DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: Is Macroeconomics a Fiction? (plus econ, God, etc.)

From Keynes to stimulus to trade deficits to the algebraic relationship between inflation and unemployment, we hear the fate of civilization decided by people assuming macroeconomic analysis makes sense.

But this Thursday, Sept. 23 (8pm) on the basement level of Lolita Bar (266 Broome St. at Allen St., one block south of the Delancey St. F J M Z subway stop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side), Debates at Lolita Bar dares ask:

“Is Macroeconomics a Fiction?”

Yes: Saif Ammous, economics instructor at American University of Lebanon

No: Thomas Powers, of a mighty Wall Street concern

Moderator: Michel Evanchik

Host: Todd Seavey

The audience will bid on the correct answer at the end. Tell everyone about whom you care.

•••

In related news:

•Richard Epstein vs. Paul Krugman on macro

•NPR with David Boaz on libertarianism (as pointed out to me by Ali Kokmen)

•a critique (pointed out to me by Gerry Ohrstrom) of “locavores,” who were the target of debater Saif Ammous at a previous Debate at Lolita Bar

•the only thing dumber than a defense of labor unions, a defense of public sector unions

And in unrelated news, since yesterday was the official day of prayer for Christopher Hitchens (during which I witnessed neither Rapture nor Rupture):

•I note that he found the strength last week, here at the Cooper Union in NYC, to debate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (with whom I got to see him mop the floor a couple years ago) on the question of whether there’s an afterlife. Mention that to any Christian halfwits who tell you there are no atheists in foxholes (or with throat cancer). Likewise, I will not be wasting my last moments on Earth calling for last rites, or imagining unicorns for that matter (pardon me, unicorns must exist because they are beautiful and move the human heart).

•If you think religion morally shores up capitalism (whereas in fact it’s the other way around), you might want to check out this report on what Islam-fueled Ahmadinejad thinks of markets.

•Meanwhile, at the Vatican money-laundering operation…

•If it’s booty you worship, note my friend Reid Mihalko’s Sacred Sexuality RoundUp this weekend (I just report, you decide).

•Let us not forget that two of my most blasphemous friends said at the beginning of their appearance on Cash Cab that they were headed to no other destination than Lolita Bar (and at the end of the segment, one “Todd Seavey” is called for the winning answer, Leopold and Loeb).

•Michael Malice, who appears in that clip, is something of an existentialist, but then, so is the comic book superhero the Punisher, according to comics writer Steven Grant, who says:

Heidegger, who took Kierkegaard’s philosophy further, comes even closer to describing the Punisher: Since we can never hope to understand why we’re here, if there’s even anything to understand, the individual should choose a goal and pursue it wholeheartedly, despite the certainty of death and the meaninglessness of action [Note from Todd: That's stupid]. That’s sure the Punisher as I conceived him: a man who knows he’s going to die and who knows in the big picture his actions will count for nothing, but who pursues his course because this is what he has chosen to do.

(One more comics note: when assessing one’s life, I think it is important not to compare oneself to UK director Matthew Vaughn, who directed the funny superhero movie Kick-Ass, is directing next year’s X-Men: First Class about the beginnings of the Prof. X/Magneto rivalry fifty years ago, is friends with Guy Ritchie and Madonna [who is in her own way almost as cool as a punk], is married to and has two children with Claudia Schiffer, and has assembled a squad of ex-Ghurka soldiers to protect him and Claudia against reported stalkers, not so unlike something out of the school invasion sequence from X-Men 2.)

•And much as I enjoy being around my fellow anarchically-inclined folk, I must take a moment to lament the conspiracy-theory folk at that Liberty Festival NYC 2010 thing I poked my head into briefly this past Saturday. Once the talk of poisoning us all with fluoride and using airborne chemicals for mind control started, it was time for me to leave the red, white, and blue cupcakes and John Birch literature behind.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: "Are Bosses Usually Jerks?"

Tue., Sept. 7 (the day after Labor Day), 8pm, at Lolita Bar (266 Broome St. at Allen St., one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop).

