Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.
“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”
Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
But—and the “but” was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”
(After the interview with Mr. Biden and shortly before press time, Mr. Obama proposed legislation that would require all American combat brigades to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of March 2008.)
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
What???
The "well spoken" Sen. Joe Biden discusses his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in a long interview with a reporter from the NY Observer at http://www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=14092&ic=News+Story+1
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Eagle Lugging Deer Head Causes Power Blackout
This story is reminiscent of the 1984 general election in Alaska, which had a hotly contested ballot initiative on whether to move the capital from Juneau to Willow, north of Anchorage. I voted first thing in the morning, but a huge after-work turnout was anticipated. Then, about 4:00 p.m., there was a regional power outage in Anchorage and the Mat-Su valley, which lasted for about 8 or 10 hours. Voting was much reduced in the area, which was a stronghold of the pro-move forces. Immediately there were mutterings about conspiracy, which were not quelled by reports that it was unlucky ravens who had shorted the main transmission lines from the Beluga power plant.
At least in Juneau, the eagle did not interfere with an election.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070129/ap_on_re_us/eagle_power_outage
At least in Juneau, the eagle did not interfere with an election.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070129/ap_on_re_us/eagle_power_outage
JUNEAU, Alaska - About 10,000 Juneau residents briefly lost power after a bald eagle lugging a deer head crashed into transmission lines.
"You have to live in Alaska to have this kind of outage scenario," said Gayle Wood, an Alaska Electric Light & Power spokeswoman. "This is the story of the overly ambitious eagle who evidently found a deer head in the landfill."
The bird, weighed down by the deer head, apparently failed to clear the transmission lines, she said. A repair crew found the eagle dead, the deer head nearby.
The power was out for less than 45 minutes Sunday.
Vanderbilt and John Edwards
I found a great post by Dean Barnett at http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/. Barnett has some wry comments on John Edwards' new 28,000 square foot house in North Carolina, noting that this falls short of the 60,000 square feet of the Vanderbilt estate "The Breakers" at Asheville.
4
8
4
) What about the house’s details? The Breakers, according to Wikipedia, had things “like a 50’ by 50’ great hall marked by six doors which are limestone figure groups celebrating humanity's progress in art, science, and industry: Galileo, representing science, Dante, representing literature, Apollo, representing the arts, Mercury, representing speed and commerce, Richard Morris Hunt, representing architecture and Karl Bitter, representing sculpture.” Surely Edwards can’t compete with that.
Well, he’s trying. According to John Carrington of Carolina Online, the humble Edwards abode will have an indoor recreation building that contains a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room designated “John’s Lounge.” The latter is kind of appropriate when you think about it. While the Vanderbilts paid tribute to Dante, Apollo and Mercury, Edwards will pay tribute to himself.
5) What kind of things do you think will happen in “John’s Room?”
I imagine the Lord of the Manor sitting there drinking snifters of ancient Cognac or Brandy bemoaning the plight of America’s underclass to anyone who will listen,
8
) This whole FAQ seems like a cheap shot. Big deal. We’re supposed to believe you’re suddenly against conspicuous consumption?
I’m not. Quite to the contrary, I conspicuously consume as much as my meager means allow me to. Furthermore, conspicuous consumption is good for the economy. The design and construction of the Edwards house is no doubt employing dozens of artisans, craftsmen and day laborers.
But I’ve always felt that Edwards is a phony. I don’t call him an empty suit – that’s too generous. I refer to him as a suit filled with anti-matter. It’s a bit hard to believe that someone who is actually obsessed with the plight of America’s downtrodden would devote so much energy and so many resources to building a home fit for a modern Medici. I just don’t buy it.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Procrastinators, let's wait up!
John Tierney, in his science blog at the New York Times site, discusses procrastination--
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/procrastinate-now/
Tierney quotes an interesting paper by Piers Steel, noting
There is even an online procrastinator quiz--
http://www.procrastinus.com/
I really need to get around to TAKING that quiz...
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/procrastinate-now/
Tierney quotes an interesting paper by Piers Steel, noting
as structure continues to decrease, the opportunity for workers to procrastinate will concomitantly increase. Furthermore, the prevalence and availability of temptation, for example, in the forms of computer gaming or internet messaging, should continue to exacerbate the problem of procrastination. There are simply more activities with desirable features competing for our attention.
There is even an online procrastinator quiz--
http://www.procrastinus.com/
I really need to get around to TAKING that quiz...
Thursday, January 25, 2007
A Sad Day for Grad Students
Momufuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen, has died in Japan at the age of 96. I could not possibly estimate the number of servings of instant ramen that I ingested in my college days. Of course, backpackers as well are forever in his debt.
fault.Ando is a classic example of the entrepreneur who succeeds with a seemingly basic, mundane idea, which was only obvious after he came up with it. The Economist has an excellent obituary, at”.
http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8548461
The cult was global. In 2005, 86 billion servings of instant noodles were eaten around the world. And all this began with a vision, as such things do. One cold night in 1957, walking home from his salt-making factory in Osaka, in Japan, Mr Ando saw white clouds of steam in the street, and a crowd of people gathering. They were waiting for noodles to be cooked to order in vats of boiling water, and were prepared to wait a long time. Why not make it easier? thought Mr Ando. And why not try to do it himself?His life until then had been a bit of a mess. He had sold dress fabrics, following in the footsteps of the grandparents who had brought him up. He had sold engine-parts, prefabricated houses, magic-lantern projectors, socks. He had presided over a credit association, which had gone bust, and tried to launch a scholarship scheme for poor students, which had landed him in jail for tax evasion. But now the “steadily rising” clouds (or possibly, as in the cartoon on the homepage of his Instant Noodle Museum in Osaka, one fluffy white cloud with a kettle dangling from it) had shown him the Way.
The road was long. It took a year, working night and day in a shed in his back garden, to find the secret of bringing noodles back to life. Mr Ando cooked quantities, but had trouble getting the moisture out and keeping any flavouring in. He sprayed them with chicken soup from a watering can, and festooned the shed with them. The secret, picked up from his wife as she cooked vegetable tempura, was to flash-fry the cooked noodles in palm oil. This made them “magic
In 1958 instant noodles went on the market, yellowish wormy bricks in cellophane bags, and were laughed at by fresh-noodle makers all over Japan. They were just a high-tech craze, costing six times as much as the fresh stuff; they would never catch on. By the end of the first year Mr Ando had sold 13m bags and had attracted a dozen competitors. He never looked back. In 1971 came noodles in heat-proof polystyrene cups, so that the hungry did not even need to get their bowls out of the cupboard. The Japanese voted instant noodles their most important 20th-century invention, Sony Walkmans notwithstanding. Mr Ando's firm, Nissin, became a $3 billion global enterprise.But it was never just a company, and instant-noodlemaking never just an industry. The three sayings of Mr Ando became a philosophy of life:
Peace will come when people have food.
Eating wisely will enhance beauty and health.
The creation of food will serve society.
Mr Ando practised what he preached. He ate Chikin Ramen, his original flavour of noodles, almost every day until he died. Though sceptics pointed out that they were loaded with fat, salt and monosodium glutamate, he looked bonny and spry. Seabeds across Asia were littered with plastic noodle cups; but that was not his
His TV advertising, meanwhile, showed what instant noodles were really all about. When the world turned to eating them, barriers fell, children laughed and people loved each other. All liberating revolutions sprang from humanity's desire to gulp down steaming Cup Noodles whenever there was a chance. In 2006 a Japanese astronaut, on board the space shuttle Discovery, supped Mr Ando's noodles from a handy vacuum pack. He appeared on the TV ads weightless and smiling, his enlightenment complete.
