10/11/08 am adding 'conservatism' tag to 11 dlcs hits for it as search term my pgmrks
incl mostly recent from asllvn 'main' and just one or two old pgmrks.
*made note below on oldest, earliest, #11... copying here.

it's one of the categories of asllvn posts (I'd like it better if he had tags/labels? for: political philosophy; Palin; what other recurring topics? + series: View From Your Window, Face of the Day his various awards, etc) that I think I'd like to separate fr other pgmrks 'main' re current events ~ so there may be prvs pgmrks to add that d n come up in dlcs search.

andrew sullivan's blog ~ like a jukebox, or a radio playlist. plays some tunes over & over, seems guided by thought of the moment (not logical arrangement). recurring:

-political philos: what he means by conservativism
-criticism, esp of Republicans diverging from what he means by conservativism.
--and esp, 'Christianism'.
currently:
-Palin's Odd Lies (I agree with the point that her lies are odd. more about overall ignorance-denial of what is the case than about political manuevering)
-Dishonorable McCain
-Obama's Calm

-Poll Watch. incl RCP= 'right-leaning' real clear politics. & Nate Silver's site ~ fivethirtyeight - ah: named after number of electors in electoral college, ok cool. I may want to go back & look at just these posts (see, a label/tag would be helpful for that) w asllvn's comments. eg last week 10/6 I think "I don't have to tell you, this is landslide territory." and re specific states, Virginia (which ~ has voted Republican since 1964) and West Virginia. last day or so, re Michigan. Obama leading in Michigan "is the twilight zone." when did the landslide start? it was not immediate after the wall street news started coming out (Freddy & Fannie, AIG, Lehman), was it? was there a distinct turning point? I gather that through this last week -so that is, following the townhall presidential debate?- Obama's lead has kept increasing. last day or so "breaks 50 nationally." but even few days ago: would win electoral college even if lost the contested states; if those state went way now polling, would win with ~ 370+ votes ~

I like his blog as a guide bcs his views seem agreeable, but not always predictable to me. and he posts A LOT. wld be nice if site did not require so much loading time, power.and if had labels/tags.

I was marking this when decided to add dlcs conservative tag:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy - Iqra’i 10/8 by Nicole Harris : I mentioned this “political autobiography” project for class and a few people were interested. I am one of my favorite topics, so I’m happy to share it. This is more of an attempt to trace my development than the actual content of my thoughts.
via asllvn: Through Nietzsche To Eliot ... hmm my: tse, auden, gkc ~ did not think led to be politically conservative (although I did notice liking that UofC student publication that aimed to be conservative and quoted Eliot ~ conservatism is about the great things) but did wonder re appeal of (religious) orthodoxy ... and beyond. One young woman's path to conservatism as a serious political philosophy. Yes, there's intellectual hope for the right. It will have to come out of the ashes of our current moment. And it will start with essays like this one.

*my int is ~
(not re the occasioning pgmrk, where topic is development of political philosophy, so she's presumably going to relay in some detail why she finds or puts herself on the right, for reasons.)
but generally:
do ppl really understand the stances well enough that calling thmslvs conservative or liberal represents actual disagreement? a disagreement of true feeling, belief, judgment? ie *not* manufactured or adopted as a stance for reasons other than true inclination to the substance of the stance? ~ influence fr other people, placement of self socially. yes, these could lead to you actually feeling, believing, judging that you want small govt and a free market. *or* that there is vast inequality and govt must try to help. (are those the cores of the stances? in practice, here & now in the U.S.)

recurring tht: there are real disagreements. do not add to them by thinking you have to take a position and therefore taking one.
biloxi blues - the guy tells matthew broderick's char that if he wants to be a writer he can't just stay on the sidelines, he has to fight! broderick must ask for what, bcs the guy says: Pick a side, any side!
that guy was a sympathetic character, sleeping above in train, the little I remember, but boy it seems I do not like that advice. maybe: inform yourself, relate to people, get involved. but you do not need to pick a side, pick a fight. the fights will come. when you have a real feeling, belief, judgment about something. or if you do not have to fight, well then lucky. right?

but I guess ppl have a lot of feelings. it's not as usual as I imagine (for others) to find one's self without a feeling, a prejudice, and then concoct one.

so my tht is more relevant wrt what have longer tht it about: academics, dissertations, books. there are things ppl really have to say. don't require students to look for, come up with, sth to say. but this has to do v m w my feeling of drowning in abundance, too much. want fewer, less, ...nothing?
(not the same feeling: why IS there something inst of nothing? walking fr 53rd. it is the qstn. or rather the sense to recall: that there is something, not nothing.)

Eddy Elmer: Diary: The numbing of the American mind: Take the up-and-coming careerist academic who finds herself so numbed by the plethora of information and theories in her field that she tries to break out of it by creating what she thinks is the biggest 'breakthrough' theory ever—the theory that will end all theories. But her final theory adds only to the mind-numbing pile of theories that drove her mad in the first place—not only because it increases the number of available theories, but also because it is probably a mediocre one to begin with. Much of what we call 'new' and 'groundbreaking' has no real value or substance because it wasn't created for its own sake.

but I do not tend to think it's created by trying to break out of numbness from too much (with a break out end all theory). I think it's created for careerism: everyone told they have to say something themselves, and even better try for a break out theory. dissertation is required to graduate, publication is required for tenure.