I hope nobody thought all of those things were going to be tied together somehow.  They're not!

Today was another strange day of coincidences.  An email from John via the listserver set me to thinking about, among other things, Roe v. Wade and whether or not an Objectivist ought to support that terrible constitutional decision despite the damage it does to American constitutionalism broadly construed.  Just as an aside, my answer is no, but that's a topic for elsewhere.  Later in the day, Andrew raised the question of First Amendment jurisprudence in relation to several posts on Hanah's message boards, which I pondered off and on throughout a rather intense workout.  The question raised by Andrew is, what constitutes speech -- and the question on Hanah's message board in particular dealt with the cases of lap dancing and flag burning.  As in Roe, the problem is what to do when the Constitution is not followed (in this case because of incorporation) -- in the lap-dancing case, an issue is decided in a liberty-limiting manner, which is not an outcome favored by Objectivists.  Take a peek at this message thread on Hanah's board, including my own post.

I'm sad to report that even though this is technically Tax Day, I'm not particularly grumpy.  It's been a trademark for at least ten years or so that this is a horrible day for people to be around a very grouchy Kev, but I'm entirely happy today.   The IRS is still evil, however.

I'm listening to Robert Earl Keen tonight, and I have to say, I like him more every time I listen. 

I find that these outbursts of playing with the website are a very good way of keeping my brain working while taking a short break from the dissertation.   Alas, it's about time to get cracking on the final part of Chapter Three again.   Maybe a few more days of tinkering with the website, especially the Books section, which is going to be great fun.  Next major addition to the Books section:   links to the best translations of the major classical works of political philosophy.  Why does the translation matter so much?  Yet another web project (Theories of Textual Analysis), but further off in the future.  Thanks for reminding me earlier, Andrew.  I think.

For now, off to ENGAGE in some textual analysis.

Copyright (c) 2000, Kevin L. Whited