Waltzing Matilda
Mark Steyn has a great post discussing some national anthems of former British colonies, and the vapidity of recent compositions, drained of any spirit by the dead hand of political correctness, at his site, steynonline.com
Best of all, Steyn has some good background on "Waltzing Matilda":
As the metropolitan reaction to Steve Irwin’s death reminded us, not all Australians want to be celebrated for the blokey camaraderie of the bush. No doubt it’s very frustrating when Sydney has so many fine Thai restaurants and firebreathing imams to be continually cheered in popular culture for boomerangs and kangaroos and mates and cobbers and larrikins. But, musically, you can’t beat something with nothing, and “Advance Australia Fair” is one big zero. We’ve been frolicking down the “W” end of the folk-song index – “Wallaby Stew”, “Wild Colonial Boy” – and we’ve only just reached the biggest “W” of all:
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
The poet Banjo Paterson is traditionally credited with the song in the form we know it today, though some scholars continue to question this. Still, the song we know today began life in January 1895, when Paterson was visiting the Macpherson property at Dagworth Station in Queensland, north-west of Winton. Also visiting, from Victoria, was Christina Macpherson, who'd come home to spend Christmas with her father and brothers after the death of their mother. One day Christina played Paterson a tune she'd heard at the races in western Victoria, and the poet said he thought he could put words to it. The tune is said to have been "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea", but there was also an 18th century English marching song called “The Bold Fusilier”. Paterson claimed never to have heard the earlier lyric but its pattern is so similar it’s impossible to believe that “Matilda” wasn’t laid out to the scheme of the earlier number:
A gay Fusilier was marching down through Rochester
Bound for the war in the Low Country
And he cried as he tramped through the dear streets of Rochester
Who’ll be a sojer for Marlb’ro with me?
Who’ll be a sojer?
Who’ll be a sojer?
Who’ll be a sojer for Marlb’ro with me?
Marlborough being the Duke thereof: Winston Churchill’s forebear. “Cried as he tramped”? “Sang as he watched”? Don’t tell me that’s not a conscious evocation. Nonetheless, “Waltzing Matilda” is a splendid improvement on the original. If you're a non-Australian who learned the song as a child, chances are you loved singing it long before you had a clue what the hell was going on. What’s a swagman? What’s a billabong? Why’s it under a coolibah tree? Who cares? It’s one of the most euphonious songs ever written, and the fact that the euphonies are all explicitly Australian and the words recur in no other well known song is all the more reason why “Matilda” should have been upgraded to official anthem status.
And yes, a “swagman” is a hobo, and this one steals a “jumbuck” (sheep), but he ends up drowning, which gives the song a surer moral resolution than most similar material. Yet in a sense that’s over-thinking it. It’s not about the literal meaning of the words, but rather the bigger picture that opens up when they’re set to the notes of that great rollicking melody: the big sky and empty horizon and blessed climate, all the possibilities of an island continent, a literally boundless liberation from the Victorian tenements and laborers’ cottages of cramped little England. Few of us would wish to be an actual swagman with a tucker bag, but the song is itself a kind of musical swagman with a psychological tucker bag, a rowdy vignette that captures the size of the land. One early version of it went “Rovin’ Australia, rovin’ Australia, who’ll come a-rovin’ Australia with me” – which is a lousy lyric, but accurately describes what the song does.
One sign of the song’s muscular quality is the number of variations. Of the rock’n’roll crowd’s monkeying around with it, I think I’ll stick with Bill Haley and the Comets’ goofy “Rockin’ Matilda”. The Pogues-Tom Waits approach – “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, “Tom Traubert’s Blues” – seems to me to glum up the works unnecessarily. To use it for the story of a soldier who loses his legs at Gallipoli is unduly reductive: It’s too good a real marching song to be recast as an ironic marching song. I don’t know whether today’s diggers march to “Matilda” in Afghanistan and Iraq and East Timor but it’s one of the greatest marching songs ever, and today as a century ago it remains the great Australian contribution to the global songbook:
Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Happy Australia Day!
Best of all, Steyn has some good background on "Waltzing Matilda":
As the metropolitan reaction to Steve Irwin’s death reminded us, not all Australians want to be celebrated for the blokey camaraderie of the bush. No doubt it’s very frustrating when Sydney has so many fine Thai restaurants and firebreathing imams to be continually cheered in popular culture for boomerangs and kangaroos and mates and cobbers and larrikins. But, musically, you can’t beat something with nothing, and “Advance Australia Fair” is one big zero. We’ve been frolicking down the “W” end of the folk-song index – “Wallaby Stew”, “Wild Colonial Boy” – and we’ve only just reached the biggest “W” of all:
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
The poet Banjo Paterson is traditionally credited with the song in the form we know it today, though some scholars continue to question this. Still, the song we know today began life in January 1895, when Paterson was visiting the Macpherson property at Dagworth Station in Queensland, north-west of Winton. Also visiting, from Victoria, was Christina Macpherson, who'd come home to spend Christmas with her father and brothers after the death of their mother. One day Christina played Paterson a tune she'd heard at the races in western Victoria, and the poet said he thought he could put words to it. The tune is said to have been "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea", but there was also an 18th century English marching song called “The Bold Fusilier”. Paterson claimed never to have heard the earlier lyric but its pattern is so similar it’s impossible to believe that “Matilda” wasn’t laid out to the scheme of the earlier number:
A gay Fusilier was marching down through Rochester
Bound for the war in the Low Country
And he cried as he tramped through the dear streets of Rochester
Who’ll be a sojer for Marlb’ro with me?
Who’ll be a sojer?
Who’ll be a sojer?
Who’ll be a sojer for Marlb’ro with me?
Marlborough being the Duke thereof: Winston Churchill’s forebear. “Cried as he tramped”? “Sang as he watched”? Don’t tell me that’s not a conscious evocation. Nonetheless, “Waltzing Matilda” is a splendid improvement on the original. If you're a non-Australian who learned the song as a child, chances are you loved singing it long before you had a clue what the hell was going on. What’s a swagman? What’s a billabong? Why’s it under a coolibah tree? Who cares? It’s one of the most euphonious songs ever written, and the fact that the euphonies are all explicitly Australian and the words recur in no other well known song is all the more reason why “Matilda” should have been upgraded to official anthem status.
And yes, a “swagman” is a hobo, and this one steals a “jumbuck” (sheep), but he ends up drowning, which gives the song a surer moral resolution than most similar material. Yet in a sense that’s over-thinking it. It’s not about the literal meaning of the words, but rather the bigger picture that opens up when they’re set to the notes of that great rollicking melody: the big sky and empty horizon and blessed climate, all the possibilities of an island continent, a literally boundless liberation from the Victorian tenements and laborers’ cottages of cramped little England. Few of us would wish to be an actual swagman with a tucker bag, but the song is itself a kind of musical swagman with a psychological tucker bag, a rowdy vignette that captures the size of the land. One early version of it went “Rovin’ Australia, rovin’ Australia, who’ll come a-rovin’ Australia with me” – which is a lousy lyric, but accurately describes what the song does.