Arguing yes: Lilit Marcus, author of Save the Assistants

Arguing no: comedian and entrepreneur Jen Dziura

Moderating: Michel Evanchik

Hosting: Todd Seavey

You may well be torn on this one — perhaps you’re planning to attend the following week’s Ayn Rand Institute event in Manhattan and love captains of industry.  On the other hand, you often suspect crazy people rise to the top, using as a tool their craziness.  How to resolve this tension?  Attend the debate, that’s how.  Perhaps you’d like to vent during our Q&A segment.

A very hardworking friend of mine points out this related Time article asking the important question: Is your boss a psychopath or just mean? (This question may, of course, be applicable to people in your life other than your boss.)

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: "Can There Be Benign Imperialism?" (plus TV!)

Thur., August 12th (International Youth Day, fun for all ages and nations), 8pm, at Lolita Bar (266 Broome St. at Allen St., one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop).

Arguing yes: Byrne Hobart, Internet marketing consultant

Arguing no: Guy Vantresca, U.S. Army veteran and IT specialist

Moderating: Michel Evanchik

Sharing two of his poems: Gregg Glory

Sharing one of Rudyard Kipling’s poems: Alex Antonova

The idea of attempting benign imperialism has, despite the antiwar sentiments of the past decade, been picking up some stream. Conor Friedersdorf wrote for The Atlantic about the (vaguely racist?) idea of “charter cities” in Africa functioning as Western-run models for battle-plagued and starving parts of that continent. Ron Bailey once mused aloud about a similar idea. By contrast, NYU econ prof William Easterly wrote the book The White Man’s Burden: How the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.

(Easterly, by the way, also wrote a review for the New York Times in June on libertarian Matt Ridley’s book The Rational Optimist, about the benefits of capitalism, which I plan to make one of my November Book Selections on this blog, in a year of rather British Book Selections, including this month’s, which will be After the Victorians by A.N. Wilson, about the decline of the British Empire, augmenting my “Month of Imperialism” and completing my Victorian summer.)

P.S. If the topic of imperialism’s got you down, though, maybe you’ll be cheered up by watching Freedom Week — a special week of daily broadcasts of Fox Business Network’s Freedom Watch, for which I work and which bears no responsibility for stuff like the debate above. Just check out this link for a hint of what’ll likely be on, including Wednesday’s property-themed episode with Thomas Sowell, and there’ll be related online and Fox News Channel material:

P.P.S. And if you come away from this week liking intervention in foreign lands, or by contrast simply preferring small bands of mercenaries to conventional armies, you can celebrate the weekend either way by seeing The Expendables (or by contrast the Taoist-anarchist animated fantasy film Tales from Earthsea, or the less ambitious but more boldly-titled Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, all three of those films debuting this weekend, giving us lonely nerds options).

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: "Is Burlesque Art?"

Thursday (again, that’s Thursday), July 8 at 8pm:

“Is Burlesque Art?”

featuring:

•Monty Leman, photographer (with photographs)

VS.

•Michel Evanchik, grumpus

Moderated by Todd Seavey

WHERE: basement level of Lolita Bar at 266 Broome St. at the corner of Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop.

Are participants in burlesque artistes or little better than Montreal-dwelling strippers?  You get to cast the deciding vote at the end of next week’s thrilling discussion.

And coming up later this month: my Book Selection entry about Victorian Norwich, my own old home town as it was in the nineteenth century, complete with riverboat prostitutes, apparently.  Today, by contrast, the town is wholesome (and still Victorian) enough that when a friend who was planning a bachelor party at nearby Foxwoods Casino asked me where he could hire strippers, I had to ask my mom — who knew, oddly enough (you talk to Billy at the Log and Lantern Tavern down at the bottom of the hill, or at least did at the time).  I don’t know why mom knew that, nor why she was quicker than I was to realize that the “papers” we were being offered in Washington Square Park once were rolling papers for leaves of the dreaded marijuana plant.

Mom has also been enjoying Fox Business Network’s Freedom Watch (the show I write for), hosted by Judge Andrew Napolitano, and she watched three out of four airings of the premiere episode (on which Sarah Palin, as you may have heard, admitted that arresting pot smokers should not be a police priority).  Surely you can watch the show at at least one of its four broadcast times: Sat. 10am and 8pm, Sun. 7pm and 11pm (with this week’s having Bob Barr, Gary Johnson, Geraldo Rivera, Steve Horwitz, Peter Schiff, Connie Mack, and other guests).

