Items of Note

I've been reading quite a few articles online recently about all sorts of good stuff. For your consideration:

Benjamin Franklin: The original city slicker? A fascinating man. I need to read more about him.

How do we handle the new Russia?

The end of science? Tell that to CERN.

On Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I admit I knew nothing about the man aside from his name until his recent death. I regret to say I have not read him - but I plan on doing so.

"In Praise of Melancholy." Not quite sure how I feel about this one. I imagine it would have appealed to me more back when melancholy dominated my life. But there's something to Wilson's deceptively paradoxical point that I do agree with. The highs are never as good without the occasional lows.

Dennett on consciousness, science, and religion. Excellent stuff:

It is seldom remarked (though often observed in private, I daresay) that many, many people who profess belief in God do not really act the way people who believed in God would act; they act the way people would act who believed in believing in God. That is, they manifestly think that believing in God is—would be—a good thing, a state of mind to be encouraged, by example if possible, so they defend belief-in-God with whatever rhetorical and political tools they can muster. They ask for God’s help, but do not risk anything on receiving it, for instance. They thank God for their blessings, but, following the principle that God helps those who help themselves, they proceed with the major decisions of their lives as if they were going it alone.

That pretty much sums it all up, doesn't it?

New Russia Same as the Old Russia?

Prompted by Russia's recent invasion of Georgia, Robert Kagan in The Weekly Standard writes about how democracy must rise to the challenge of the threat posed by autocratic Russia and China.

President Obama: a fait accompli?

He's really working the global crowd, isn't he?

"I'm a businessman, Tom. Blood is a big expense."

An interesting article in the National Interest using The Godfather film as a metaphor for the status of the United States in a dangerous post-Cold War world. I found it thoughtful and well done. Perhaps you might as well.