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Oliver Kamm on the rampant misuse of an important term: “To ‘beg the question’ does not mean to raise or prompt the question. It means to assume in your premises the truth of your conclusion.”

I just read William Finnegan’s New Yorker profile of famed Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose idea of effective law enforcement is to deploy a large, heavily armed, flak-jacketed squadron in order to arrest three undocumented cleaning ladies, without notifying the local police in Mesa, Arizona — an arrogant oversight that could have sparked a friendly-fire shootout in a populous American

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Howard Mandel’s Jazz Beyond Jazz, Blog of the Year, 2009 Jazz Awards. Congratulations, pres! Complete slate of winners.

“Old Jews Telling Jokes,” a new website, was just covered in New York magazine and I was astonished to find that members of my extended family, and old college friends of my parents, are among the featured performers. Including this man, Malcolm Busch, who hasn’t aged a day since I met him when I was a kid. Wait for the payoff:

Norman Geras, the fine UK blogger, asked me to participate in his ongoing Normblog profile series and of course I said yes. Thank you, Norm!

“But to look back from the stony plain along the road which led one to that place is not at all the same thing as walking on the road; the perspective, to say the very least, changes only with the journey; only when the road has, all abruptly and treacherously, and with an absoluteness that permits no argument, turned or

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Lerterland readers will be familiar with my disdain for the Uhuru Movement, a revolutionary cult that enjoys the vocal support of the underground rap duo dead prez. I’m glad to see Ta-Nehisi Coates registering his disdain as well, now that Uhuru’s adherents are marching in support — in support — of Lovelle Mixon, the Oakland parolee shot dead by police

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Shalom Lappin’s Five British Children: A Play for Britain.