And, hey, Nat Hentoff likes the show.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: "Was Shakespeare Really Shakespeare?"

Wednesday, June 2 (8pm)

featuring:

•Christian Toth, off-off-Broadway actor and advertising worker, arguing YES (that it really was that guy who lived in Stratford-on-Avon)

VS.

•Gerit Quealy, journalist, NBC.com style editor, former actor, and part-time paleographer, arguing NO (that who it was — whether the Earl of Oxford, Anakin, or other — may be unclear, but it wasn’t that guy)

Moderated by Michel Evanchik and hosted by Todd Seavey.

Basement level of Lolita Bar at 266 Broome St. at the corner of Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop.

By the way, since I enjoy it when people produce multiple revisionist theories that, whatever their individual merits, seem unlikely to be true all at the same time, I’ve long been amused by the existence of (A) the theory that science writer Francis Bacon wrote the Shakespeare plays and (B) the theory that Shakespeare wrote the King James Bible.  If both were true, the man most often condemned for inventing scientific hubris would also be responsible for the text most often wielded by those condemning it, which would be a neat trick.  I don’t expect either of these theories to be decisive in next Wednesday’s debate, though.

•••

Codpieces, Etc.

And a thought on Elizabethan fashion: I have ventured in the past, perhaps unwisely, to explain my view that there is something fundamentally strange about the relationship between breasts and fashion, in that breasts are on some level de facto “sex organs” that one would think ought not to appear in public at all — akin to testicles — yet so much effort goes into displaying them in what can sometimes be deemed a “classy” fashion, depending on precisely which parts of them you show and in what way.

By contrast, a man in today’s world attempting to show off his crotch in just the right way to seem respectable would be regarded as engaged in a fool’s errand.  Here a bright and shiny, unambiguous line exists.  You simply don’t show off the crotch, at least in respectable circles.  Nor do you head off to a business meeting or a gala fundraising ball asking which buttock you will display.  Breasts are unique, I contend, and thus it seems far more could be written about what the unconscious rules at work here are than, to my knowledge, has been.  Yet mention this to the average woman, who presumably has to worry about this question, and my guess is that you’ll be regarded as causing more trouble by raising the issue than society has caused by foisting the ambiguous breast-display rules on us.

I mention all this in the context of the Elizabethans not merely because they appreciated decolletage but because in their era males did face a comparable dilemma: whether to wear an ostentatious codpiece.  How might modern fashion — and even mate selection — be affected if the codpiece were to make a comeback, I wonder?  (I should discuss all this with my favorite neo-traditionalist fashion advisor and my friend with the evolutionary psychology Ph.D. who’s visiting soon — and my apologies for saying in a previous entry that she’s still a grad student.)

•••

More He-Man Reflections

In other performing arts news, Wikipedia notes that “[d]uring its [impending] tenth season, Smallville will beat the Guinness World Record for longest consecutive running United States sci-fi television show — currently held by Stargate SG-1.”  Impressive for a show originally just meant to be about Clark Kent’s years in high school before he became Superman.  Stargate, of course, is a whole thriving, Star Trek-sized franchise with spin-offs now, so it arguably wins the real battle — but then again, Smallville is hardly the only element of the Superman franchise.

I gather the impending tenth season is building up to the invasion of Earth by the planet Apokolips, ruled by the evil Darkseid and fought over by the New Gods (who go around pinging their Mother Boxes in public), all creations from forty years ago of the most important comics artist, Jack Kirby.  It should be interesting to see those cosmic, nigh-psychedelic characters depicted by human actors — and I wish the dialogue sounded like Kirby’s half-crazy, bombastic “word jazz,” though I suspect it won’t.

Some would argue, though, that we have already seen an “unofficial” live-action New Gods movie, two decades ago — except that it was called Masters of the Universe and featured characters referred to as “Skeletor” and “He-Man” instead of Darkseid and his rebellious abandoned son Orion.  The director apparently admits to being influenced by Kirby, which is to his credit.  I am unaware of George “Dark Side” Lucas making a similar admission.  And where does the Earl of Oxford fit into all this?

