Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- The Death of Free Speech In The West (“The much-misconstrued statement of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that free speech does not give you the right to shout fire in a crowded theater is now being used to curtail speech that might provoke a violence-prone minority. Our entire society is being treated as a crowded theater, and talking about whole subjects is now akin to shouting ‘fire!’”)
- My 6,128 Favorite Books (“No matter what they may tell themselves, book lovers do not read primarily to obtain information or to while away the time. They read to escape to a more exciting, more rewarding world.”)
Blog Headline of the Week
Bookish Linkage
- Would you die for your Kindle or Nook?
- What to read into Obama and Romney’s favorite books
- Why do we like dystopian novels?
- A highbrow Halloween reading list
- Given that the first two books in Hilary Mantel’s planned trilogy about Thomas Cromwell have won the Man Booker Prize, I suppose I should probably read them.
Nonbookish Linkage
- When the First Amendment doesn’t work, try the Second
- Le Blog de Jean-Paul Sartre
- Expensive television: Every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes.
The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion, it will cease to be free for religion — except for the sect that can win political power.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson (dissenting), Zorach v. Clauson (1952)
