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White African Christ from Space

From First Thoughts

So that’s the first of what will probably turn out to be a large number of quotable lines from the very funny GET HIM TO THE GREEK. As far as I know, this is the first really enjoyable movie of the year (CITY ISLAND is a decent but distant second). It would be easy and right to say it’s . . . . Continue Reading »

More Celebrity Rambling

From First Thoughts

Celebrities, generally speaking, are fairly irresponsible or selfish—out for themselves. They have less reason than us not to be. They have rare opportunities to do whatever they want whenever they want. And not having been raised (as aristocrats once were) for their privileged lives, they . . . . Continue Reading »

Random Thoughts on Celebrity

From First Thoughts

I agreed to write a contribution to a symposium on CELEBRITY. MY dumb thought was: How hard could that be? Pretty hard. Here are my first random observations in search of a point: Celebrity, in the most obvious sense, is the lowest form of fame. Being a celebrity is a sort of gift of public . . . . Continue Reading »

Neither Porcher nor Libertarian

From First Thoughts

1. The genuinely realistic postmodern conservatism, from one view, is somewhere in between the Porcher and Libertarian EXTREMES. That true but precarious position, as Ralph has shown us so eloquently, eludes theoretical articulation. For most practial purposes, as I tried to add, it points in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Said vs. Knew?

From First Thoughts

1. So I took a few days off and now come back to this distinction, with a lot of fine comments in the thread. 2. Our Founders built better than they said. Is that because no theory can comprehend great practice? Or because there’s no theory adequate to the truth about who we are? In both . . . . Continue Reading »

Rawls and Our New Pay Grade

From First Thoughts

1. Thanks to Ralph for stimulating all this discussion about our political liberalism and in general (with Sam’s help) for raising us all up. We can’t help but admire his nobility in taking on the man whom studies show and leading experts agree rescued “normative” political . . . . Continue Reading »