•••

Politics Note

If this month’s debate doesn’t sound quite political enough for you, consider e-mailing me (at the address given on the “About/Contact” page, not at this site’s URL, which will get you nowhere) to sign up for monthly e-mails about the other event I host, the Manhattans Project bar gatherings for politics/media people (now each third-Monday-of-the-month at Langan’s)…

and/or catch me and some no doubt political acquaintances (including the aforementioned neo-traditionalist) for brunch at Vermilion (with its easily-colonized sofas) in Old Town Alexandria (1120 King St.) on Sunday, June 6 (1pm)…

and/or remember to watch Fox’s FreedomWatch with Andrew Napolitano, moving from the Internet to cable the weekend after that, with a little help from me as a writer/producer.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR, or Rather: Todd Seavey Reads an Ayn Rand Speech at Columbia

Instead of our usual monthly Debate at Lolita Bar being on a Wednesday…in a bar…and being a debate:

I, Todd Seavey, will read Ayn Rand’s speech “Faith and Force: Destroyers of the Modern World”

on this Saturday, the first — May Day — at 4pm at Columbia in Hamilton, Room 303

(thanks to Cooper Vaughan and the Columbia University College Republicans).

Hamilton is 1130 Amsterdam Ave., at W. 116th St. (and there’s a 1 subway stop on that street).

Expect ample Q&A — and since I’m not an Objectivist, don’t expect me to defend everything said in the speech (which Rand gave on this campus fifty years ago, in May 1960, after giving the same speech earlier that year at Yale and Brooklyn College, as I have this year).

–As long as the Q&A is over in time for me to make it to Saturday’s Echo and the Bunnymen concert (in keeping with my “conservatism for punks” slogan), all is well.  (And in other punk news, check out my farewell to Malcolm McLaren on Reason.com.)

–Let me also group-thank everyone who congratulated me on my new job.  (The first real cable episode of the show hasn’t even been on yet and MediaMatters is already warning the world about us, or at least about one past guest of the online version of the show, and let me add that my new employers are in no way responsible for my side activities like the debates and this Rand speech, nor are my prior employers, ACSH, who’ve hired my friend Derek Rose as my replacement.)

–Meanwhile, if you must patronize the competition, you might watch your local listings for PBS’s The Birth of Freedom, one of several well-done documentaries from the Acton Institute, especially suitable for those of a Catholic libertarian bent (like several of my favorite people, it seems).

–But realistically, the media figure with the biggest pro-capitalist impact in May could well be the superhero Iron Man, who can be seen in one scene of the sequel (out May 7) telling a congressional committee, “You want my property?  You can’t have it…I have successfully privatized world peace.”  Tony Stark may understand heroism even better than Rand did, but we can discuss that Saturday.

ObamaCare Debate audio

Download audio of the full Debate at Lolita Bar from April 7 (on “ObamaCare: Triumph or Doom?” with Bryan Harris and Gerard Perry) — and watch this site for tomorrow’s announcement of the room number and directions for our next event: a special Saturday, May 1 (4pm) gathering at Columbia featuring me reading an Ayn Rand speech.

(Audio courtesy of Michel Evanchik)

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: "ObamaCare: Triumph or Doom?" (plus big ACSH news)

Wednesday, April 7 at 8pm

featuring:

•EverydayHealth.com editor Bryan Harris arguing triumph.

•conservative activist Gerard Perry arguing doom.

•Michel Evanchik moderates and Todd Seavey hosts.

Voting on the question at the end: you, the audience — bring a whole faction if you like, since we plan extensive audience Q&A on this divisive and timely topic.

Free admission, cash bar. Basement level of Lolita Bar at 266 Broome St. at the corner of Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop.

In other news: After eight years, I’m leaving the American Council on Science and Health (really, not an April Fool’s joke — apologies for any short-term chaos such as lighter blogging), so stop using my acsh-dot-org address if you’ve been doing so, and e-mail ACSH[at]acsh.org immediately if you’re interested in applying for the position of editor/writer there.