One sign of the song’s muscular quality is the number of variations. Of the rock’n’roll crowd’s monkeying around with it, I think I’ll stick with Bill Haley and the Comets’ goofy “Rockin’ Matilda”. The Pogues-Tom Waits approach – “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, “Tom Traubert’s Blues” – seems to me to glum up the works unnecessarily. To use it for the story of a soldier who loses his legs at Gallipoli is unduly reductive: It’s too good a real marching song to be recast as an ironic marching song. I don’t know whether today’s diggers march to “Matilda” in Afghanistan and Iraq and East Timor but it’s one of the greatest marching songs ever, and today as a century ago it remains the great Australian contribution to the global songbook:
Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Happy Australia Day!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Soviet Humor
Law Professor Eugene Volokh, at http://volokh.com relates a classic bit of Soviet humor:
Old Soviet Joke:
The Soviets talked a great deal about "Druzhba Narodov," which is to say "Friendship of the Peoples," though in fact the Peoples weren't really that Friendly to each other.
So the joke, of which I was very recently reminded: What is the Friendship of the Peoples? It's when the Georgian walks hand in hand with the Armenian, and with the Ukrainian, and with the Russian, and they all go to beat up the Jew.
More great Soviet-era humor is at http://www.johndclare.net/Russ12_Jokes.htm
and at
http://www.balticsworldwide.com/soviet_communist_humor_jokes.htm
Old Soviet Joke:
The Soviets talked a great deal about "Druzhba Narodov," which is to say "Friendship of the Peoples," though in fact the Peoples weren't really that Friendly to each other.
So the joke, of which I was very recently reminded: What is the Friendship of the Peoples? It's when the Georgian walks hand in hand with the Armenian, and with the Ukrainian, and with the Russian, and they all go to beat up the Jew.
More great Soviet-era humor is at http://www.johndclare.net/Russ12_Jokes.htm
and at
http://www.balticsworldwide.com/soviet_communist_humor_jokes.htm
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
How to increase Blog Traffic
A great comment by the tireless "Anonymous" on a funny post by Ken Levine:
And what would the headline read if a divorcing celebrity mom pop singer re-enacted a scene from Apocalyto and stabbed former child star Jerry Mathers?
"Britney Spears Beaver"
The full post is hilarious as well.
http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/01/and-hits-just-keep-on-comin.html
And what would the headline read if a divorcing celebrity mom pop singer re-enacted a scene from Apocalyto and stabbed former child star Jerry Mathers?
"Britney Spears Beaver"
The full post is hilarious as well.
http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/01/and-hits-just-keep-on-comin.html
Good Sense from Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell has very sensible comments on the issue of "obscenely high CEO" which make great sense, but are rarely heard--
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTFlNDhmODM3MGY3MTY0Nzg3Zjg2MDE3YjZjNGM1NDQ=
Many observers who say that they cannot understand how anyone can be worth $100 million a year do not realize that it is not necessary that they understand it, since it is not their money.
All of us have thousands of things happening around us that we do not understand. We use computers all the time but most of us could not build a computer if our life depended on it — and those few individuals who could probably couldn’t grow orchids or train horses.
In short, we all have grossly inadequate knowledge in other people’s specialties.
The idea that everything must “justify itself before the bar of reason” goes back at least as far as the 18th century. But that just makes it a candidate for the longest-running fallacy in the world.
Given the high degree of specialization in a modern economy, demanding that everything “justify itself before the bar of reason” means demanding that people who know what they are doing must be subject to the veto of people who don’t have a clue about the decisions that they are second-guessing.
It means demanding that ignorance override knowledge.
The ignorant are not just some separate group of people. As Will Rogers said, everybody is ignorant, but just about different things.
Should computer experts tell brain surgeons how to do their job? Or horse trainers tell either of them what to do?
One of the reasons why central planning sounds so good, but has failed so badly that even socialist and Communist governments finally abandoned the idea by the end of the 20th century, is that nobody knows enough to second guess everybody else.
Every time oil prices shoot up, there are cries of “greed” and demands by politicians for an investigation of collusion by Big Oil. There have been more than a dozen investigations of oil companies over the years, and none of them has turned up the collusion that is supposed to be responsible for high gas prices.
Now that oil prices have dropped big time, does that mean that oil companies have lost their “greed”? Or could it all be supply and demand — a cause and effect explanation that seems to be harder for some people to understand than emotions like “greed”?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTFlNDhmODM3MGY3MTY0Nzg3Zjg2MDE3YjZjNGM1NDQ=
Many observers who say that they cannot understand how anyone can be worth $100 million a year do not realize that it is not necessary that they understand it, since it is not their money.
All of us have thousands of things happening around us that we do not understand. We use computers all the time but most of us could not build a computer if our life depended on it — and those few individuals who could probably couldn’t grow orchids or train horses.
In short, we all have grossly inadequate knowledge in other people’s specialties.
The idea that everything must “justify itself before the bar of reason” goes back at least as far as the 18th century. But that just makes it a candidate for the longest-running fallacy in the world.
Given the high degree of specialization in a modern economy, demanding that everything “justify itself before the bar of reason” means demanding that people who know what they are doing must be subject to the veto of people who don’t have a clue about the decisions that they are second-guessing.
It means demanding that ignorance override knowledge.
The ignorant are not just some separate group of people. As Will Rogers said, everybody is ignorant, but just about different things.
Should computer experts tell brain surgeons how to do their job? Or horse trainers tell either of them what to do?
One of the reasons why central planning sounds so good, but has failed so badly that even socialist and Communist governments finally abandoned the idea by the end of the 20th century, is that nobody knows enough to second guess everybody else.
Every time oil prices shoot up, there are cries of “greed” and demands by politicians for an investigation of collusion by Big Oil. There have been more than a dozen investigations of oil companies over the years, and none of them has turned up the collusion that is supposed to be responsible for high gas prices.
Now that oil prices have dropped big time, does that mean that oil companies have lost their “greed”? Or could it all be supply and demand — a cause and effect explanation that seems to be harder for some people to understand than emotions like “greed”?
Legislative wit
A classic bit of political humor at www.volokh.com,
[Former legislator] Steve Durham and I entered a capitol elevator the other day while the Democrat and Republican House legislators were in caucus discussing the long bill.
Durham: "What's the difference between a cactus and a caucus?"
Kopel: "I don't know, what is the difference?"
Durham: "With a cactus, the pricks are on the outside."
Quoted by volokh.com from http://www.jerrykopel.com/c/falling-in-love-with-bills.htm
[Former legislator] Steve Durham and I entered a capitol elevator the other day while the Democrat and Republican House legislators were in caucus discussing the long bill.
Durham: "What's the difference between a cactus and a caucus?"
Kopel: "I don't know, what is the difference?"
Durham: "With a cactus, the pricks are on the outside."
Quoted by volokh.com from http://www.jerrykopel.com/c/falling-in-love-with-bills.htm
Monday, January 22, 2007
The image “http://www.mondomostre.it/images/guggenheim/thumbnails/15%20-%20Bonnard.800x600.jpg”
This is a really beautiful Sylvestre Bonnard painting, much-needed colors on a drab Cincinnati morning with the snow rapidly turning to slush.
