the grim reaper in civil service

Joshua Komisarjevsky has been sentenced to death. Will his execution elicit world-wide hand-wringing as commanded by Troy Davis, or inspire dispassionate explanations as advanced by David Garland in Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition?

hearts and heads

Inequality has made upward mobility difficult. Equality would make upward mobility impossible. Either way, more and more Americans will get screwed.

« N’être pas republicain à vingt ans est preuve d’un manque de coeur ; l’être après trente ans est preuve d’un manque de tête. »
“Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head.”

—François Guizot (1787–1874)

« N’être pas socialiste à vingt ans est preuve d’un manque de coeur ; l’être après trente ans est preuve d’un manque de tête. »
“Not to be a socialist at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head.”

—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)

“A recent Pew Research Center poll found that for the first time more people under the age of thirty view socialism positively than view capitalism positively—49 to 46 percent—although what they meant by socialism was not clearly defined.”

—Michael Greenberg (1952–?)