P.S. As journalists everywhere should be documenting, I am trekking to three campuses this year to give Ayn Rand’s speech “Faith and Force: Destroyers of the Modern World” on the fiftieth anniversary of her delivery of it in these places (beginning with Yale and ending with Columbia).  This Sunday (coincidentally Easter), April 4, 2010, at 11am, I will give the speech (followed by Q&A) on the steps of the library of Brooklyn College, facing the main green.  Join me there or travel with me from Manhattan on the F train by rallying at precisely 10am that morning on the western steps of Bryant Park.  Nothing can poszibley go wrong.

DEBATE AUDIO (THE THIRD DAY): Is Christianity for Wimps?

•Is Christianity for Wimps? 9 of 12: Spencer on moderation

•Is Christianity for Wimps 10 of 12: Spencer and Rittelmeyer on…chastity

•Is Christianity for Wimps 11 of 12: Audience member on forgiveness

•Is Christianity for Wimps? 12 of 12: Seavey closing remarks

And as a bonus religious conflict item, see this piece (which briefly mentions the debate heard above) on Richard Spencer’s new site, AlternativeRight.com, about his fight, as neo-paganism sympathizer, with a quasi-Satanist associate of David Frum, for those keeping careful track of all this and making a diagram. Coming up in the next couple days on ToddSeavey.com: non-monetary incentives and why Lady Gaga is boring. ALSO: If YOU want to do a Debate at Lolita Bar on a popular, divisive topic, e-mail me at the address found on my About/CONTACT page, assuming you can be in Manhattan, at your own expense, the first Wednesday night of the month.

DEBATE AUDIO (DAY TWO): Is Christianity for Wimps?

•Is Christianity for Wimps? 5 of 12: The essence

•Is Christianity for Wimps? 6 of 12: Sacrifice

•Is Christianity for Wimps? 7 of 12: Egalitarianism

•Is Christianity for Wimps? 8 of 12: Rittelmeyer on badass

DEBATE AUDIO: Is Christianity for Wimps?

Below, courtesy of Michel Evanchik, you can download the first four of the twelve audio clips from our debate two weeks ago between Richard Spencer and Helen Rittelmeyer on the question “Is Christianity for Wimps?” — beginning with me telling an icebreaking bear joke I got from my skeptic boss’s Catholic husband — and next month, as my Book Selection for April, I’ll post the text I read aloud from History of the Goths. All roads lead to this debate. (And everyone else meets tonight at 6:30 at Merchants NY East for our separate monthly Manhattan Project political chat-and-drink event.) More in the next few days.

•Is Christianity for Wimps 1 of 12: Seavey intro

•Is Christianity for Wimps 2 of 12 Spencer opening argument

•Is Christianity for Wimps 3 of 12 Rittelmeyer opening/rebuttal

•Is Christianity for Wimps 4 of 12 Spencer rebuttal

More to come.

Christianity vs. Cupcakes

Just in case anyone’s still confused about the difference between (or wants to be on the two separate e-mail invite lists for) the first-Wednesday monthly Debates at Lolita Bar I host and the third-Wednesday monthly Manhattan Project bar gatherings I also host (mainly for people who like to chat about politics), note that tomorrow should bring a posting of audio files from the former (our March 3 bout on the question “Is Christianity for Wimps?”) and another live iteration of the latter (6:30pm-on at Merchants NY East bar-restaurant, 62nd and First, back of the second floor), with, as admittedly often happens, a bit of crossover: Debater-and-more Helen Rittelmeyer from March 3 pointed out the special booze-filled cupcakes purveyed by CupcakeStop, and so tomorrow’s March 17 Manhattan Project gathering shall feature a baker’s dozen of them, just in time for St. Patrick’s — even though CupcakeStop, recently featured on Gothamist, turns out to reside in a roving truck, so I’ll have to meet up with it tomorrow down at the Flatiron Building (in which I used to work) to pick up the goods. I think it’ll be worth it, though.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: "Is Christianity for Wimps?"

This Wednesday, March 3 (at 8pm), we will broach the weighty question of theologically-inspired wussitude with two dueling conservatives:

•Richard Spencer (formerly an editor at American Conservative and TakiMag and now the founding editor of AlternativeRight.com, which launches today) argues YES.

•Helen Rittelmeyer (a writer/editor whose work has been used by First Things, Culture11, American Spectator, American Conservative, The Weekly Standard, and New York Post, among other venues) argues NO.

