Who Were the Sea Peoples?

I believe I was the first person to note in print just how Aristotelian Oakeshott's analysis of rationalism is, although I must credit Noel O'Sullivan for dropping the hint that got me going in that direction. Here is the kind of thing I was getting at: "At the start of the Nicomachean Ethics , Aristotle observes that moral action does not arise from deliberation. In order to think clearly about virtue, one must first already have a virtuous disposition formed by good habits. Aristotle drily remarks that the endless ethical debate of some philosophers is really just a sophisticated way of doing nothing. You become virtuous – and thus able to understand virtue – by acting virtuously. Nobody ever reasoned their way into right living." "...the endless ethical debate of some philosophers is really just a sophisticated way of doing nothing": Peter Singer springs instantly into my mind!

Here . An excerpt: "With these considerations in mind, it was with a great deal of excitement that I read Gene Callahan’s new book, Oakeshott on Rome and America , which is a well-written examination of Oakeshott’s own work, but also a novel application of Oakeshott’s critique of rationalist or ideological politics to American constitutional history. Callahan argues quite convincingly that Oakeshott’s analysis of the errors of modern rationalism is both acute and accurate and that the American constitutional tradition has been informed by a highly rationalistic rhetorical style from the beginning." Interestingly, the reviewer never mentions Rome at all! Perhaps I should have skipped  those chapters.

about gay adoption . The house next to me in Pennsylvania is owned by a lesbian couple. (I say "owned" by them because that's how they present the situation: I really have no idea if they own it jointly.) These ladies have made a habit of taking in the neglected products of various heterosexual couplings and raising them. I cannot help but believe that these children they have cared for were greatly benefited by their generous attitude, compared to the actual alternatives they were facing . And that's the point Savage makes that I liked: the issue is not, "Are children better off in a happy, stable, household headed by a heterosexual couple than they are in a similar household headed by a gay couple?" but is instead: "Given the vast excess of children without families compared to the number of heterosexual couples who are seeking to adopt, is gay adoption better than institutional 'care'?" While I consider myself a "traditionalist...

Oakeshott on Rome and America was first $19 in a Kindle version, then $35, and now it is back to $19. I have no idea what this is all about, but you'd better snap up your copy now before it goes back up!

Appearing here . Thanks Huff!