Latest Posts
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Dragon Mountain and the Selective Confucianism of Late Ming China
I just finished reading Jonathan Spence’s most recent book, Return to Dragon Mountain and want to note down a few ideas it brought to mind. A few years ago I so much enjoyed Spence’s God’s Chinese… Continue reading
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Confucian Schools
This has become a fairly routine story in the past couple of years: schools in China that teach "Confucianism" to young children. I use the scare quotes here because it is not clear to me exactly what kind… Continue reading
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Birthleave for Fathers
Ingrid Robeyns over at Crooked Timber posts today on the debate in the Netherlands over granting paid leave to fathers so that they can participate in the care of their new born children. She provides several grounds in… Continue reading
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Why “The Useless Tree”
A visitor, named "visitor" appropriately enough, wondered, in a comment, about the title of this blog. He/she guessed that it was from Chuang Tzu – and that is correct. When I first started out, on my very first… Continue reading
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Consumption
Jared Diamond has an insightful op-ed in the NYT today. He makes a point that is at once obvious yet still in need of a wide hearing: the developed world, and especially the US, enjoy a level of… Continue reading
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Darryl Stingley, Taoist Sage
The NYT Magazine did its annual collection of obituaries, The Lives They Lived, on Sunday. One story in particular struck me, the reminiscence of Darryl Stingley. For a man of my time and place that name carries a… Continue reading
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The I Ching Does It Again
The holiday season has been busy here – that’s why blogging has faded a bit. And it’s the time of year for looking back over the past twelve months. So, let me reminisce-blog a bit. Exactly… Continue reading
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Requiem for Benazir Bhutto
This life we’re given comes in its own season, and then follows its vanishing away. If you’re at ease in your season, if you can dwell in its vanishing, joy and sorrow never touch you. This is what the ancients… Continue reading
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Is the US “Surge” in Iraq Working? Sun Tzu would not be impressed
A few days ago a reader named Jeff, who has a Sun Tzu site, suggests that the US "surge" in Iraq is working. Is it? At one level, the increase in US troops in recent months… Continue reading
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Another Taoist Christmas
Too busy with holiday commitments to blog. But here’s some recycled thoughts on a Taoist Christmas: I have blogged on a Taoist view, or my Taoist view, of Thanksgiving. But what about Christmas? What would a… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 