Uncommon Priors

1. Not only are we doomed to dumbness, we’re doomed to ugliness too.

2. A prawfs solicitation for advice for undergrads considering law school. You all already know what I think, but I’m actually in the course of rewriting my anti-law-school screed to be more saleable to the staid — so watch this space in the next couple of weeks.

3. Using google for bitchiness.

4. Podcast of Gerry Cohen symposium at Montreal.

5. Take an excuse to go to the U.K.:

‘The Future(s) of Democratic Citizenship’ – Association for Legal and Social Philosophy 2010

In the contemporary world the ideal of democratic citizenship appears to be confronted with many challenges and opportunities, and there is substantial disagreement about how it should respond to them. In the light of changing forms of democratic engagement, the globalisation of political power, the continuing challenge of maintaining a common citizenship in the face of cultural diversity and mass migration, the form democratic citizenship will take in the future is open to question. Contributions to this conference will seek to think through the forms that democratic citizenship might, and should, take in the future. We focus on four sets of themes:
* democratic innovations,
* democratic citizenship: from local to global?,
* democratic citizenship: threats and insecurities
* competing visions of democratic citizenship.

Keynotes confirmed thus far include Rainer Baubock (European University Institute), and Stuart White (University of Oxford).

Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy

The closing date for submission of proposals is 1st February 2010. Details of how to submit an abstract or panel proposal can be found on the conference website, at: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/socsci/alsp/index.shtml

6. Thinking about uniform probability distributions over infinite spaces? Think again.

7. Why martial arts classes are often full of misfits.

8. Take an excuse to go to Chicago:

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL THEORY AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
FOURTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
MAY 20-22, 2010

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Elizabeth Anderson, University of Michigan
Christine Korsgaard, Harvard University

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: The deadline is February 15, 2010. We welcome submissions from faculty and graduate students, as sessions will be reserved for student presentations. Essays should be roughly 4000 words, with an abstract of at most 150 words. Essays in all areas of ethical theory and political philosophy will be considered, though some priority will be given to those that take up themes from the works of Elizabeth Anderson and Christine Korsgaard, such as value theory, philosophy and economics, democratic theory, practical reason, constructivism, personal identity, and the moral status of animals. Essays and abstracts should be prepared for blind review in word, rtf, or pdf format. Students should submit by e-mail to leegoldsmith2012 [at] u.northwestern.edu; faculty should submit by e-mail to garthoff [at] northwestern.edu. Notices of acceptance will be sent by March 31, 2010. For more information, please contact Jon Garthoff at the e-mail address above or visit the conference webpage.

9. There are people in our society who are poor enough that they violate their parole just to get sent back to prison.

10. Mike has some wise words about ditching bad secured debt.

11. Law reviews are broken. In other news, the sky is up, there’s unrest in the middle east, and dog bit man.

12. Is the Israeli security apparatus in the pay of Microsoft? An object lesson in backing up.

13. An old interview with the queen of my heart, Dorothy Parker.

14. “These are the kinds of voters whom Obama’s gang of Wall Street advisers is counting on: idiots.”

15. All of my thinly-justified international junkets are good for productivity! Really!

16. My desire that the Hellfire Club exist again is tempered only by the knowledge that it would be very unlikely to admit me.