From Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish: A reader has an interesting point: 1. Why is it illegal for me to pay a prostitute for sex, but it’s NOT illegal for a film director to pay two people to have sex in front of a camera and then make money for his product in the form of [...]
Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ category
Non-event in a locationless place:
I love airport bars – not only because they get me though the horror of flying – I love them because they are the true crossroads of America. Around me are some of the regulars: the guy wearing an earpiece and an embroidered polo shirt who loves his sales job, the guy sitting next to [...]
… unless by “radical” you mean “really awesome.”
When Walter Benjamin wrote in 1938 that one may understand the problems associated with a society through a reading of its consumer goods, even his best friend and fellow Frankfurt School thinker, Teddy Adorno, thought that he was taking the whole Marxism thing a little too far. When Herbert Marcuse wrote in 1964 that advanced [...]
The Apple of My Eye
After I moved to Los Angeles last spring, I soon learned that people don’t communicate here quite like they do in Washington D.C. I’m not talking about think-tank dissertations, multi-footnote policy papers or the monotone dronings of C-Span speeches. I’m talking about text messages. In D.C., people picked up the phone and called each other. [...]
You Be Bad
“I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” – Anne Frank “People are inherently evil. Religion is the only civilizing force; without it, we’d all be reduced to a savage state, a state we’re really on the brink of all the time.” – My brother (paraphrased) My brother recently [...]
What we can conceal
I don’t own a pet, but my roommate has a cat who pesters me when I’m home and a coworker has a chocolate Lab who pesters me when I’m at work. It’s now to the point where any smallish, annoying thing, including a child, gets marked in my mind with the dog’s name. We’ll call [...]
What I did on my summer vacation
Cue Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died.” It began on my way to the bus, with a phone call from my oldest, dearest friend, Meghan, who, through static interference and intermittent service, told me that our friend Q had died. For some reason I continually misunderstood her – I kept asking “who?” – for some reason [...]
ForLoveNotMoney 2.0
To be an amateur in the U.S. is to be second rate. The reasoning goes that if one were a better writer, musician, or painter, a career in the arts would necessarily be in order. The professional is lauded – is taken seriously. Things, however, weren’t always this way. Until the mid-to-late 19th century, amateurism [...]
Who got served? Four soldiers’ stories
1. My dear friend’s brother is 43; he’s in a happily rewarding second marriage and his kids are 5, 3, and newborn. Despite this brand-new sprouting family, though, he strongly feels his primary duty is to serve in the war, so he’s decided to enlist. His particular assignment, which is slated to last a year [...]
Rome, part 2: La bella figura
I am still trying to wrap my head around the concept of “fare bella figura.” It literally means “to make a beautiful figure,” but most people would translate it as “a good impression.” Truthfully, it’s a little of both—and it’s singularly Italian. In order to possess a bella figura, you must look put-together. If you’re [...]
