@MatthewJFranck Given the title, can I assume that Carson is in conversation with David Lowenthal’s forgotten classic “No Liberty for License”?
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Bernard J Dobski
1.7K posts
Bernard J Dobski
@DobskiBJ
Professor of Political Science | Assumption University | Political philosophy, politics and literature, and public policy | Views are my own
Katılım Aralık 2016
454 Takip Edilen602 Takipçiler
My friend Carson Holloway has just published No Liberty to Libel: The Constitutional Case Against New York Times v. Sullivan. I read the working manuscript and can say that he makes a powerful originalist case. a.co/d/08aSKpsA
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I have to say this never gets old.
Always a great feeling.
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@alancornett Have you tried the chocolate with espresso in the center? Not beans but actual brewed espresso? Loved those when I was over there. So much so that my young daughters tried to bring some home with us. They discovered that chocolate filled with coffee doesn’t travel well
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Today’s cultural experience: Packaged espresso shot with its own little straw.
Verdict: Surprisingly good.
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Bernard J Dobski retweetledi
Let me just challenge two of the most obvious fallacies here:
1) The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was.
How does Mr. Kagan – a commentator for whom I’ve had the utmost respect in the past – possibly know that? Is he certain the U.S. Navy has been defeated in the Battle of Hormuz? And surely he knows that the strait was not really “open” in the past. The regime was acquiring the capabilities to close it, to hold it hostage, to blackmail the “international community” for whatever ransom it may want at a time of its choosing. That it has been able to do so despite the sinking of its navy and the destruction of such a larger percentage of its missiles, only tells us how late in coming the current operation is.
2) Mr. Kagan argues that “a regime that could not be brought to its knees by five weeks of unrelenting military attack is unlikely to buckle in response to economic pressure alone.” Again, how does he know that? What happens when the IRGC Commander, Gen. Vahidi, can’t pay the salaries of soldiers, Basiji thugs, or even policemen? Are there relevant historical examples that make this prediction certain? I don’t think so but if there are, I’m all ears.
Vali Nasr@vali_nasr
This article by Robert Kagan is worth reading. It is a searing assessment of the catastrophic failure of the Israel-U.S. war on Iran, calling it a defeat. It is also perhaps best captures how Iran sees things and why it is not submitting to Trump’s demands in the talks 👇🏼 “There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be “open,” as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran’s allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished. Far from demonstrating American prowess, as supporters of the war have repeatedly claimed, the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started. That is going to set off a chain reaction around the world as friends and foes adjust to America’s failure. President Trump likes to talk about who has “the cards,” but whether he has any good ones left to play is not clear. The United States and Israel pounded Iran with devastating effectiveness for 37 days, killing much of the country’s leadership and destroying the bulk of its military, yet couldn’t collapse the regime or exact even the smallest concession from it. Now the Trump administration hopes that blockading Iran’s ports will accomplish what massive force could not. It’s possible, of course, but a regime that could not be brought to its knees by five weeks of unrelenting military attack is unlikely to buckle in response to economic pressure alone.” theatlantic.com/international/…
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I did not trust Kagan's judgment when he was writing full-throated neoconservative paeans to American power, and I see little reason to trust it now that his song is one of decline.
The Atlantic@TheAtlantic
The U.S. is effectively checkmated in Iran—and this defeat will carry lasting consequences unlike any America has endured before, Robert Kagan argues. theatlantic.com/international/…
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@alexpriou @ivanthevague Never lost my way. Been a blue-booker for life baby!
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@DobskiBJ It’s a letter referenced in the third chapter of the first volume of the Page Smith biography of Adams. It cites to a volume of Adams’ papers I didn’t have handy, but I’ll pull the citation for you when I get to campus tomorrow!
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When John Adams graduated Harvard and took a post as a schoolmaster in Worcester, he wrote a letter calling his school a "school of affliction," filled with a "large number of little runtlings." In other words, even as a young man, he was a grumpy old man.
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@marksjo1 Too late. I already own that. It was bestowed upon me by the many students grateful for my approach to grading their final exams. ;)
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A curious pleasure to see three pieces appear in a single day: my weekly column, as expected, alongside two others long in gestation. This latest offers a brief celebration of @Liberty_Fund.
mindingthecampus.org/2026/05/04/the…
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Bernard J Dobski retweetledi
The dean says we can sell political science as “STEM.” Your department just has to kicks out all the theorists, constitutional studies, and area studies faculty.
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@alexpriou @HistorianZhang I’m almost definitely going out of pocket for a good copy editor on the next book.
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@HistorianZhang Very true. I'd happily pay a good copy editor out of pocket, too, if it meant I had full control on the final product.
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Copyediting is now mostly nonexistent at academic publishers. You gotta pay your own way for a good copyeditor and also for an indexer, or do it yourself. The last book I reviewed the press screwed up the biblio/glossary so much it made the author look like he can't read Chinese
Alex Priou@alexpriou
Very well put. Academic publishing is rotten to its core. I am increasingly annoyed by how bad most editors are, how slow too. It often takes a press longer to review a piece than it took me to write it, with the comments not exhibiting much care at all.
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@dnduplessie I was an undergraduate at BC when he was working on his dissertation there. Despite the (many) years between us he always treated me with a decency and seriousness I never merited. I am very sorry to learn of his passing.
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RIP Matthew K. Davis. One of my most important teachers. My life is better for having known him.
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@alexpriou @FischerKing64 Read it and then read my recent chapter on it in the latest volume on Shakespeare published by Mercer press
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"Hannibal's cruelty, not to say inhuman cruelty, was justified by the fact that he was the captain of an army which consisted of men of many races. Could it be that the government of an ethnically heterogeneous mixed body, of a society embracing members of many nations, not to say all nations, requires a degree of severity which would not be needed for the good government of a homogeneous society?"
Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli 187
Auron MacIntyre@AuronMacintyre
Singapore figured out how to have a multicultural society: authoritarianism Small government is down stream from shared traditions and norms that are so deeply ingrained that the state doesn't need to enforce them Without that the state must rule with a strong hand
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There isn’t unfortunately a book dedicated to all of Walter Laqueur’s reviews, essays, and letters.
I think there should be one, he was such an amazing sensible thinker of ideologies in the Western world at a time of great political turmoil. He also predicted accurately several things, especially on terrorism issues.
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@MatthewSlaboch My personal favorite is option 4. No question. The fellow attendee just wants to present his thesis. If you’re lucky, after a good 5-6 minutes he might put a question mark at the end of what has been a statement.
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Which conference experience do you prefer? You present and:
1) get questions and comments that suggest you're wrong, or
2) get no questions or comments.
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@MatthewSlaboch Uuhhhhh…how does that tuber provide emotional support? Or do I not want to know? ;)
Also…congrats! And I agree: best professor ever.
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