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The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





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Sunday, March 14, 2010

ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS

Well, never mind closing up the wall with our English dead. [Henry V, for those who are wondering.] We are again going to set out for Paris. Let us hope US Airways does not do us in again.

Meanwhile, things are looking very good for health care reform, and suddenly the chattering classes are discovering that Obama is a rather skillful and determined politician after all.

But the ugly news is out of Texas, where the state textbook committee, dominated by right-wing fanatics, has passed a series of secondary school textbook guidelines that will dumb down the next ten years of young people. Because Texas chooses books state-wide, publishers supinely cave in to their insane demands, and that in turn blights the textbooks used in other states as well. This really is an appalling country, for the most part. As I have often noted in this blog, the Evangelicals and birthers and Tea Partiers think that people like me look down on them. Well, damn it, I do. Why should I give them a pass for their absurd views when they spend their time congratulating themselves that I will be damned to eternal hellfire for mine?

France, of course, has its own problems, which I am able to ignore because I do not really live there.

I am afraid the enforced lay-over has made me dyspeptic. As the taxi crosses the Seine and approaches our pied a terre on rue Maitre Albert, my spirits will lift, and my Paris posts will be models of sweetness and light.

en avant!

3 comments:

Scott said...

"This really is an appalling country, for the most part."

That's really harsh and unnecessarily vitriolic.

I think George Carlin best expressed your sentiments:

"I've always thought that being born into this world is like getting a ticket to the freak show. If you're lucky enough to be born in the USA, you get a front row seat."

Robert Paul Wolff said...

Well, "freak show" may seem less harsh to you, but not to me.

Unknown said...

Antidepressant, anyone? It's only Texas doing its thing as usual, and still far better than lot of places we could name. The left can be just as illiberal in its own way. It's an imperfect world, and the gods are laughing.