, a typical liberal Oxy student (albeit a very articulate one). I felt it fairly likely, even as late as pre-Super Tuesday, that he would go the way of George McGovern and Gary Hart. But he has beaten the odds -- even after, surprisingly late in the campaign, his opponents finally realized that -- duh -- he is a classic Adlai Stevenson-style intellectual liberal Democrat. How did he manage to avoid the "elitist" label for so long? And how does he continue to deflect that angle of attack, even after his bluntly Frankfurt School "cling to religion and guns" remarks have become well-aired?

Obama and Thomas Frank appear to be flat-out wrong.

Political philosopher Avishai Margalit has written a perceptive essay on the role of sectarianism in modern politics. An extended quote:

"The idea of the holy is the idea of that which is nonnegotiable. Commodities are divisible either physically or in terms of the duration of their use. What is divisible can be subject to compromise. We can split the difference. The idea of the sacred—at least in monotheistic religions—describes what is indivisible and hence not subject to compromise. If a fetus’s life is sacred, then no splitting of pregnancy into trimesters is allowed.

Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, on protesters: "It will definitely be criticized by people who love peace and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure."

Who picks these PR people? Emperor Palpatine?

Clinton already lost my vote in the California primary -- by continuing the retarded Bush practice of labelling every flat surface in sight with vapid Orwellian slogans she will lose my vote even if she manages to become the nominee. Didn't

The NYT's Gretchen Morgenson calls Bear Stearns what it was.

Subprime mortgages made funny.

Wisconsin's primary gives strong evidence that Obama is pulling away.