Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:
- You can make new friends but you can’t make old friends. From Ancient Mariner.
- Brad Plumer makes the case for open borders.
- Jeff Medcalf of Caerdroia comments on an article by military historian Martin Van Creveld and concludes that it’s “overblown rhetoric”. Wretchard has similar thoughts.
- Lance Mannion writes on what’s wrong with the movie Gone With the Wind. Never much cared for it myself.
- Bill Roggio continues to post from Iraq.
- I’d wondered for a while when the subject of usury would come up and now, thanks to Pope Bendict, it has. ProfessorBainbridge has a good commentary but I fear he’s reaching a trifle. The reason I thought it would come up is that Islam takes the classical view: it condemns it. Our whole economic system is based on usury (lending money at interest) and I honestly don’t see how you can have a modern society without it. Muslim scholars have worked out approaches using the conventional means (sophistry) but I suspect that, with Islam capturing more of our collective attention, we’ll hear a lot more about usury over the coming years.
That’s the lot.
One can, however, get back in touch with old friends. I went thru grade school with one of the Ancient Mariner’s daughters.