The Lost Dispatch.. Hey, it's summer. Lighten up.

 

The Watery Dispatch.  A Travers disquisition on investors, horses, etc.

 

The Take It Easy Hospital Dispatch.  A new indie film about the Persian rock scene allows Bill Travers to discuss issues of freedom

 

The Natural Uncertainty Dispatch.  What did the recent air traffic shutdown in Europe have to do the Keats' concept of Negative Capability and Trotsky?

 

The Light Bulb Dispatch.  All about capitalism, light bulbs, creative destruction and cleaver wielding madmen

 

The Vatican Faults Dylan Dispatch.  The Holy See points a finger at Bob Dylan.  These guys have no grandmother.

 

The Open Door Dispatch.  Did the triumph of market capitalism in 1990 lead to the 2008 "workout of market fundamentalism?"  And if it did, is there any realistic alternative?

 

The Fundamentalists Hate Moderates Dispatch.  To the absolutist, nothing is more threatening than reasonableness

 

The Northern Ireland IV Dispatch. Peace in Northern Ireland is again being held up as a model-- but a model for what, process or perserverance?

 

The Financial Uncertainty Principle Dispatch.  Is it possible that complex financial modeling is required to fail?  Hiesenberg's Uncertainty Principle may have a corollary on Wall Street.

 

The One Too Many Dispatch. A dispatch occasioned by a dispatch from the "I'm So Restless" Appreciation Affiliate.

 

The Good vs. Evil II Dispatch.  Evil is finite and graspable.  Perfection and virtue aspire to the infinite.  This all relates to The Mighty Quinn.

 

The Satisficing and Afghanistan Dispatch.  We don't envy President Obama in this case, but we fear that he may have obstructed correct decision making by satisficing

 

The Superhero II Dispatch.  It felt natural to give this topic a sequel.  What constitutes heroism?  We asked great American intellectuals Ralph Waldo Emerson and Daniel Boorstin (not really).

 

The Week In Uncertainty, The Dispatch.  To be a person of faith is to have certainty by the short hairs, correct? Don't be so sure -- looks like a job for Negative Capability!

 

The Superhero Dispatch.  Thinking heroism,  responsibility and freedom;  Antonio Gramsci's '"pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will" and Paul Williams' "purposefulness and a freedom from purpose."

 

The Bitter Arguments Need Arts Dispatch.  A reconsideration of issues raised in Dispatch 9: "Better Arguments Need Art "  Jeff Tweedy of Wilco speaks of constructive disillusionment, and Bill Travers considers fishing downstream from Bob Dylan

 

American Politics and the Turning Wheel: Truly ironic irony takes time, son.  An ill-considered statement from Nancy Pelosi the other day got us thinking about Teddy Kennedy and Richard Nixon, as well as "This Wheel's on Fire."

 

Creation of the Ungovernable: The right wing and new frontiers of irresponsibility.  Conservatives read Saul Alinsky and our collective heads reel with the (im)possibilities.

 

Resistance is Beautiful II Dispatch: Recalcitrance with consequences is not always pretty. Personal integrity and the role of philosophy in society

 

The Burden Dispatch. Don't be afraid: Democracy means making up your own mind, which means gathering all the information you need to make a decision.

 

Resistance is Beautiful Dispatch. Recalcitrance is not just an attitude, it is an organizing principle  The Invisible Republic lives, everyday and every way.  But you won't find it on Google Satellite Maps.

 

Charity in Truth Dispatch: Just tell me what you want.  If it is about changing human behavior, it is about incentives.

 

Northern Ireland III: When the political becomes the personal.  To what extent do our "explanations" become life sentences? 

 

Northern Ireland II: A realization.  In Northern Ireland, pessimism of the intellect was the easy part...

 

The Truth Monopolists.  The Chinese are humming a new tune that goes like this-- "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it."

 

The Canon Fires  A discussion of Bob Dylan as an artist and as a partof a community, variously defined: Keats' "negative capability" in action.

 

Freedom/License   Recent events have done much to suggest the importance of the distinction between  freedom and license.

 

The Will Dispatch.  A discussion of IQ and concepts of will -- "When the evidence is ambiguous, it is all the easier for ideology to influence one's scientific judgment. "

 

Deep Uncertainty  Uncertainty is deeply unsettling, but what if systems of logic themselves were subject to systematic error? 

 

The Limits of Pessimism Pessimism of the intellect is not meant as a vehicle to limit the individual.  Its purpose is really just the opposite.

 

Northern Ireland 1

When does silence denote defeatism, and when does it indicate strength of purpose?

Purposefulness and Freedom from Purpose

Reinhold Niebuhr's views on good and evil and how "we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction."

 

No Matter How Steep

Extremism is many things, but it sure ain't new-- a rethinking of historical roots of violence on Wall Street during the Progressive Era

 

Better Arguments Need Art

The arts bring depth and meaning to our lives, and needs funding to exist.

 

Punked-Up

A punk musing on Inauguration Day

 

Responsibility

You've seen the Lincoln/Obama mashup before, but not like this.

 

Good vs. Evil

What do Keats, Somali pirates and The Clash have in common?  Bill Travers.

 

Grim and Bear it

It is difficult to make a case that Bob Dylan anticipated Behavioral Finance and Soros' Uncertainty Principle.  But, on the other hand.....

 

Georgia Dispatch

The Caucusus and American responsibility

 

Tough Uncertainty

Should we feel bad that investors necessarily make decisions in a climate of uncertainty?  We think not.

 

Dismal & Superficial

An amused historical review of the discontents of investing.

 

The Initial Dispatch

When optimism of the intellect conflicts with pessimism of the will.