PRE-LAUNCH

Faithful readers will have noticed that I have not been posting in the past few days.  The problem is that I am simply so bored and appalled by the doings of the Republicans that I cannot bring myself even to snark.  I promised to start a tutorial on Kant's ethical theory when I get to Paris next Friday, but I have decided to write some preliminary remarks, for which I do not need my copy of the Grundlegung, even before I arrive in Paris.  So -- either today or tomorrow, I will launch the tutorial.  When I have concluded my discussion of the philosophical background to Kant's ethics -- what folks these days call his "problematic" -- I will pause until I am in Paris, and then carry on.

I hope this tutorial will find some interested readers, and perhaps also provide a calm oasis of reflection in the midst of the frantic political speculations of the Commentariat. I mean, when Mitt Romney, who spent four years at Harvard earning an MBA and a JD, criticizes Barack Obama for having spent "too much time at Harvard" earning a JD, what can one say?

By the bye, if you have not read Linda Greenhouse's knowledgeable and careful analysis of the three days of Supreme Court hearings on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, I recommend it as an antidote to Jeff Toobin's feverish remarks.