•Michel Evanchik moderates and Todd Seavey hosts/organizes.

Voting on the question at the end: you, the audience — bring a whole faction if you like, spreading the good word to Christians, skeptics, and neo-pagans alike.

Free admission, cash bar. The debates, usually pitting two opponents against each other (in a civil and often humorous fashion), take place on the basement level of Lolita Bar at 266 Broome St. at the corner of Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop.

One arguably non-wimpy manifestation of Christianity that I noticed in New York Times last month: churches (like a lot of other groups in the past decade, I suspect) organizing “fight clubs” (this piece was also pointed out to me by Katie Surrence).

ANNIVERSARY NOTE: This Wednesday event marks five years of the Seavey/Evanchik team overseeing these debates — and on a more personal note, for those keeping track, this period, give or take a month or two, also marks:

•Four years of me organizing the separate Manhattan Project social events for politicos

•Three years of this near-daily blog

•And a whopping eight years of me editing skeptical, pro-science material at ACSH

I think I will celebrate with a trip into an alternate universe where the rules of neither logic nor science apply — or at least, I’ll go see an advance screening of Alice in Wonderland tonight, and, starting tomorrow, I will blog about other films this week as we approach Oscar Sunday.

Misfit vs. Misfit Debate Audio

Our recent (Feb. 3) Debate at Lolita Bar pitted two former members of the Misfits, Bobby Steele and Michale Graves, against each other on the question “Is the Music Business Bad for Music as an Art Form?”  Remember the event with us now, with photos by Monty Leman (showing, from left to right, me, Graves, Steele, and moderator Michel Evanchik) and an audio file courtesy of Michel Evanchik (with added music snippets by the debaters themselves: the Misfits song “Dig Up Her Bones” and the Undead song “Evening of Desire”).

(listen to the debate download the mp3.)

As if that weren’t intense enough, remember that Wednesday next week (March 3, at 8pm) we return to Lolita Bar for the mosh-like throwdown between Richard Spencer and Helen Rittelmeyer on the question “Is Christianity for Wimps?”  I think we know what Ayn Rand’s answer would have been, but use your own judgment.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: Is the Music Business Bad for Music as an Art Form?

This Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 8pm, an ex-Misfits vs. ex-Misfits (conservative!) punk-rock smackdown:

•Bobby Steele of the Undead argues YES.

•Michale Graves argues NO.

•Michel Evanchik (token Democrat) moderates and Todd Seavey hosts. Our debate last month was about “noshing,” this time it’s about “moshing” — so join us!

Voting on the question at the end: you, the unwashed mosh pit of democracy.

Free admission, cash bar.  Basement level of Lolita Bar at 266 Broome St. at the corner of Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south and three west of the Delancey St. F, J, M, Z subway stop.

This week also sees the start of this blog’s “Month of Ayn Rand,” and I think it’s worth noting that even people with similar political principles can disagree about the proper relationship between art and business.  The plot of Rand’s novel The Fountainhead, after all, was basically the classic left-wing story of an idealistic artist resisting the pressures of the marketplace.  And come to think of it, the Fountainheads would be a great name for an Objectivist band, if it isn’t already (more about the one highly-famous Objectivist band, Rush, later in the month).

Here, too, is a reminder from J.R. Taylor that not all punk is conventionally leftist.  We may yet live to see “conservatism for punks” become a popular philosophy.  Talking about it at the bar on Wednesday can’t hurt.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: Is Katz's the Best Deli?

This Wed., Jan. 6 (at 8pm) join us (at 266 Broome St. at Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south of the Delancey St. F J M Z subway stop) for a debate on a matter of great local importance — followed promptly by a field trip to sample the wares of the establishment in contention:

•Yura Dashevsky, maker of the documentary in progress Katz’s: That’s All, argues yes.

•David Sax, author of Save the Deli!, argues no.

•Michel Evanchik moderates and Todd Seavey hosts. Everyone “noshes” afterwards, per the above plan.

I’ve been reading Aristotle’s Politics (about which, more in this month’s Book Selection entry), and I think he would say the most important question of the evening — aside from how many of the people in attendance will be consigned to slavery and how many must procure their own battle armor — is really what form the audience’s democratic deliberations, if any, will take.

