people have a right to do whatever they want, as long as they don't hurt anyone else.

Policy arguments are boring unless you're a wonk, in which case having sex is a dim possibility and parsing out appropriations bills adheres to a personal kind of logic I like to refer to as self-defeatism. That said, there is much energy devoted of late to the question of whether libertarianism carves out too much space for socially destructive behavior that doesn't victimize anyone specifically but gradually and inexorably erodes the terra firma of a just society. That question is - or may be - relevant, but if you're still reading, let's just be honest and admit that it's better (in our case) to spend time on other things than analyzing the respective merits of various kinds of libertarianism. Like movies or music or the merits of waking up at 6 am every day for months so as to secure a veritable truth, that adulthood means abandoning staying up past midnight.

Nix the policy.

Talib Kweli - Get By

I may be (OK I am) one of those mid to late-twenties specimens who continues to engage in activities that may contribute to a gradual diminution of self-esteem, insofar as self-esteem entails the capacity to not squander away momentary incidences of making the best of what is. And that's what this song seems, to me, to be about: making the best of. And - pardon the repetition - the song seems to really mean it, which I like.

Pete Dexter - Paper Trails, last essay as synecdoche

Being generally adverse to bold claims, I can only urge you to enter your closest Barnes & Noble type establishment (or whichever bookstore offers free reads and dark caffeinated beverages originating from coffee beans) and thereafter read the last essay in this collection. Pete Dexter has made me laugh in person, and though I am not from Illadelph, his stories capture enough of that corner of the world to catalyze thoughts about big cities and the general disarray and commingling they opportune in a way I tend to really very much like.


Hotel Chevalier - wes anderson, freely downloaded from Itunes Store

You see Natalie Portman's butt. Here are some lines from the short, some of which (guess which) resonate:

Have you slept with anyone?
No.
Have you?
No.
That was a long pause . . .



Whatever happens I don't want to lose you as a friend.
I promise I will never be your friend . . .


If we fuck, I'm gonna feel like shit tomorrow.
That's [not taken down]


I love you. I never hurt you on purpose.
I don't care.



It's not clear if W. Anderson's appropriation of standard relationships lines exchanged between self-knowing and altogether aware characters signifies something in the way of an advance in heterosexual relationships between affluent young uns. I kind of was OK with it all, but writing it out here gives (me) pause. I think Jason Schwartzman's facial hair ruins it all, and I think that its presence is implicitly there to give me a reason to be dismissive, and I resent that: it seems unfair to call attention to something and at the same time attempt a pull-rug-out-from-underneath maneuver. Call it a double-bind or just something calling attention itself.