Essential Chicago
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Chicagoania
Seriousness, Indeed
Regarding Ginny’s timely post just below: it doesn’t get more serious than this.
And it keeps going and going and going …
So on this 64th anniversary — precisely at 3:36 PM CST (9:36 PM UT), if possible — raise a glass to the first pile, to the Italian navigator, to the world he helped save, and to the Coalition to Preserve Civilization.
(Related posts: 61 Years Ago Today; Chicago Anniversary.)
The Seriousness of Hyde Park
There�s a case to be made that the single most intellectually and politically influential neighborhood in the United States is Chicago�s Hyde Park. Integrated, affluent and quiet, the 1.6 square-mile enclave on the city�s south side is like a tiny company town, where the company happens to be the august, gothic, eminently serious University of Chicago. Students at the U. of C. sell T-shirts that read �Where Fun Goes To Die,� and the same could be said of the neighborhood, which until very recently had a bookstore-to-bar ratio of 5:2.
What We Learn When We Learn Economics by Christopher Hayes, linked by A&L.
Men’s Leadership Forum of Chicago: Luncheon with Robert Novak 9.13.06
I have been involved in the founding of this new group. The luncheon with Robert Novak is our inaugural event. If you have any interest, details are below the fold.
The Commission is a Crime
People who dedicate themselves to teaching self defense skills are, by and large, motivated by a profound sense of fair play. They just don’t see any reason why a 90 pound woman should automatically lose when attacked by a 250 pound weightlifting sexual predator.
It is that same devotion to the ideal of a level playing field that keeps me from endorsing so-called hate crime legislation. Violent assault is already a crime, just as it should be. But why in the world should the penalty be greater if the victim just happens to be a member of a minority group? Not only doesn’t that seem very fair to me, it also appears to violate the principle that we are all equal under the law.
Let us turn this around and look at it from the other side. Should the sentence be harsher if the criminal is a minority? Most people would instantly reject the idea as being blatantly racist and discriminatory, yet it doesn’t seem to occur to anyone that attempting to add layers of protections to minorities that the rest of the population won’t share is also a form of racism and discrimination.