A thoughtful profile on Russell Kirk and the state of "Kirk Studies" in today's Chronicle.

A necessary slap in the face, "wake-up-you-fool" shoulder shaking, by George Will in today's Washington Post. In part: Condoleezza Rice, a political scientist, believes there is scholarly evidence that democratic institutions do not merely spring from a hospitable culture, but that they also can help create such a culture. She is correct; they can. They did so in the young American republic. But it would be reassuring to see more evidence that the administration is being empirical, believing that this can happen in some places, as opposed to ideological, believing that it must happen everywhere it is tried.

Being steadfast in defense of carefully considered convictions is a virtue. Being blankly incapable of distinguishing cherished hopes from disappointing facts, or of reassessing comforting doctrines in face of contrary evidence, is a crippling political vice.

In "On Liberty" (1859), John Stuart Mill said, "It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say" that the doctrine of limited, democratic government "is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties." One hundred forty-five years later it obviously is necessary to say that.

Quoting Mill gives me the creeps, but the point is very well made.

Bunnie Diehl tipped me off to the New Pantagruel -- read the "about" section and the introduction to the first issue. Looks like a mighty worthy cause.