This is a really beautiful Sylvestre Bonnard painting, much-needed colors on a drab Cincinnati morning with the snow rapidly turning to slush.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Christopher Hitchens has an excellent review of Mark Steyn's new book, including some very good suggestions on how to deal with radical Islamists--
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_1_urbanities-steyn.html
Steyn ends his book with a somewhat slapdash ten-point program for resistance to Islamism, which includes offhand one-line items such as “End the Iranian regime” and more elaborate proposals to get rid of the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Authority, and (for some reason) NATO. His tenth point (“Strike militarily when the opportunity presents itself”) is barely even a makeweight to bring the figure up to ten.
Steyn is much more definite about the cultural side of his argument, in other words, than about the counterterrorist dimension. If I wanted to sharpen both prongs of his thesis, I would also propose the following:
1. An end to one-way multiculturalism and to the cultural masochism that goes with it. The Koran does not mandate the wearing of veils or genital mutilation, and until recently only those who apostasized from Islam faced the threat of punishment by death. Now, though, all manner of antisocial practices find themselves validated in the name of religion, and mullahs have begun to issue threats even against non-Muslims for criticism of Islam. This creeping Islamism must cease at once, and those responsible must feel the full weight of the law. Meanwhile, we should insist on reciprocity at all times. We should not allow a single Saudi dollar to pay for propaganda within the U.S., for example, until Saudi Arabia also permits Jewish and Christian and secular practices. No Wahhabi-printed Korans anywhere in our prison system. No Salafist imams in our armed forces.
2. A strong, open alliance with India on all fronts, from the military to the political and economic, backed by an extensive cultural exchange program, to demonstrate solidarity with the other great multiethnic democracy under attack from Muslim fascism. A hugely enlarged quota for qualified Indian immigrants and a reduction in quotas from Pakistan and other nations where fundamentalism dominates.
3. A similarly forward approach to Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the other countries of Western Africa that are under attack by jihadists and are also the location of vast potential oil reserves, whose proper development could help emancipate the local populations from poverty and ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
4. A declaration at the UN of our solidarity with the right of the Kurdish people of Iraq and elsewhere to self-determination as well as a further declaration by Congress that in no circumstance will Muslim forces who have fought on our side, from the Kurds to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, find themselves friendless, unarmed, or abandoned. Partition in Iraq would be defeat under another name (and as with past partitions, would lead to yet further partitions and micro-wars over these very subdivisions). But if it has to come, we cannot even consider abandoning the one part of the country that did seize the opportunity of modernization, development, and democracy.
5. Energetic support for all the opposition forces in Iran and in the Iranian diaspora. A public offer from the United States, disseminated widely in the Persian language, of help for a reformed Iran on all matters, including peaceful nuclear energy, and of assistance in protecting Iran from the catastrophic earthquake that seismologists predict in its immediate future. Millions of lives might be lost in a few moments, and we would also have to worry about the fate of secret underground nuclear facilities. When a quake leveled the Iranian city of Bam three years ago, the performance of American rescue teams was so impressive that their popularity embarrassed the regime. Iran’s neighbors would need to pay attention, too: a crisis in Iran’s nuclear underground facilities—an Iranian Chernobyl—would not be an internal affair. These concerns might help shift the currently ossified terms of the argument and put us again on the side of an internal reform movement within Iran and its large and talented diaspora.
6. Unconditional solidarity, backed with force and the relevant UN resolutions, with an independent and multi-confessional Lebanon.
7. A commitment to buy Afghanistan’s opium crop and to keep the profits out of the hands of the warlords and Talibanists, until such time as the country’s agriculture— especially its once-famous vines—has been replanted and restored. We can use the product in the interim for the manufacture of much-needed analgesics for our own market and apply the profits to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
8. We should, of course, be scrupulous on principle about stirring up interethnic tensions. But we should remind those states that are less scrupulous—Iran, Pakistan, and Syria swiftly come to mind—that we know that they, too, have restless minorities and that they should not make trouble in Afghanistan, Lebanon, or Iraq without bearing this in mind. Some years ago, the Pakistani government announced that it would break the international embargo on the unrecognized and illegal Turkish separatist state in Cyprus and would appoint an ambassador to it, out of “Islamic solidarity.” Cyprus is a small democracy with no armed forces to speak of, but its then–foreign minister told me the following story. He sought a meeting with the Pakistani authorities and told them privately that if they recognized the breakaway Turkish colony, his government would immediately supply funds and arms to one of the secessionist movements—such as the Baluchis—within Pakistan itself. Pakistan never appointed an ambassador to Turkish Cyprus.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_1_urbanities-steyn.html
Steyn ends his book with a somewhat slapdash ten-point program for resistance to Islamism, which includes offhand one-line items such as “End the Iranian regime” and more elaborate proposals to get rid of the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Authority, and (for some reason) NATO. His tenth point (“Strike militarily when the opportunity presents itself”) is barely even a makeweight to bring the figure up to ten.
Steyn is much more definite about the cultural side of his argument, in other words, than about the counterterrorist dimension. If I wanted to sharpen both prongs of his thesis, I would also propose the following:
1. An end to one-way multiculturalism and to the cultural masochism that goes with it. The Koran does not mandate the wearing of veils or genital mutilation, and until recently only those who apostasized from Islam faced the threat of punishment by death. Now, though, all manner of antisocial practices find themselves validated in the name of religion, and mullahs have begun to issue threats even against non-Muslims for criticism of Islam. This creeping Islamism must cease at once, and those responsible must feel the full weight of the law. Meanwhile, we should insist on reciprocity at all times. We should not allow a single Saudi dollar to pay for propaganda within the U.S., for example, until Saudi Arabia also permits Jewish and Christian and secular practices. No Wahhabi-printed Korans anywhere in our prison system. No Salafist imams in our armed forces.
2. A strong, open alliance with India on all fronts, from the military to the political and economic, backed by an extensive cultural exchange program, to demonstrate solidarity with the other great multiethnic democracy under attack from Muslim fascism. A hugely enlarged quota for qualified Indian immigrants and a reduction in quotas from Pakistan and other nations where fundamentalism dominates.
3. A similarly forward approach to Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the other countries of Western Africa that are under attack by jihadists and are also the location of vast potential oil reserves, whose proper development could help emancipate the local populations from poverty and ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
4. A declaration at the UN of our solidarity with the right of the Kurdish people of Iraq and elsewhere to self-determination as well as a further declaration by Congress that in no circumstance will Muslim forces who have fought on our side, from the Kurds to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, find themselves friendless, unarmed, or abandoned. Partition in Iraq would be defeat under another name (and as with past partitions, would lead to yet further partitions and micro-wars over these very subdivisions). But if it has to come, we cannot even consider abandoning the one part of the country that did seize the opportunity of modernization, development, and democracy.
5. Energetic support for all the opposition forces in Iran and in the Iranian diaspora. A public offer from the United States, disseminated widely in the Persian language, of help for a reformed Iran on all matters, including peaceful nuclear energy, and of assistance in protecting Iran from the catastrophic earthquake that seismologists predict in its immediate future. Millions of lives might be lost in a few moments, and we would also have to worry about the fate of secret underground nuclear facilities. When a quake leveled the Iranian city of Bam three years ago, the performance of American rescue teams was so impressive that their popularity embarrassed the regime. Iran’s neighbors would need to pay attention, too: a crisis in Iran’s nuclear underground facilities—an Iranian Chernobyl—would not be an internal affair. These concerns might help shift the currently ossified terms of the argument and put us again on the side of an internal reform movement within Iran and its large and talented diaspora.
