Latest Posts
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Return
Where I live, in the extreme northwest corner of Massachusetts, the trees really don’t return to green until mid-May. It was just this week, therefore, that I noticed the gradual bloom of leaves. Each day found the branches… Continue reading
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A Little Rectification, Please!
Can we discern a pattern? – Wolfowitz screws up and then stays on too long at the World Bank; – Gonzales screws up and then stays on too long at Justice; … Continue reading
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Buying Children
I have suggested elsewhere, that Confucianism, with its emphasis on the social embedded-ness of the individual, would likely support some forms of medical intervention to facilitate child birth. If the intent and purpose of such intervention were driven… Continue reading
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Burning Mao
Last Saturday a man from Xinjiang, with a Chinese name, threw some sort of flammable material at the giant portrait of Mao that hangs over Tiananmen Gate, scorching its lower left hand corner: … Continue reading
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French Sinological Food Fight: Thoughts on Politics and Writing
New Left Review runs a piece on an intellectual battle between two French sinologists, Jean-François Billeter and François Jullien. I have not read any of the many books cited; obviously both men are accomplished scholars. One of the central… Continue reading
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Another Taoist Mother’s Day
I wrote this last year and reproduce it here to mark the day, Mother’s Day: A Taoist Mother’s Day In the US today is Mother’s Day, a day to stop and recognize the love and work and… Continue reading
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Derek Fisher, Confucian Gentleman
Derek Fisher is a professional basketball player. He is also a father. And his two roles came into heart-rending conflict this week: Fisher, a point guard for the Utah Jazz, sat in an office at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer… Continue reading
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Sun Tzu Goes to Congress
Just heard a clip on the radio in which Secretary of Defense Gates, in his testimony before Congress today, quoted Sun Tzu. Gates was urging legislators to fund the war for a full fiscal year and not break… Continue reading
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Human Diversity
The NYT today has a story on the ethical questions surrounding prenatal testing for Down Syndrome. It focuses on parents of disabled children and their efforts to tell the world, and especially soon-to-be parents, that life with Down… Continue reading
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Mr Wolfowitz, Please Read the Classics
Paul Wolfowitz, having overseen the disastrous US policy in Iraq (remember: he was the one who publicly contradicted General Shinseki), has now made a mess of the World Bank. He is cutting a pathetic figure of late, hanging… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 