Noteworthy ...

Glenn Reynolds and Michael Silence are calling attention to this Gallop poll of American opinion. It asks: If you had 15 minutes with President Bush, what would you want to talk about? The top three responses: Iraq, the economy, and Social Security. If you scroll way down the list of concerns, six percent want to talk about moral issues and one percent want to talk about the courts and the judicial system.

On Manhattan's upper west side is The Cloisters, a reconstructed museum of fine imports from renaissance Europe. At its website, you can view its rich collection of early 16th century unicorn tapestries. Thanks to Barista for the tip.

Our colleague, Alan Allport, and friends at Horizon have a good conversation about the filibuster and interpretation of the constitution. Any conversation that cites both Jack Rakove and Jaroslav Pelikan has to be a good one.

At delayed reaction, eb and Caleb McDaniel (who are both on hiatus!) discuss 19th century precursors to blogging. They could take a lesson from our colleague, Tim Burke. Now, there's a guy who goes on a hiatus, when he says he's going on a hiatus. Yet, we have faith that one of these days he will descend from Mt. Swattie and, once again, deliver the word.

Andrew Sullivan's"How Fundamentalism is Splitting the GOP: Crisis of Faith," New Republic, 2 May, is generating considerable discussion, with Ramesh Ponnuru, Glenn Reynolds, and others. Daniel Drezner's"Rethinking Conservatism" is an excellent critique of Sullivan's distinction between the conservatism of faith and the conservatism of doubt. For my part, I think it's all a misnomer. I don't see anything conservative in either party.

Scott Jaschik's"‘Handout Hysteria' or Insensitivity" at Inside Higher Ed is an evenhanded account of the disturbance at Southern Illinois University that I reported here. It appears that all parties are trying to act with civility and restraint. Jonathan Bean's department colleagues and his dean ought to have thought that a good idea two weeks ago.

If you've been invited to give a guest lecture at the University of Chicago, you may want to read Sepoy's"Welcome to Chicago" at Chapati Mystery. I am reminded of the inside report on the visit of a prominent academic couple to the University several years ago."They came; we saw; they did not conquer."

Kevin Drum at Political Animal has an amusing post up about Camille Paglia's criticism of blogging as"self-referential." Speaking of self reference, I've done two essays that have been published in translation, both in German; but Tom Bruscino's essay,"The Cultures of War," The Claremont Review, Winter 2004, has just been published in Chinese. I'll have to take his word for it that what's there is his. Bloody aggressive graduate student -- er, newly minted ph.d. Seriously, congratulations Tom!