6. Unconditional solidarity, backed with force and the relevant UN resolutions, with an independent and multi-confessional Lebanon.
7. A commitment to buy Afghanistan’s opium crop and to keep the profits out of the hands of the warlords and Talibanists, until such time as the country’s agriculture— especially its once-famous vines—has been replanted and restored. We can use the product in the interim for the manufacture of much-needed analgesics for our own market and apply the profits to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
8. We should, of course, be scrupulous on principle about stirring up interethnic tensions. But we should remind those states that are less scrupulous—Iran, Pakistan, and Syria swiftly come to mind—that we know that they, too, have restless minorities and that they should not make trouble in Afghanistan, Lebanon, or Iraq without bearing this in mind. Some years ago, the Pakistani government announced that it would break the international embargo on the unrecognized and illegal Turkish separatist state in Cyprus and would appoint an ambassador to it, out of “Islamic solidarity.” Cyprus is a small democracy with no armed forces to speak of, but its then–foreign minister told me the following story. He sought a meeting with the Pakistani authorities and told them privately that if they recognized the breakaway Turkish colony, his government would immediately supply funds and arms to one of the secessionist movements—such as the Baluchis—within Pakistan itself. Pakistan never appointed an ambassador to Turkish Cyprus.
Bat Masterson and Benjamin Cardozo
The fabled gunfighter and the noted jurist crossed paths in a libel suit in New York, where Masterson ended up as a sports writer. A great story from the Volokh site--
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_01_21-2007_01_27.shtml#1169362299
Cardozo defended the NY Globe from Masterson's libel suit, and his post has some great exchanged between Masterson and Cardozo.
Masterson's last words, found in the paper in the typewriter where he died--
There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I'll swear I can't see it that way.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_01_21-2007_01_27.shtml#1169362299
Cardozo defended the NY Globe from Masterson's libel suit, and his post has some great exchanged between Masterson and Cardozo.
Masterson's last words, found in the paper in the typewriter where he died--
There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I'll swear I can't see it that way.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Children's Books from 1920s Japan
An interesting site with illustrations from children's books, Japan in the 1920s--
http:/
/www.kodomo.go.jp/gallery/digi/KODOMO_WEB/gallery/g_e001.html
Top Page
Gallery
Children
Kodomo no kuni and It
The Children of Kodomo no kuni
Introduction
http:/
/www.kodomo.go.jp/gallery/digi/KODOMO_WEB/gallery/g_e001.html
Top Page
Gallery
Children
Kodomo no kuni and It
The Children of Kodomo no kuni
Introduction
Charles Murray on Intelligence and Education
Charles Murray, in a series of 3 articles in opinionjournal.com, makes some great observations about the current state of education in the US. This third article talks about education for the highly intelligent--
The encouragement of wisdom requires a special kind of education. It requires first of all recognition of one's own intellectual limits and fallibilities--in a word, humility. This is perhaps the most conspicuously missing part of today's education of the gifted. Many high-IQ students, especially those who avoid serious science and math, go from kindergarten through an advanced degree without ever having a teacher who is dissatisfied with their best work and without ever taking a course that forces them to say to themselves, "I can't do this." Humility requires that the gifted learn what it feels like to hit an intellectual wall, just as all of their less talented peers do, and that can come only from a curriculum and pedagogy designed especially for them. That level of demand cannot fairly be imposed on a classroom that includes children who do not have the ability to respond. The gifted need to have some classes with each other not to be coddled, but because that is the only setting in which their feet can be held to the fire.
The encouragement of wisdom requires mastery of analytical building blocks. The gifted must assimilate the details of grammar and syntax and the details of logical fallacies not because they will need them to communicate in daily life, but because these are indispensable for precise thinking at an advanced level.
The encouragement of wisdom requires being steeped in the study of ethics, starting with Aristotle and Confucius. It is not enough that gifted children learn to be nice. They must know what it means to be good.
The encouragement of wisdom requires an advanced knowledge of history. Never has the aphorism about the fate of those who ignore history been more true.
All of the above are antithetical to the mindset that prevails in today's schools at every level. The gifted should not be taught to be nonjudgmental; they need to learn how to make accurate judgments. They should not be taught to be equally respectful of Aztecs and Greeks; they should focus on the best that has come before them, which will mean a light dose of Aztecs and a heavy one of Greeks. The primary purpose of their education should not be to let the little darlings express themselves, but to give them the tools and the intellectual discipline for expressing themselves as adults.
In short, I am calling for a revival of the classical definition of a liberal education, serving its classic purpose: to prepare an elite to do its duty. If that sounds too much like Plato's Guardians, consider this distinction. As William F. Buckley rightly instructs us, it is better to be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard University. But we have that option only in the choice of our elected officials. In all other respects, the government, economy and culture are run by a cognitive elite that we do not choose. That is the reality, and we are powerless to change it. All we can do is try to educate the elite to be conscious of, and prepared to meet, its obligations. For years, we have not even thought about the nature of that task. It is time we did.
The encouragement of wisdom requires a special kind of education. It requires first of all recognition of one's own intellectual limits and fallibilities--in a word, humility. This is perhaps the most conspicuously missing part of today's education of the gifted. Many high-IQ students, especially those who avoid serious science and math, go from kindergarten through an advanced degree without ever having a teacher who is dissatisfied with their best work and without ever taking a course that forces them to say to themselves, "I can't do this." Humility requires that the gifted learn what it feels like to hit an intellectual wall, just as all of their less talented peers do, and that can come only from a curriculum and pedagogy designed especially for them. That level of demand cannot fairly be imposed on a classroom that includes children who do not have the ability to respond. The gifted need to have some classes with each other not to be coddled, but because that is the only setting in which their feet can be held to the fire.
The encouragement of wisdom requires mastery of analytical building blocks. The gifted must assimilate the details of grammar and syntax and the details of logical fallacies not because they will need them to communicate in daily life, but because these are indispensable for precise thinking at an advanced level.
The encouragement of wisdom requires being steeped in the study of ethics, starting with Aristotle and Confucius. It is not enough that gifted children learn to be nice. They must know what it means to be good.
The encouragement of wisdom requires an advanced knowledge of history. Never has the aphorism about the fate of those who ignore history been more true.
All of the above are antithetical to the mindset that prevails in today's schools at every level. The gifted should not be taught to be nonjudgmental; they need to learn how to make accurate judgments. They should not be taught to be equally respectful of Aztecs and Greeks; they should focus on the best that has come before them, which will mean a light dose of Aztecs and a heavy one of Greeks. The primary purpose of their education should not be to let the little darlings express themselves, but to give them the tools and the intellectual discipline for expressing themselves as adults.
In short, I am calling for a revival of the classical definition of a liberal education, serving its classic purpose: to prepare an elite to do its duty. If that sounds too much like Plato's Guardians, consider this distinction. As William F. Buckley rightly instructs us, it is better to be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard University. But we have that option only in the choice of our elected officials. In all other respects, the government, economy and culture are run by a cognitive elite that we do not choose. That is the reality, and we are powerless to change it. All we can do is try to educate the elite to be conscious of, and prepared to meet, its obligations. For years, we have not even thought about the nature of that task. It is time we did.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Art and Entrepreneurship
A Time for Machetes
I have mostly avoided reading much about the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda in the 1990s. I did see the movie, "Hotel Rwanda," the horribly accurate and intense account of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina and his efforts to save as many people as possible. Coincidentally, Mr. Rusesabagina himself spoke at Miami University Middletown a few weeks after I had seen the movie. He seemed more matter-of-fact and less heroic than Don Cheadle had been in the film.
