THANKS

Marstonalia is one year old today. Thanks for all who have stopped by, given me encouragement, and, perhaps most importantly, taken the time to express their disagreements with me, both on-line and in private.

I started off thinking that I would spend a lot of time writing on what's going on in foreign newspapers, partly to keep in touch with the world and partly to keep my language skills up. Quickly I got sucked in to commenting on things that I care about for both personal and professional reasons; most of these comments have revolved around judicial politics and my growing sense of unease about Republican policies in the areas of judicial nominations and retrenchment.

This second category -- critcizing Republicans and, the flip side, praising liberals -- has led one friend to describe my comments as increasingly "Manichean." Point well taken. I'm not really a dualist at heart, and I don't want to play one on the web.