The Nation has a peak inside the sexual mores of Iran's new generation of well off kids.  I'm not certain whether I find the article more disturbing or encouraging. I'm encouraged because once sex becomes an act of defiance against the state, revolution is in the air. I'm disturbed because I'd rather see regime change in Iran without Tehran becoming a new Babylon.

A friend posted a link on Facebook that led to a blog that led to a blog that ended up pointing to an article at a magazine not yet enlightened enough to put its content up for free and a link to Gary Scott Smith's tome about faith and the presidency. I read Smith's first chapter on George Washington. I thought it was pretty interesting and a welcome change from the polemics that usually surround Washington whom is made into the patron saint of free thinkers and the faithful alike. The conclusion is that Washington said little about what he believed that no one really knows for certain. That is unequivocally the American tradition.

The liturgy was soft today. I'm not certain what tone it is this week but the music felt like a warm, safe place. It was perfect for a rainy, dreary morning.

And, well, I need a bit of softness in my soul.

I heard through the grapevine that my sister and her family may be moving to these here parts. If the rumor is correct, my sister has found a permanent job at a hospital in a city to our north and as the county where we live is within driving distance and has very good public schools, she's going to be looking for a place down this way.

On the one  hand, it would be nice to have my nephews close by. On the other hand, blargh.

Of course, this is a 3rd hand rumor. So who knows what the reality is.

Travel plans for the holidays are starting to fall into place. All our family needs for the perfect storm is for gas prices to keep falling. Good luck with that!

Friday I finished the first draft of one term paper. It presently sits at 13 pages. One section needs to be expanded a bit. Quite a bit needs to be polished. But I think it's a strong paper with a clear argument. The general take is exploration of how Aristotle can consider a free woman to be free given all the ways he thinks women are inherently lacking. The conclusion is that while a free woman is more free than a slave in the Politics, she can never be as fully free as a man. In a way, that's kind of a shame. But Aristotle, like most thinkers, was a man of his times and couldn't see past his own sexism in several ways.

This leaves two other term papers. One on Kant and one on Aquinas. The Aquinas one should pretty much write itself in the same fashion as my Aristotle paper did. The Kant one will be trickier. I'm contemplating taking Kant's title for the Prolegomena for any Future Metaphysics seriously and trying to build a metaphysics on top of transcendental idealism. But that may be too large of a project for a ten to fifteen page paper.

My daughters and I watched Napolean Dynamite today while working on a few secret projects. I've not seen it before. It's a decent film. I'm a bit surprised it made as big of a splash as it did. The ending, save for the tetherball bit, bugged me. But that my just be my inner piss and vinegar disposition that gets horked off at most happy endings.

The secret projects are coming along just fine though. The biggest one will almost certainly end in disaster. It will be fun.