So. Ms Kagan. Anybody find any links to online articles authored by her? It is said by her defenders that she’s a brilliant academic, whatever that means. Publish or perish means there should be scads of articles and books by her if she was as claimed a brilliant academic. No book at Amazon, except a $45 tribute essay contribution in honor of some Harvard dude. And I’m guessing this book isn’t hers. Finally there is this at Amazon as well … out of print and no reviews. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t publish in journals not available on-line. So … anything?

Do legal professors not publish? What is the point of being in the Academy if you don’t publish? I don’t get it.

Look to be a brilliant academic you have to make a mark. To make a mark you have to publish important works which make a visible impact on our profession. I see no evidence that is the case for Ms Kagan. Perchance this is more of this retconning thing in which brilliant academic is recast to mean something entirely different. Perhaps it now is to mean an academic liked by Mr Obama who just happens to be another ‘brilliant academic’ who lacks any actual substantive academic record.

Good morning.

1. Logic and the greening of cars.
2. Medieval icons uncovered.
3. One of the unspoken unexamined axioms of the left.
4. Spending binge … do you think it will stop?
5. Climate not weather … heh.
6. Mr Wilson.
7. A quote regarding the UK PM exchange.
8. A discussion of church and same sex relations.
9. Paradigm shifts in thinking about the universe.
10. Chutzpah and an interesting recasting of what swiftboating means that perhaps aligns better with history (although perhaps “politically motivated” should be added as an adjective to the term opponents).
11. Examining Mr Gates.

Good morning.

1. One of the Gentlemen on Kagan.
2. More here from a Volokh conspirator.
3. Lithium dead? That has to be a translation glitch. Oh, wait … reading more carefully it is presented as such.
4. Jews as WASPS?
5. EU crises examined.
6. I failed to mention this yesterday. Actually the WSJ Monday had a hole section on energy which is worth a look.
7. Apropos of my “failure to communicate” essay last night … here’s another example.
8. A solution from the Soviet era?
9. Well, I don’t always take all my vacation days … but I wouldn’t ascribe the reason as guilt.
10. I suspect that “increase” is the first of many admissions of cost increases.
11. A novel.

From a comment:

In Mark’s post-modern relativistic world it appears almost impossible for anyone on the right to say anything untrue. Likewise there’s almost nothing Obama can say that can’t be ret-conned into a lie.

In the above, the accusation leveled at myself is likely a charge made reflexively whenever Mr Boonton (or likely any number of interlocutors from the left) sees someone on the right suggesting that a phrase or word can be taken in more than one way. This is noted in the wake of the particular history of post-modernism/quasi-Derridan theories of language and as a result of the rejection of the same by conservatives. The ironic thing here is that the accusation of this sort attempts to at the same time defend relativism, i.e., multiple meanings while at the same time force a particular meaning to be established.

Foucault and Derrida, as is my understanding, suggest that fixing and setting the meaning of words and phrases, fixing the primary hermenuetic if you will, is an act of power and that furthermore there is no intrinsic meanings for things beyond being an expression of power. While this is undoubtedly a simplification at the same time has the problem of getting the matter exactly wrong.

Meanings are fixed … but their particular assignment to particular words is not. When one says something the intention, the meaning is the one thing which is fixed and not a thing captured or expressed fundamentally in and via particular words. The act of speaking and then of hearing is a distortion on the original meaning (or web of meanings) which is being expressed. Conversation is one aid to the exercise of transmitting this which allows one to correct and refine the transmission. This is of course an exercise made more complicated by the fact that the idea reflected back is itself distorted by the act of expression by the receiver. If speaking is a lossy transmission of one’s thought to another. When you converse and try to get your meaning across, discussion is the act of trying to correct the image of your idea into another’s mind through the quadruple layers of distortion (thought -> spoken words then perceived words -> thoughts with a reflection).

What perchance does this have to do with the title selected for this particular essay? Well, in our political discourse peculiar (particular?) assumptions are made about what phrases mean which are normally misinterpreted by the other side and which make our discourse more contentious than it would normally be. One of the common irritants between parties then aligns along the continual frustration which this engenders. One says a thing to express one idea and by the other’s reaction and comments it is clearly misunderstood. Furthermore as one clarifies and attempts to more clearly state and restate the original point one either gets nowhere or the act of restatement is interpreted as an attempt at “changing” what one originally said.

Good morning (and a belated happy mothers day). Links?

1. VE day in Moscow through Ukrainian eyes.
2. Thoughts on banking.
3. Aging populations.
4. On a remark by a Mr Klein.
5. Candy in school.
6. Marriage … some thoughts.
7. Ya think?
8. Mannequin as cultural marker.
9. An excellent way to recast the “Obama: Socialist or not?” question.
10. Exactly.
11. Miranda.
12. Kagan and Meiers.
13. The next American rifle?

Good morning.

