Speaking, July 28 8:32 PM, of Spinoza's book Ethics which is written in Latin and which may be the philosophical explication of our 'right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' I am inclined to wish that there were workbooks which give the translation worked out with explanation. That would also be nice with other ancient authors. This would help those who have some knowledge of the language but far too little to fully do a translation on their own. My father used to say that 'math is another language,' and I wish this was done in various mathematical presentations as well. I know when I did a math paper one of the things that I was disappointed in was that my bridging equations which would have led the reader step by step through the analysis were taken out; so that essentially a reader would have had to do the work again.

NeuroPsychiatry by RB Schiffer, Rao, and Fogel is a good book for dosing recommendations, and probably other issues. I've used it for both Trileptal (oxcarbazepine), see p 151, and carbamazepine.

Following a discussion at Volokh about the Crowley v. Gates case.

Michael Steele, RNC Chairman and, in some sense, political lightweight counterpart to Obama, was reported to have said that the president was proposing a "reckless experiment" with health care policy. I think this is quite the point. When a state Senator obtains funds for a park that is not really built or gets funds for housing done in the manner of a Sicilian don, the gesture may outweigh the consequences but not so with fundamental policies of the country.

Been following the 'Communism Community' on Amazon.com. Read Deutscher's Book NonJewish Jew and Other Essays per a recommendation there, very poignant and historically interesting. Deutscher came from a family of German bookmakers. They moved to Poland in the 1500s. The word for German in Yiddish is Ashkenazi, but there were so many Ashkenazis that his forebearers took the name Deutscher. His father who had written a book reviewing carefully and critically some Jewish idea had this torn up or burned on his return from travels by his mother for being heretical apparently. He was a bookmaker and wanted his son to learn German rather than Polish as this was an international language for intellectuals. Father used to see to him 'Once you get beyond Oskiewic (Auschwitz auf Deutsch), Polish won't be useful.' They lived 90 miles from Auschwitz. his father never got beyond it, was killed there in the Holocaust.

The Dallas Morning News has a number of articles under the search term 'budget reds,' latest here. The Wall Street recently had a cheap wine review and recommended the Concha Y Terrra Sauvignon Blanc.

Misspelled street names are the subject of this Dallas Morning News article which has a couple of good comments, the ones on Champ Ulysses and Ruidosa were good.

Linked (about comment 40) to a success of the county hospital, Parkland, in a discussion of health care policy.

Megan McArdle is getting married to a Peter Suderman. Seems appropriate in light of her appreciation for a porcelain factory founded by Peter the Great. She had a blog post once about when her readers got in her blog orbit. I mentioned the Bolshevik dinnerware which drew a snort from someone. I was determined to find it and, finally, on this search page, I did.

Following (currently 79 comments, the last mine) a discussion of MJ and the responsibility of doctors.