Daniel Aaron Lazar

On Democracy

Dan Lazar — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:22:53 +0000

Here are a couple of links that might help you to answer the question for our next session. Do not limit yourself to these links:

Is democracy the desired goal of all societies and, if not, should it be? The corollary question being, is democracy the ultimate form of government for which all societies should strive?

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines Democracy for us and offers some argumentation

Plato’s Criticism of Democracy (this a secondary source but you can read the primary source in Book V of The Republic)

Watch this News Hour interview with Natan Sharansky, author of “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror”

This American Life on the Economy

Dan Lazar — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:32:14 +0000

A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

The followup show to the Giant Pool. Very informative

Imperial Amnesia

Dan Lazar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:23:34 +0000

Foreign Policy Magazine offers a thematic view of US Foreign Policy from TR to GW.

Read it Here

The 2008 Docket

Dan Lazar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:00:39 +0000

The NY Times offers a sneak peek of the Supreme Court Docket here

Presidential Debate I

Dan Lazar — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:45:05 +0000

Debate I From the University of Mississippi

Impact Of Economy On Presidential Race Examined

Dan Lazar — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:16:57 +0000

The economic news is creating even more uncertainty in the presidential race. David Brooks of The New York Times says the candidates’ response Friday was mediocre. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post says the issue has made life difficult for John McCain and helped Barack Obama.

Listen here and dig deeper in to NPR’s coverage of this issue while you are at it.

The beginning of the end of Labour?

Dan Lazar — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:14:42 +0000

Gordon Brown is set to lead Labour into an election bloodbath so crushing it could take his party a decade to recover, according to the largest ever poll of marginal seats which predicts a landslide victory for David Cameron.

Eight cabinet ministers, including the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary, would be swept away in the rout as the Tories marched into Downing Street with a majority of 146, says the poll, conducted for PoliticsHome.com and exclusively revealed to The Observer. Seats that have been Labour since the First World War would fall.

Read on

Philosophy Society–Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Dan Lazar — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:33:28 +0000

Your first challenge is to read and contemplate a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon excerpted from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave from The Republic.

Consider various interpretations of the Allegory. What is Plato suggesting? What are his implicit assumptions? What does the Allegory state about the human condition and human potential? What does the Allegory suggest about Truth?

If you need some guidance to understand this dialogue between Plato and Glaucon, there are innumerable of resources available to you online. Just Google it, choose a scholarly site and study.

You are encouraged to write a piece in response to the Allegory and post it in the comments section below. You are expected to come to our gathering on Friday ready, willing and able to discuss this philosophical classic.

Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp

Dan Lazar — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:38:49 +0000

Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp’s mass wedding. “They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia”.

Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland.

With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult.

But this organisation - known as “Nashi”, meaning “Ours” - is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.

Read on

Political Ideology

Dan Lazar — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:24:56 +0000

Breifing Essay on Ideology, Religion and Politics

Take this survey

The Political Spectrum

Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau Reading Responses

Tales Of The LBJ Tapes

Dan Lazar — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:35:55 +0000

When Lyndon B. Johnson took office as president, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he began making daily recordings of his private conversations.Historian Michael Beschloss transcribed and edited the tapes’ contents and provided commentary on them in his book Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964.

The book sheds light on Johnson’s thoughts during the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, the creation of the Warren Commission to investigate it, the progress of the civil rights bill and the Gulf of Tonkin attack. And it illuminates Johnson’s decision-making process during his administration’s escalation of the Vietnam War.

Listen to the interview with Terry Gross

On the Joe Biden Choice

Dan Lazar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:43:48 +0000

It’s Biden Time (from Slate’s John Dickerson)

AP Comparative Government Course Guide (Truncated)

Dan Lazar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:47:33 +0000

Please read the official explanation of the AP Syllabus from the AP College Board.

Russia and Georgia Clash

Dan Lazar — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:17:23 +0000

Russia conducted airstrikes on Georgian targets on Friday evening, escalating the conflict in a separatist area of Georgia that is shaping into a test of the power and military reach of an emboldened Kremlin. Earlier in the day, Russian troops and armored vehicles had rolled into South Ossetia, supporting the breakaway region in its bitter conflict with Georgia.

The United States and other Western nations, joined by NATO, condemned the violence and demanded a cease-fire. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went a step further, calling on Russia to withdraw its forces. But the Russian soldiers remained, and Georgian officials reported at least one airstrike, on the Black Sea port of Poti, late on Friday night.

The War is on? (from NYT)

Read Slate’s c overage from the Same Day

James Traub Interview on NPR (very good)Â

In Pictures from Foreign Policy Magazine

Condi Rice Gets Tough on Russia

No Cold War, but Big Chill Over Georgia

Great Minds Speak

Dan Lazar — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:39:01 +0000

Malcolm Gladwell talks about the importance of stubbornness and collaboration in problem-solving, and how long it takes to master any challenge. Introduced by David Remnick. View it here

…

No expert has brought as much fresh thinking to the field of contemporary copyright law as has Lawrence Lessig. A Stanford professor and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, this fiery believer foresaw the response a threatened content industry would have to digital technology — and he came to the aid of the citizenry.

As corporate interests have sought to rein in the forces of Napster and YouTube, Lessig has fought back with argument — take his recent appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court, fighting the extension of copyright protection from 50 to 70 years — and with solutions: He chairs Creative Commons, a nuanced, free licensing scheme for individual creators.

Lessig possesses a rare combination of lawerly exactitude and impassioned love of the creative impulse. Applying both with equal dedication, he has become a true hero to artists, authors, scientists, coders and opiners everywhere. View his Ted Talk Here

The World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals

Dan Lazar — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:15:31 +0000

When Foreign Policy and Prospect magazine asked readers to vote for the world’s top public intellectual, one man won in a landslide: Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, an inspirational leader to millions of followers around the world and persona non grata to many in his native Turkey, where some consider him a threat to the country’s secular order. In a rare interview, Gulen speaks to FP about terrorism, political ambitions, and why his movement is so misunderstood.

See the list here

Coalition Troubles

Dan Lazar — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:46:52 +0000

A Coalition of the Unwilling

Cracks Appear in Germany’s Grand Coalition

Grand Coalition in a Bind

The Coalition is Incapable of Reforms

The Right

Dan Lazar — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:44:37 +0000

A Wake Up Call from the Far Right

CDU Puts a New Twist on Conservative Politics

Fledgling SPD

Dan Lazar — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:41:47 +0000

The Worst Possible Thing for the SPD

Does the SPD Still Matter?

SPD Seeking Leadership

Obituary for the SPD

Chinese less restricted, except for politics

Dan Lazar — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:22:13 +0000

For the past two decades, China’s people have become richer but not much freer - and the Communist Party has staked its future that the Chinese will live with that tradeoff.That, at least, is the conventional wisdom. But with the Olympic Games opening in Beijing on Friday, training a spotlight on China’s rights record, that view obscures a more complex reality: Political change, however gradual and inconsistent, has made China a significantly more open place for ordinary people than it was a generation ago.

Read on from the IHT