galvagin

Good to see you back. I can honestly say that my grad school budget doesn't include excess funds for gift accounts.

Happy Bday

Sorry to see you going, but I know where to find you.

And I'll be keeping tabs bub.

Congratulations on the house.

Actually, selecting on the dependent variable doesn't bother me *that* much. In fact, *I* do it in some of my work. It can be interesting stuff for theorizing, especially if you have variation in that variable (say, if your variable is refugee crisis - you might have three countries with a refugee crisis, but of varying degrees, and such distinctions can buy you a lot of explanatory purchase with your independent variables). It's just that if you *do* that, you have to be really aware of the limitations of your approach too. And I think often IR scholars are oblivious to that.

I actually really agree with you about Addington - I don't think he perceives security/democracy as a kind of binary choice. But I'm sure he (and other strong executive conservatives) have some sense of what those two concepts mean, how they co-exist, and when they are in tension with one another. I'd just like a better picture of what their worldview actually is, I suppose. I think your idea of *populism* is really right on, and it never really occurred to me to think of it in that way. I mean, I can see the broadly populist agenda (flag burning amendment? really?) - but I think my take on it was always pretty cynical/functional. I never really thought that they might *sincerely* see themselves as carrying a democratic spirit, in a Nixonian (not so) "Silent Majority" kind of way. But, that would make sense - Cheney and Co. are from that era.

In terms of statistical analysis, I think some kind of coding proxy could be made up to measure this stuff. I think the bigger problem would be the pool of respondents being large enough to find much of use out. Interviews would probably be aces.

as usual, you are right - stuff *is* awesome.

google just does stull well don't they?

and i TOTALLY let you down on this end. and now i reap the benefit of no D&D game. lesson learned.

for sure - my sense of the space literature is pretty spotty. my usage of it is pretty utilitarian, but yea - i'll do my best. i might also recommend picking the brain of obd - he's a smart guy, an architect, and awful nice.

So as it turns out my political beliefs were of no consequeunce in this AIPAC job, which ended yesterday. I sat in a room and typed meaningless names and numbers into the same docuement for 8 hours straight. I spoke to no one but the supervisor, ate my lunch alone, and really wasn't allowed to leave the room for more than a couple minutes at a time besdies my lunch break.

I could have been working for ANYONE.

see, i feel encouraged now - clearly, the people are crying out for a new fad, and i will gladly supply them with that, via fossilization.

defining stuff - that's a total academic thing to do.

speaking of academics: i think we turned out OK mostly due to our charm and smashing good looks. but that's just a hypothesis.

re: lucrative careers. like most philosophy/social science grad students, at one point, i flirted with law school. but i picked grad school. i remember my dad was really relieved, b/c he was sure that if i went to law school, i'd end up broke doing pro bono work for the poor.

Holy mother of god . . . someone actually took the time to look at Fascism without applying the vernacular stigma. In this thread, with some reservation, I will admit that I am a fascist, albeit a water-downed version. Upon contemplation a polity is closer to fascism because of its focus on the group ethic versus the individual. It would be funny to see a group of people form a polity that adopts fascist ideals, however under Aristotle's definition a democracy would never support a fascist state; it is an oxymoron. Thus the perfect government could be a fascist state. Just this instant I thought of the massive parallels between a polity and utilitarianism.

I am not sure what you already know about the subject or what the context of the issue is, so I can't offer much.

These links may help somewhat though:

http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/Monographs/No94/Chap1.html

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/ECOSOC6030.doc.htm

http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/subjindx/121weaps.htm

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19990708.SC6697.html

If you can provide more information, maybe I can help look into it and suggest issues I think are interesting.

dan savage is seriously awesome.

i actually like what he has to say a lot. obviously, a lot of more sophisticated "queer thinkers" take a pretty strong stance *against* marriage - arguing that it is problematic for all the historical reasons you outline above. and i *get* that, on an intellectual level. but there's a lot to be said for the ceremony of it: in other words, as social creatures, i still buy into the notion of public/legal commitments to each other. these kind of milestones are important - both to those involved *and* to the community at large (which we are apart of, and whose "health" really does matter). so i like how savage offers a way to keep up these kind of "public rituals," that serve a necessary identity function whlie at the same time making them open, inclusive, and less oppressive. go him!

grad students - we're the suck.

edited to add - ohyea, i'm tagging you to do one of those '20 things about me' lists. it's a meme, so i thought you might like it.

[Edited on Oct 31, 2005 10:07AM]

What do you think about starting a new philosophy group; a private one reserved for those who have spent serious time studying the "subject." (First topic: is "philosophy" a "subject" or a "pursuit"? Ha. )

We shall start anew, and rebuild that which was once glorious. We shall live as g-ds.

1. Congratulations.

2. Double congratualtions!

3. Er, um, hey look! "Abortifacient." I learned a new word!

4. You should have SEEN the stuffed chicken breast I made for mine last night.

And oh, yeah, happy birthday!

happy birthday

woot. another blog! you're like the journal master of the universe

re: my weird ass program. i'm in the ph.d program right now. but in addition to courses and exams - we have a thesis requirement. SO, in our 2nd year we do a thesis. THEN, post-exam (which we should finish up ideally in the 3rd year) - we start the proposal/dissertation phase. basically, they just like to keep us busy. the thesis does have value .. you get a chance to work on developing an original project and work close with faculty. if you're good - you can plant the germ of a dissertation. it's an odd process.

Hope your doing well these days.

By the way, some tix are avilable for the show at Studio I'm working on, if you are interested.