prior probability

Probably–after all, Rawls’ “reflective equilibrium” concept is pure philosophical nonsense, and the inferences he draws from his “original position/veil of ignorance” thought-experiment are unsound. (If you disagree, ask John Harsanyi.) Nevertheless, in honor of what would’ve been Rawls’ 100th birthday (21 Feb. 2021), the Boston Review just published ten new essays to commemorate the occasion. Also, my colleague Larry Solum honors the late Rawls here.

What’s it like to be a surfer in Cuba, a country without a single surf shop? Check out the new documentary film HAVANA LIBRE (trailer below), which premiered on Feb. 19, opening night of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. More details about this project are available here.

The great John Lewis would have been 81 years old today! Here is the speech he gave in August of 1963 immediately before MLK’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech:

Here is the list by Alex Greenburger (ArtNews). Hat tip: @kottke. (If you wish to compare notes, so to speak, here is a separate listing of the top-ten art heists of all time.)

… to paraphrase FDR’s famous remark in response to Japan’s attack of Pearl Harbor. On this day in history, two months after Pearl Harbor and fearing the threat of military invasion on the West Coast, FDR signed Executive Order 9066 into law, a modern-day “removal act” creating a legal framework for the internment of all persons of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. More details about E.O. 9066 are available here, via Josh Blackman & Randy Barnett.

Check out this amazing tool from the Open Culture Syllabus Project, which contains a database of 7,292,573 college course syllabi and 1,138,841 of the most frequently assigned books and scholarly papers on those syllabi. (#1 is Strunk & White; “The Economics of the Undead,” to which I contributed a chapter, is assigned in six courses!) This database is presented visually on a searchable, user-friendly, Google Maps-style interface. More details about this fantastic project are available here. Hat tip: Christine Corcos (@LpcProf).

Last night, my wife Sydjia and I saw the movie “Judas and the Black Messiah,” which tells the story of how the FBI and Chicago police assassinated Fred Hampton, the charismatic leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. This movie left me stunned … and extremely angry. (Check out Elizabeth Hinton’s review of the movie here.)

A strong case can be made that “ethnic cleansing” began in the USA. Exhibit A: The Indian Removal Act of 1830.

“The personal library of retired John Hopkins University Humanities professor Richard A. Macksey, housed in his home.” Check out the full thread here, via Twitter. Hat tip: @DrLindseyFitz. Also, thanks to Sheree, whose ViewFromTheBack blog is one of my faves, for the “Wordless Wednesday” blog post concept.

What if Texas were to split up into five smaller States? This scenario, though it may sound strange–outlandish even–, is not that far-fetched; see, for example, this thought-provoking paper “Let’s Mess with Texas” by Vasan Kesavan (an independent scholar) and Michael Stokes Paulson (a law professor at the University of Minnesota). As an aside, this paper was the subject of one of Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revisionist History” podcasts (see here).

Hat tips: u/kernals12 and @ShaunKetkar