The British writer Theodore Dalrymple recently reviewed A Time for Machetes in New English Review, at http://www.newe
nglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=5150&sec_id=5150
Dalrymple notes,
My medical practice, admittedly of a peculiar kind, in a slum and in a prison, convinced me of the prevalence of evil. I was surprised. I had spent a number of years in countries wracked by civil wars and thereby deprived of even minimal social order, precisely the conditions in which one might expect evil to be widely committed, if only because in such situations the worst come to the fore. But nothing prepared me for the sheer malignity, the joy in doing wrong, of so many of my compatriots, when finally I returned home. Every day in my office I would hear of men who tortured women - torture is not too strong a word - or commit the basest acts of intimidation, oppression and violence, with every appearance of satisfaction and enjoyment. I would once have taken the opening sentence of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments for a truism:
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there is evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.
But now I no longer think it is even a truth, let alone a truism. I would be more inclined to write:
How good soever man may be supposed, there is evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the suffering of others… etc., etc....
No, it is impossible to console ourselves with the thought that the Rwandans are so different from us that they and their experiences have nothing to say to us. Edith and Francine are, indeed, more dignified, more articulate, more intelligently reflective, than most of the victims of small-scale evil in an English slum whom I have met.
This book penetrates deeper into the heart of evil than any other I have ever read. The author makes no claims for his work: he is still mystified by it himself. But if you want to know what depths man can sink to - an important thing to know, when your argument is that things are so bad that they cannot get any worse, so prudence is unnecessary - read this book. At the very least, it will put your worries into perspective.
The British writer Theodore Dalrymple recently reviewed A Time for Machetes in New English Review, at http://www.newe
nglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=5150&sec_id=5150
Dalrymple notes,
My medical practice, admittedly of a peculiar kind, in a slum and in a prison, convinced me of the prevalence of evil. I was surprised. I had spent a number of years in countries wracked by civil wars and thereby deprived of even minimal social order, precisely the conditions in which one might expect evil to be widely committed, if only because in such situations the worst come to the fore. But nothing prepared me for the sheer malignity, the joy in doing wrong, of so many of my compatriots, when finally I returned home. Every day in my office I would hear of men who tortured women - torture is not too strong a word - or commit the basest acts of intimidation, oppression and violence, with every appearance of satisfaction and enjoyment. I would once have taken the opening sentence of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments for a truism:
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there is evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.
But now I no longer think it is even a truth, let alone a truism. I would be more inclined to write:
How good soever man may be supposed, there is evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the suffering of others… etc., etc....
No, it is impossible to console ourselves with the thought that the Rwandans are so different from us that they and their experiences have nothing to say to us. Edith and Francine are, indeed, more dignified, more articulate, more intelligently reflective, than most of the victims of small-scale evil in an English slum whom I have met.
This book penetrates deeper into the heart of evil than any other I have ever read. The author makes no claims for his work: he is still mystified by it himself. But if you want to know what depths man can sink to - an important thing to know, when your argument is that things are so bad that they cannot get any worse, so prudence is unnecessary - read this book. At the very least, it will put your worries into perspective.
Neat short poem
A very interesting poem by Adam Jagajewski, entitled "The Self<"
It is small and no more visible than a cricket
in August. It likes to dress up, to masquerade,
as all dwarves do. It lodges between
granite blocks, between serviceable
truths. It even fits under
a bandage, under adhesive. Neither custom officers
nor their beautiful dogs will find it. Between
hymns, between alliances, it hides itself.
It is small and no more visible than a cricket
in August. It likes to dress up, to masquerade,
as all dwarves do. It lodges between
granite blocks, between serviceable
truths. It even fits under
a bandage, under adhesive. Neither custom officers
nor their beautiful dogs will find it. Between
hymns, between alliances, it hides itself.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
An Anthropologist on Pain
Naturally, my legs clenched when I read this--
http://tinyurl.com/2de8sf
Definitely a downside of field work. Penis-peeling was not an issue when I was doing history graduate school.
http://tinyurl.com/2de8sf
Definitely a downside of field work. Penis-peeling was not an issue when I was doing history graduate school.
A Slam on the iPhone
this guy apparently has issues with Steve Jobs--
link =1http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryId=3459&SectionID=15&spage
So yesterday at MacWorld, Steve Jobs announced the highly anticipated iPhone. It's a slick looking cell phone/iPod combo with some cool looking software, but that's really all it is. That didn't stop Jobs from talking about it like he went into the future and stole a Star Trek communicator from some homo in a jumpsuit. To be honest, I like Apple. I just can't stand Steve Jobs. He's a pompous asshole. A great businessman, but an asshole. Only an asshole could get on stage and claim that a product that is essentially the same as the PDA phones that have been around for four years is "revolutionary." I'm not saying the iPhone won't sell. Shit, Night at the Museum has been the number one movie for three weeks. Nothing surprises me anymore.
So what's wrong with the iPhone? First of all, iCan't stand the fucking iNames. iLife, iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, iPod... Enough. It was kinda gay in 1997 when the iMac came out. Now it's got a cock so deep in its throat that if it was allergic to nuts, it'd have horrible rash on its chin.
link =1http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryId=3459&SectionID=15&spage
So yesterday at MacWorld, Steve Jobs announced the highly anticipated iPhone. It's a slick looking cell phone/iPod combo with some cool looking software, but that's really all it is. That didn't stop Jobs from talking about it like he went into the future and stole a Star Trek communicator from some homo in a jumpsuit. To be honest, I like Apple. I just can't stand Steve Jobs. He's a pompous asshole. A great businessman, but an asshole. Only an asshole could get on stage and claim that a product that is essentially the same as the PDA phones that have been around for four years is "revolutionary." I'm not saying the iPhone won't sell. Shit, Night at the Museum has been the number one movie for three weeks. Nothing surprises me anymore.
So what's wrong with the iPhone? First of all, iCan't stand the fucking iNames. iLife, iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, iPod... Enough. It was kinda gay in 1997 when the iMac came out. Now it's got a cock so deep in its throat that if it was allergic to nuts, it'd have horrible rash on its chin.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
A Soldier Blogger
This is an excellent blog by a soldier current in Iraq: http://acutepolitics.blogspot.com
A recent post there:
I am a shameless romantic, a slightly better than average student of history, and there is a current of idealism under my skin that has not yet been dulled by reality. Sometimes, these qualities come together and leave me thinking to myself of times long gone and stories all but forgotten. Lately, I've been thinking of the paradoxical enormity and insignificance of my presence here.
Here I stand, in modern-day Iraq. I have come further to fight here than any soldier of any nation before me, and I fight with weapons and equipment that lay pale the panoply of earlier armies. I represent the pinnacle of force projection and decisive battle, and yet I fight here, where unnumbered young warriors have fought and died through time stretching out of memory. It was on this land that the Babylonian empire first arose out of those first Sumerian agrarians, only to be conquered by the Assyrians, and still later throw off the foreign chains. It was here that Alexander's phalanxes swept by, trailing Hellenism in their wake. Rome, and later the Byzantines, drew their border with Persia at the Euphrates River. At that river was where the Sassanids made their stand against the spread of Arabian Islam. The Khans of the Mongols laid this land waste, sometimes killing only to build their towers of bones higher.
