Nussbaum: "Mutual advantage" vs. "fellowship with others"

In one of the H-Net groups today there was an interesting and useful review of Martha Nussbaum's 2006 book, The Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership. She proposes improving upon the "social contract" conceptualization of justice with one based on "capabilities," which she believes would result in better justice for those who are unable to fully participate in social contracts due to their weakness vis à vis those with more power. The review gives a nice summary and critique of the book. Later, Boria Sax (who wrote one of the main reference books on animals in mythology) posted about how he used this approach in his not-yet-published book on the Tower ravens.

I especially liked the phrase in the review about "social cooperation as an aim of intrinsic value" and the part about, "while self-interested advantage-seeking is one aim of human beings, so too is the goal of living in fellowship with others." Maybe when I redo the yellowjacket essay I'll include these ideas.

756!

And woo hoo Barry Bonds! I watched the first two at-bats live, then was in here chatting a bit with fractal9091 so that I ended up missing the actual moment, but R. let me know in time to see the post-homer hoopla. Yay! I'm so glad he got to hit it at home, where everybody loves him.

"To punish Thai police, a Hello Kitty armband"

From today's New York Times:

It is the pink armband of shame for wayward police officers, as cute as can be with a Hello Kitty face and a pair of linked hearts. No matter how many ribbons for valor a Thai officer may wear, if he parks in the wrong place, or shows up late for work, or is seen dropping a bit of litter on the sidewalk, he can be ordered to wear the insignia.

( Rest of article )

Source article, with photo.