Midweek Miscellany

I've not had time in a while to write up something decent on my own, so to give your visit here some value I thought I'd send you to some friends and acquaintances who HAVE had time to write posts--and pretty good ones, at that.

Serious stuff first: Gregory Djerejian of Belgravia Dispatch is, it seems to me, THE fellow to read these days on Iraq: long, thoughtful, well-sourced posts from a former diplomat with a long view and a long memory. He is still of the belief that something good can yet be salvaged from that adventure, but he is not blind to the fact that things must change dramatically and soon if that good is to be salvaged. This post is a long meditation on the retired generals who have made public their anger with Donald Rumsfeld's conducting of the war, on those who are impugning the reputations of these generals, and the general state of the relationship between civilian and military leadership at the Pentagon. This is the sort of writing for which adjectives like "searching" are reserved. This one, meanwhile, examines the cries of "wild speculation" emanating from the White House regarding attack plans aimed at Iran and hears a distinct echo of vintage late-2002/early-2003 rhetoric regarding Iraq.

Cheerier stuff now:

Nancy over at Sine.qua.non has this eloquent post about the value of the arts in/for society. As the proud father of two daughters who love to paint, draw, read, sing and, in my older daughter G.'s case, play the violin--all of this facilitated at least in part by the public school they attend--I could not agree more with Nancy's sentiment.

Over at Musings from the Hinterland, intrepid world traveller R. Sherman braves the wilds of northwestern Arkansas with his lovely wife and two children who might have questions of a rather awkward nature . . . Oh, just go read.

Belle Lettre over at Law and Letters ruminates on the advantages and disadvantages for academic types regarding pseudonomynous blogging--especially for those who, like her, don't quite have Ann Althouse's rep.

Do we talk about reality in only subjective terms, or can we ever achieve objectivity? Over at Epiphatic Exhaustion, Overlyconscious, putting on his best Socrates, would like to know.

And speaking of Socrates, at Delights for the Ingenious, Fearful Syzygy begins to suspect that, when it comes to conveying to others his version of haircut-ness, the language for that might not exist.

And, for the thinking-person's pugilist: Chess-boxing.

Enjoy.