This region is steeped in history. We walk on it; we breath it in. Eons of history surround us, infiltrate us, and turn to dust beneath our feet. The ashes of countless cultures, civilizations, and rulers dreams lie under the earth. With each breath, I inhale a few molecules of the dying gasp of Cyrus II, the Persian "Constantine of the East". In the howling wind I can almost hear the cries of a countless multitude dying on killing grounds that bridge across the ages. The same wind carries the red dust that might yet hold a few drops of blood from the battle at Carrhae- the first, crushing defeat for Rome's red blooded legions. Under my heel, a speck grinds into dust: the last grain of sand that remains of the Hanging Gardens at Babylon that are now known only in legend. Some of the world's oldest religions tell us that somewhere in this ancient Cradle of life, God himself breathed on this dust, and it became man, the father of us all. Whatever path we take here, we walk on history.
I walk softly, for I tread on the ghosts of years.
A recent post there:
I am a shameless romantic, a slightly better than average student of history, and there is a current of idealism under my skin that has not yet been dulled by reality. Sometimes, these qualities come together and leave me thinking to myself of times long gone and stories all but forgotten. Lately, I've been thinking of the paradoxical enormity and insignificance of my presence here.
Here I stand, in modern-day Iraq. I have come further to fight here than any soldier of any nation before me, and I fight with weapons and equipment that lay pale the panoply of earlier armies. I represent the pinnacle of force projection and decisive battle, and yet I fight here, where unnumbered young warriors have fought and died through time stretching out of memory. It was on this land that the Babylonian empire first arose out of those first Sumerian agrarians, only to be conquered by the Assyrians, and still later throw off the foreign chains. It was here that Alexander's phalanxes swept by, trailing Hellenism in their wake. Rome, and later the Byzantines, drew their border with Persia at the Euphrates River. At that river was where the Sassanids made their stand against the spread of Arabian Islam. The Khans of the Mongols laid this land waste, sometimes killing only to build their towers of bones higher.
This region is steeped in history. We walk on it; we breath it in. Eons of history surround us, infiltrate us, and turn to dust beneath our feet. The ashes of countless cultures, civilizations, and rulers dreams lie under the earth. With each breath, I inhale a few molecules of the dying gasp of Cyrus II, the Persian "Constantine of the East". In the howling wind I can almost hear the cries of a countless multitude dying on killing grounds that bridge across the ages. The same wind carries the red dust that might yet hold a few drops of blood from the battle at Carrhae- the first, crushing defeat for Rome's red blooded legions. Under my heel, a speck grinds into dust: the last grain of sand that remains of the Hanging Gardens at Babylon that are now known only in legend. Some of the world's oldest religions tell us that somewhere in this ancient Cradle of life, God himself breathed on this dust, and it became man, the father of us all. Whatever path we take here, we walk on history.
I walk softly, for I tread on the ghosts of years.
Tightwad vs. Spendthrift
This is an interesting questionnaire on spending habits, being done at Carnegie-Mellon University: http://www.createsurvey.com/c/45945-da7dux/
It was cited on a new blog being done by NY Times writer John Tierney at
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/
It was cited on a new blog being done by NY Times writer John Tierney at
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/
The Derb on Writing
at the Corner on National Review online, a great comment noted by John Derbyshire--
Attention All Bloggers [John Derbyshire]
Is The Shooting Party the best movie ever made in the entire history of the cosmos? I blow hot and cold. Perrhaps it's only No. 2 or 3. Anyway, watched it again last night. Noted the following dialogue. Sir Randolph Nettleby (James Mason) is in his study, sitting at his desk writing. His little granddaughter Violet is playing on the rug.
VIOLET: You're always writing in that big brown book, Grandpapa.
SIR RANDOLPH: It's my game book. Well, part of it's my game book, part of it's my thoughts. It's not a bad idea to get into the habit of writing down one's thoughts. Saves one having to bother other people with them.
[Derb] I leave that as a winter's day thought for bloggers everywhere to reflect upon.
Attention All Bloggers [John Derbyshire]
Is The Shooting Party the best movie ever made in the entire history of the cosmos? I blow hot and cold. Perrhaps it's only No. 2 or 3. Anyway, watched it again last night. Noted the following dialogue. Sir Randolph Nettleby (James Mason) is in his study, sitting at his desk writing. His little granddaughter Violet is playing on the rug.
VIOLET: You're always writing in that big brown book, Grandpapa.
SIR RANDOLPH: It's my game book. Well, part of it's my game book, part of it's my thoughts. It's not a bad idea to get into the habit of writing down one's thoughts. Saves one having to bother other people with them.
[Derb] I leave that as a winter's day thought for bloggers everywhere to reflect upon.
A quote worth pondering from Michael Chrichton--
Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told--and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.
-Michael Crichton, The Lost World
From Ezekiel's World, http://pjammer.livejournal.com/172181.html
Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told--and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.
-Michael Crichton, The Lost World
From Ezekiel's World, http://pjammer.livejournal.com/172181.html
"The fault, my dear Blubber, is in our guts..."
An amazing discussion by Dafydd ap Hugh at http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2007/01/a_loaf_of_bread.html , which cites an AP report on medical research indicating that weight levels in humans may well be linked to the types of bacteria residing in our digestive tracts. As Dafydd notes, this could explain why some people eat huge amounts of food, and don't gain weight, while others seem to eat much less, and still pack on the pounds.
The Slither of Big Lizards
One of my favorite blogs is http://biglizards.net/blog/
which is by Dafydd ap Hugh and his wife Sachi. They have outstandingly thoughtful comments on many subjects, including current politics. Today's post is a great discussion of push polling, demonstrating how to construct a poll to produce the desired anti-Bush results: http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2007/01/polling_dos_and.html#trackbacks
I check in with the Big Lizards daily, more or less. Slither on!!
which is by Dafydd ap Hugh and his wife Sachi. They have outstandingly thoughtful comments on many subjects, including current politics. Today's post is a great discussion of push polling, demonstrating how to construct a poll to produce the desired anti-Bush results: http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2007/01/polling_dos_and.html#trackbacks
I check in with the Big Lizards daily, more or less. Slither on!!
Wet Weekend
The rain poured mostly non-stop over the weekend in Southern Ohio, but the hikers of Cincioutdoors and Tri-State Hiking pressed on regardless. Eight people turned out Saturday for a 4.5 mile loop at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, and 7 [Six humans and Cindy the greyhound] showed up Sunday morning at Glenwood Gardens for an easy 2.8 mile stroll. Today, only I and TE appeared at the Little Miami Bike Trail in Loveland. The rain was fairly intense, but we still managed a respectable 8.4 miles in 2 1/2 hours, from Nisbet Park in Loveland to Fosters and back. The Little Miami River and its tributaries were impressive, way over their banks, big trees rolling downstream, and roaring waters. We were fairly soaked, but the Buzz Coffeehouse in Loveland was a good place to warm up afterwards.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Lord Chesterfield's Maxims
From 1774, observations on getting along in society from Lord Chesterfield-- as quoted in
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2007/01/this_wednesday__1.html
This Wednesday: Tips for pleasing in society, from 1774.