1. A word which for the pre-adolescent will trigger a snigger.
2. A suggestion for the progressives.
3. Beautiful curves.
4. On immigration.
5. How the “reality party” does business.
6. And then you hit a switch and the it switches to economy mode and gets 30 mpg … or as is more likely, uhm, not.
7. Some notes on that much linked Onion piece on the Constitution.
8. A man without a country? 
9. Hmm. 
10. Well, now that one of our elected official dunces has said so … it must be true.
11. A story about love.
12. For the cricket race fans.
13. A book noted.
14. Greece.
15. A parental dispute. Well, that’s the wrong decision. I’d think that either the judges should have ruled ala Solomon that the kid be cut in two and the parents can name their half as they please …. or the parents get five minutes to clear this up and come out in agreement on a name or the court would rule the kid will forever be named Farky McSnarky (or something similar).

Good morning.

1. On the NY bombing attempt, everything is just peachy … or not?
2. A look at the terrorists family life.
3. Now, I don’t know who Mr Miliband is, but I think the statement “part Polish, part Belgian, and part Jewish” doesn’t need modification. A person can reflect and represent his national origins and his ethnic background in “parts” without any difficulty.
4. Supply side.
5. Ethnic issues in the Russian Federation … and this is not unrelated.
6. Turks and Orthodoxy.
7. A book of interest.
8. The balloon is still inflated?
9. The state of economics.
10. Perhaps Mr Obama’s “Katrina Moment” is not in the place you’re looking.
11. Ride a bike. Race a bike. Did you know in 1920 in the US professional bike racing was a much bigger sport than baseball?
12. Why write (or blog).
13. Music for the morning.
14. Reflections on AZ.

Good morning.

1. A book on notice.
2. Amazon history meme. My first purchase was, oddly enough, a movie … Peking Opera Blues in 1999. My first book was A Deepness in the Sky.
3. Dealing with controversy.
4. Yes. Do go in, its stunningly beautiful inside.
5. Not exactly safe.
6. Background on Miranda rights.
7. $800 billion down the rat hole.
8. No silly, we can’t do that ’cause he hasn’t been tortured yet, duh.
9. Isn’t “not heeding your own advice” hypocrisy unless you are repentant?
10. Some politically incorrect notions.

Good morning.

1. Hopefully he did more than “confront” his daughter.
2. Willing ignorance by the left. One might wonder in the wake of CMU and the hocky stick lies how the notion that the willingness to sell off fact for partisan causes is not strictly on one side of the aisle. Perhaps agnotology is the word for that?
3. Having blamed Bush and global warming on any number of natural occurrences which were clearly not at fault, some on the left are curious why the right is not as dumb. 
4. I guess redefining the problem away hasn’t fixed things.
5. I for one, wish the “under the bus” phrase would just go away and die quietly.
6. Couture. 
7. Our small President.
8. Mr Gore’s example setting.
9. A gentleman’s questions on Arizona.
10. Another book reading/blogging project.
11. Physics links.
12. That shouldn’t have had to be stated.
13. Open immigration at odds with the welfare state.
14. For the Ms Palin fans.

One of the wonderful moments in St. Augustine’s Confessions returned to me in force from out of the blue. Now, I’ve not been a Christian for long in my adult life, having been raised within the fold of the Church, but having fallen away for 20 years of my adult life until fairly recently. The point of that observation is that regular and ordinary Christian culture is often new to me. The point of that observation is that I have questions about my experiences now as a Christian for which I lack the context and background of one who has been within the community for that missing time as an adult. This question in turn requires a little background or stage setting, which in turn can be found below the fold. Read the rest of this entry

Good morning.

1. Greece. One view. Another. And one more.
2. An old soldier.
3. Of children’s and politician’s fantasies.
4. The CIA.
5. Contra Mayday ‘workers’ celebrations. Here and here.
6. Regarding the Southpark Islam/Mohammed kerfuffle.
7. Mr Obama.
8. Arizona and immigration.
9. A reading group to note.
10. Freedom of the press.
11. Zap.
12. Mr Obama’s Katrina moment.
13. Saint Ahmed.

Good morning.

1. I concur, “change or die” is an error w.r.t. the church.
2. The Copts remark on the ECUSA.
3. On race and the US.
4. Real life and Hitchcock. Our families “Friday night movie night movie” tonight is Hitchcock’s Frenzy.
5. Hope and change.
6. A question on just war.
7. This is my one remaining (left) wingnut blog in my feed. He offers pointed criticism of Mr Obama.
8. Uhm, they’re effing frogs!?! I’d suggest reading Ms Chantal Delsol if Genesis 1 doesn’t make the argument well enough.
9. Two days in a row, mass movement to Orthodoxy in South America?
10. Social networks and following the crowd.
11. Science, oil, and the renewable resources problem.
12. For the fans of Ms Palin.
13. Illinois.
14. Advice for the beltway from Mr Easterly.

Good morning.

1. A new Lexus hybrid.
2. What the word is awaiting with baited breath.
3. Fables.
4. Democracy or freedom.
5. On that three axis political taxonomy.
6. I’d never even heard of the OSCE.
7. Excellence.
8. Who didn’t expect that?
9. Crime and punishment. 
10. Some music for your morning.
11. Another political taxonomy.
12. The OPM problem.
13. Poltics in the East.
14. On the Arizona immigration law … more here.