Now, by tradition, the Lolita audience votes on the question at hand at the very end of the debate. And were we a group moved solely by metaphysical speculations — and custom — it might well seem we should adhere to this rule. Yet is it not the case that the demos’s judgment might best occur after empirical investigation — i.e., the trip to Katz’s to taste their various meats and breads, whether acquired through trade, or as Aristotle would consider more noble, personal farming efforts (or possibly piracy, which was apparently legal in ancient Greece)?

Perhaps two votes, submitted for final resolution to a Seavey/Evanchik oligarchy — though not a tyranny — is the ideal form for the debate. (In Sparta, the question might be resolved by combat, and this too may be worthy of consideration, as I am confident Mr. Evanchik would say.) In any case, though: join us, eat something.

Yesterday's NASA Debate, 2008's Food Debate, and Shatner

Ken Silber, whose side of the question prevailed in last night’s audience vote (meaning we should not abolish NASA), described the debate on his blog and was even nice enough to post a two-part audio recording of the event. (My thanks to him for participating, recording, and editing.)

Oddly enough, I also just stumbled across a New York Press blog piece by Michele Hoos describing one of our debates, on whether to “eat locally,” from exactly one year ago tomorrow. The piece is climaxed by a distinctively Evanchikian quote from our esteemed moderator.

I am told an audio recording also exists of Andrew Corsello from GQ interviewing William Shatner and asking him a question I suggested, about the contrast between his own musical work and Leonard Nimoy’s song about Bilbo Baggins. But that will have to wait for another day.

Tonight: NASA vs. Lensmen

OK, my Earthlink e-mail seems fine again — and tonight’s Debate at Lolita Bar about NASA just got a little better, too, as I have decided to create a little synergy between this month’s debate and this month’s ToddSeavey.com Book Selection.

That’s right, in order to remind everyone how high the stakes are as we debate the proper way to explore space (public vs. private), I, your humble host, will be reading a couple choice passages from the sci-fi space opera saga that inspired them all, E.E. “Doc” Smith’s (trashy) Lensmen — using a copy formerly possessed by blogger X. Trapnel, let me note.

You should run to be there like an iron ship with inertialess drive, and the women who love them.

OK, I’m feeling good about some things again. Of course, I’m awake at 4am, however briefly, so you know things aren’t perfect.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: Should We Abolish NASA?

This Wed., Dec. 2 (at 8pm) join us (at 266 Broome St. at Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south of the Delancey St. subway stop) for a debate on whether to get rid of our government-run space program:

•Greg Rehmke, lecturer and program director with the Economic Thinking project, argues yes.

•Ken Silber, writer, blogger, and Research editor — and very bitter survivor of Lou Dobbs’ Space.com — argues no.

•Michel Evanchik moderates and Todd Seavey hosts.

In addition to explaining the vast social and scientific ramifications of maintaining or discarding governmental space exploration, perhaps our speakers will also find time to address the pressing question of whether space exploration has moral implications due to the increased likelihood of contact between humanity and Planet Unicorn.  Join us and find out.

P.S. Or if space isn’t your bag, Phil Kiracofe may be organizing a Chamber of Commerce discussion on “transparency” for that same night, for which he may still need an anti-transparency, pro-privacy expert volunteer, who can reach Phil at: pkiracofe[at]yahoo.com.

DEBATE AT LOLITA BAR: Are Che, Castro, Chavez, and Their Ilk Bad for Latin America?

“Are Che, Castro, Chavez, and Their Ilk Bad for Latin America?” — a Debate at Lolita Bar, this Wed., Nov. 4 (at 8pm), downstairs at 266 Broome St. (at Allen St.) on the Lower East Side, one block south of the Delancey St. subway.

Arguing yes: THOR HALVORSSEN, activist, defender of free speech on campus, and in 2005 founder of the Human Rights Foundation, focusing on individual rights in Latin America.

Arguing no: SPIKE APPEL, leftist, participant in the recurring United States Social Forum gatherings on indigenous people and economic exploitation — and a former child reporter for Children’s Express.

Moderating: Michel Evanchik. Hosting: Todd Seavey.

Voting on the question at the end: you — and bring any supporters, detractors, or sympathetic critics you care to summon. Viva la Debate at Lolita Bar!