Positive Liberty

Browsing Wikipedia the other day, I ran across the article for “knout,” a Russian flagellation device. The article reads in part,

The emperor Nicholas I abolished the earlier forms of knout in 1845, and substituted the pleti, a lash with three thongs which could end in lead balls. Ostensibly the knout has been abolished throughout Russia and reserved for the penal settlements, mainly in Siberia, adding another cruelty to the often fatal hardships of convict life there.

Those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it. Anachronistically.

A good friend of mine hails from Slovenia, and he has spent much time trying to impress upon me the peculiar way that his homeland struggles to be both modern and traditional, tolerant and socially conservative, all at once. Mostly it just ends up seeming culturally weird to outsiders. This story confirms it:

Slovenian same-sex couples may now get a limited form of domestic partnership. But there are a few… catches: “The law limits the number of those attending marriage ceremonies to two partners and a local community registration official. No friends, relatives or any third person are allowed to attend the ceremony, which can be held only in a state office.”

(H/t: Daddy, Papa, and Me) Still, Slovenia is a beautiful place, full of castles, skiing, surprisingly good wines (none of which are available elsewhere), and what Slovenians claim is the best honey in the world. I’m inclined to agree. Think of it as Switzerland without all the tourists. Just plan your same-sex marriage elsewhere.

Social science methodology from Crooked Timber: There really is nothing in the methodology of the paper that would give any grounds for rejecting it. The only grounds on which one would not want to publish this paper are that it is claiming that you can bring about world peace by sitting in a room going om.

I couldn’t imagine a better comeuppance: Florence King eviscerates Ann Coulter without raising her voice. Here’s my favorite bit, but the whole thing is just perfect, really:

You know who the real winner in the Ann Coulter controversy is, don’t you? The Geico insurance company. Whenever their ad comes on after I’ve been watching Coulter do her howling Boudicca number, their little gecko lizard seems so plangent and defenseless that I want to hold him close and protect him. I feel completely mischaracterized and it’s all her fault.

Finally, a twofer on Maoist themes, with a detour through the FDA: “The Joy of Bumper Harvest Overflows Amidst the Song of Mechanisation,” a great title from a North Korean propaganda song quoted in a thought-provoking piece from In the Agora.

And if you ever wanted your face on a Chinese propaganda poster, here’s your chance. Maybe I could get this one, relettered to say something like: “Communism? But the Americans have much cooler toys!”

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