Seems to be trend with me -- I've now been to three weddings in Niagara Falls...including my own.

Despite the fact that I haven't read a single volume in the Harry Potter series, I thought this was a very interesting review of the latest installment (or should I say tome, considering it is 870 pages), albeit a tad libertarian. Still, those of conservative tendencies will nod approvingly at the notion of the "banality of evil." Once I can get through my other books, I will try and potter through Potter.

I thought this was a clever opinion piece from this past weekend -- suggesting that if the Supreme Court follows the logic of constitutional privacy (as seen in the TX sodomy law case) and abolishes traditional marriage, legalize polygamy as well. If the government cannot interfere with love in the bedroom between consenting adults (of any sex), why not legalize the taking of several spouses?

Continuing slowly through the Civil War commentary, I thought that Harry Stout's article in Books and Culture was the best of the bunch. His concentration on the still incomprehesible number of casualties has always fascinated and appalled me as well. It is repeated quite often, but worth doing so again: if the Civil War were to happen today, with casualties at roughly the same percentage of the population, there would be 10 million dead, most in the same generation group. Our own little Leningrad, 1860-1865. And that does not factor in civilian casualties, as those have never been accurately counted.

Also some good points by Jay Winik on the growing awareness of contingency in historical events -- there are no such things as irrepressible conflicts, Seward be damned. Conscious human decisions at crucial points direct events, and the consideration of these decisions (and the possible opposite decision) opens up a rich vein of conversation.