La repubblica dei cani

"It very seldom happens among Men to fall out, wen all have enough. [...] We may observe in the Republick of Dogs, (which in its Original seems to be an Institution of the Many) that the whole State is ever in the profoundest Peace, after a full Meal; and, that Civil Broils arise among them, when it happens for one great Bone to be seized on by some leading Dog, who either divides it among the Few, and then it falls to an Oligarchy; or keeps to Himself, and then it runs up to a Tyranny".
[Jonathan Swift, The Battle of the Books]

L'ultimo conservatore

Barry Goldwater, Congressional Record, 16 Sept. 1981:

There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerfull ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus, God, or Allah, or whatever one calls the supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A,B,C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.
[citato qui]

Per chiunque sia interessato al tema consiglio Conservatives: The Tanenhaus Taxonomy - The New York Review of Books

Tra l'uno e l'altro Holmes

Qui la mia recensione al libro di Tuzet sull'abduzione nel diritto. Un argomento davvero interessante, tra Sherlock e Oliver Wendell Holmes (ma il vero protagonista dell'affaire, ovviamente, è Peirce)

La crisi

«La crisi insiste nel fatto che il vecchio muore e il nuovo non può nascere: in questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi più svariati»
«La morte delle vecchie ideologie si verifica come scetticismo verso tutte le teorie e le formule generali e applicazione al puro fatto economico (guadagno eccetera) e alla politica non solo realista di fatto (come è sempre) ma cinica nella sua manifestazione immediata»
Antonio Gramsci

The Deciders

Umpires v. Judges
By BRUCE WEBER
NYT - Published: July 12, 2009
A well-loved metaphor in American jurisprudence is a matter of interpretation.

Alveare parigino (vero)

L'alveare del Jardin du Luxembourg

Alveare parigino (araldico)

Le porte del Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier sono ornate dall'emblema della Comédie-Française: un alveare. Il motto, "simul et singulis", chiarisce il senso dell'immagine: in questo caso l'alveare sta a rappresentare un'istituzione capace di fondere molti individui in un unico organismo, senza sacrificare l'individualità dei singoli.