SCHADENFREUDE
I am grateful to the German language for a word—schadenfreude. It refers to the warm glow that honest people can’t deny feeling when someone they don’t like suffers in some way. It’s nothing to be proud of, this feeling, but it’s definitely there. --Are you happy to be back in Michigan? --Very. --Happy to be teaching again this summer? --Almost very. --Anyway, you look pleased with yourself. What are you so jovial about? --A mental image. I see Ayn Rand’s namesake down in Kentucky. --Really? Seeing Rand Paul should produce something very different in you. Say, a Tourette moment. --Oh, I’m sure a Tourette moment can’t be far away, but just now I’m enjoying the mental picture. --Do you know who Paul looks like to me? Bill Hailey, of Bill Hailey and the Comets. Remember him? Rand Paul has the same hilarious hairstyle. --I’m trying to avoid ad hominem arguments. You have your Rand Paul, I have mine. I see him wearing one of those headlamp reflector things. Ophthalmologists us...