I can't help but think that one rationale for allowing immigrant work is to keep domestic costs down to a level they wouldn't hold if all our workers were documented. And if that's the case, then I'm not sure how you could integrate previously undocumented workers without undermining the rationale t...

I think we agree the Lincoln/Douglas debates were too extreme for modern America, but perhaps candidates will be given more time. I don't. If a politician can speak substantively for 90 minutes, I say let them. The problem is that most politicians seem horrified by the prospect of actually talking ...

Rose, Kundera will complexify those metaphors later on in the novel. I would go so far as to say that he makes them so transparent so early on in part to facilitate the reader's willingness to see them modified further in. And then there's the playfulness of it. The sort of metaphors he's working wi...

DH asked: Does the artist have a responsibility to his art that supercedes his own private wishes? The only obligation an artist has towards his work is the obligation he feels. Apparently, Nabokov didn't feel an overwhelming obligation to make public an unfinished work. Does the artist have a respo...

I've been meaning to read "Things Fall Apart" for some time now, and I wouldn't mind having a discussion group to read along with. But I don't see any particular reason to wait for the next reading period. If anyone else is interested and can find the time, why don't we make it an ad hoc, ...

I saw the rules to the Lincoln/Douglas debates recently. Imagine if we tried something like that for the final two candidates in this Presidential race. I think you're probably right that it wouldn't work in the current atmosphere, but I have reservations about your rationale for why. I can't help ...

I think Jan raises another interesting objection, and even if we were to dismiss it as a probability (and I'm not saying that I would dismiss it), it serves to illustrate my point about such hypotheticals. It's too easy to seal the moral question off in a vacuum.

Alternatively, maybe we can think of a way to handle such altercations, as a forum, that will cut them short. Some sort of informal arbitration, perhaps?

In the Best of YouTube -> Krumping thread, the discussion has turned to the question of whether or not krumping qualifies as art. Which leads me to ask a more general question, and I thought others might want to lodge their opinion: How can you tell what is and isn't art? If it helps to frame the qu...

I'm going to move the question of what standards and criteria we place on the concept of art to the "Arts" forum. You know, to open it up to anyone who might not otherwise stray into this thread. You guys are welcome to redirect your comments about what is and isn't art to the new thread. ...