Like Orwell's designation of his family as residing in the "Lower Upper Middle Class," I think May 23rd is not really late May--that would be like after May 25, I would say--but it's not simply the middle of May, either; it's the later part of the middle of May.  But it's early in the later part of the middle.  So there.

Anyway, links!

Humanities professors, are they moral experts?  A bit annoying that the paradigmatic "humanities professor" is an English professor, as all English professors who write these sorts of pieces seem to suggest; but interesting nonetheless.

This strikes me as a very good idea. Giving people more free time is a good that is not strictly commensurable with simply raising their salaries.

A nice sketch of the economist Paul Romer that doubles as a very rapid precis of some of his opinions on resisting monopolizing tendencies especially in information technology.

I enjoy her stuff, and she's very important for Roman Religion and her book SPQR is a refreshing and fun (if somewhat one-sided) read; but Mary Beard is out of her element in this moment of major rethinking of "the classics," as this piece inadvertently illustrates.

I would say that two things have changed here. First is the outright decision of Netanyahu flagrantly to identify with some of the most extreme parts of the GOP over the past decade. Second is the changing nature of the Democratic Party’s constituent base, and the fact that many in that base have come to identify domestic struggles over race with global issues, and particularly in this case the continued Israeli domination of the Palestinians.

Be well, everyone.