Lord Chesterfield, a British statesman and man of letters, was very preoccupied with worldly success. In his Letters, he bombards his son with advice about how to succeed in society.
Samuel Johnson remarked that these letters “teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.” Not exactly a rousing endorsement.
Nevertheless, I think Lord Chesterfield has some provocative insights. Here’s an assortment of his advice:
“Pleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in it yourself.”
“The very same thing may become either pleasing or offensive, by the manner of saying or doing it.”
“Even where you are sure, seem rather doubtful; represent, but do not pronounce, and if you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.”
“You will easily discover every man’s prevailing vanity, by observing his favourite topic of conversation; for every man talks most of what he has most a mind to be thought to excel in.”
“The sure way to excel in any thing, is only to have a close and undissipated attention while you are about it; and then you need not be half the time that otherwise you must…"
“Dress is a very foolish thing, and yet it is a very foolish thing for a man not to be well dressed.”
“Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
I have to quibble with Chesterfield on that last observation. I’ve taken up the motto, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” There’s merit to both approaches.
• Email to a friend •
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2007/01/this_wednesday__1.html
This Wednesday: Tips for pleasing in society, from 1774.
Lord Chesterfield, a British statesman and man of letters, was very preoccupied with worldly success. In his Letters, he bombards his son with advice about how to succeed in society.
Samuel Johnson remarked that these letters “teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.” Not exactly a rousing endorsement.
Nevertheless, I think Lord Chesterfield has some provocative insights. Here’s an assortment of his advice:
“Pleasing in company is the only way of being pleased in it yourself.”
“The very same thing may become either pleasing or offensive, by the manner of saying or doing it.”
“Even where you are sure, seem rather doubtful; represent, but do not pronounce, and if you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.”
“You will easily discover every man’s prevailing vanity, by observing his favourite topic of conversation; for every man talks most of what he has most a mind to be thought to excel in.”
“The sure way to excel in any thing, is only to have a close and undissipated attention while you are about it; and then you need not be half the time that otherwise you must…"
“Dress is a very foolish thing, and yet it is a very foolish thing for a man not to be well dressed.”
“Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
I have to quibble with Chesterfield on that last observation. I’ve taken up the motto, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” There’s merit to both approaches.
• Email to a friend •
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Birthday of Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton had one of the most interesting biographies of any of the Founding Fathers. An illegitimate child, born in the West Indies, a true outsider, and a brilliant mind.
Some excellent comments by Sheila O'Malley at her blog--http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/007540.html
As Sheila quotes,
Hamilton:
Take mankind in general, they are vicious - their passions may be operated upon. Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions. There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives [but] one great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest. Wise government should avail itself of those passions, to make them subservient to the public good.
Hamilton's also the one who said, at the end of his 6-hour long speech at the Constitutional Convention: "Decision is true wisdom." This is part of the reason why he is one of the most important members of that founding generation - but it is also the reason that people found him terrifying. Abigail Adams warned her husband, "That man is another Bonaparte."
There is a contradictory dynamic within him that I find so compelling.
Sheila's blog is outstanding, worth reading in detail.
Some excellent comments by Sheila O'Malley at her blog--http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/007540.html
As Sheila quotes,
Hamilton:
Take mankind in general, they are vicious - their passions may be operated upon. Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions. There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives [but] one great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest. Wise government should avail itself of those passions, to make them subservient to the public good.
Hamilton's also the one who said, at the end of his 6-hour long speech at the Constitutional Convention: "Decision is true wisdom." This is part of the reason why he is one of the most important members of that founding generation - but it is also the reason that people found him terrifying. Abigail Adams warned her husband, "That man is another Bonaparte."
There is a contradictory dynamic within him that I find so compelling.
Sheila's blog is outstanding, worth reading in detail.
This is how to do it
This is a great post from Jules Crittenden, at his excellent blog,
http://julescrittenden.blogspot.com/2007/01/correct-degree-of-aggression.html
Crittenden has some superb quotes from then-Capt. Wolford, a tank commpany commander--
"Once the fighting starts, if there are people in the streets, in civilian or military clothing, they are the enemy and they will die," Wolford said, noting that other units had encountered Iraqi fighters in civilian clothes and civilian vehicles.
"There are some towers and high ground. We will shoot all towers," Wolford said. "They have used car bombs and suicide bombers ... If they don’t stop, fire a burst of .762. If they turn around, then they were probably going to the store to get some Saddam beer. If they don’t stop, kill them."
"The brigade commander doesn’t say he wants the enemy captured. He doesn’t say he wants the enemy on the run. He says he wants the enemy destroyed. So kill him."
Turning to the map, Wolford pointed out the road that had been dubbed "Route Bruins."
"My intent is to quickly seize this crossing point at the canal, start a fight with the enemy and fucking kill him," Wolford said. "We’re not going to be jackshitting around. We’re going to be quick."
http://julescrittenden.blogspot.com/2007/01/correct-degree-of-aggression.html
Crittenden has some superb quotes from then-Capt. Wolford, a tank commpany commander--
"Once the fighting starts, if there are people in the streets, in civilian or military clothing, they are the enemy and they will die," Wolford said, noting that other units had encountered Iraqi fighters in civilian clothes and civilian vehicles.
"There are some towers and high ground. We will shoot all towers," Wolford said. "They have used car bombs and suicide bombers ... If they don’t stop, fire a burst of .762. If they turn around, then they were probably going to the store to get some Saddam beer. If they don’t stop, kill them."
"The brigade commander doesn’t say he wants the enemy captured. He doesn’t say he wants the enemy on the run. He says he wants the enemy destroyed. So kill him."
Turning to the map, Wolford pointed out the road that had been dubbed "Route Bruins."
"My intent is to quickly seize this crossing point at the canal, start a fight with the enemy and fucking kill him," Wolford said. "We’re not going to be jackshitting around. We’re going to be quick."
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A welcome thumping for the Islamists in Somalia
Great news from Somalia, with reports that Ethiopian and Somali forces have routed the Islamic Courts Union forces, with some air support from US AC-130 gunships.
A fascinating video from an AC-130 in action in Afghanistan, http://jje3accounting.com/images/video/AC130_Gunship.wmv
from www.pajamasmedia.com--
“A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia…. The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second [sic], and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.
The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States. ” (CBS News)
“Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was the target, a top al Qaeda leader in Africa. Responsible for the embassy bombings in ‘98.” (Taylor Marsh)
A fascinating video from an AC-130 in action in Afghanistan, http://jje3accounting.com/images/video/AC130_Gunship.wmv
from www.pajamasmedia.com--
“A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia…. The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second [sic], and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.
The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States. ” (CBS News)
“Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was the target, a top al Qaeda leader in Africa. Responsible for the embassy bombings in ‘98.” (Taylor Marsh)
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
More Churchill Wit
cited in a good blog, http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/
a couple of great Churchillian notes--
Just fun today: two examples of Churchill’s wit.
From Steven F. Hayward’s Churchill on Leadership: Executive Success in the Face of Adversity:
Concerning Arthur Balfour [,Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905,] Churchill remarked: “If you wanted nothing done, Arthur Balfour was the best man for the task. There was no one equal to him.” …
[When Clement Attlee was Prime Minister and Churchill was Leader of the Opposition, Attlee was preparing for a trip abroad. Churchill said that] “no doubt [Attlee's] afraid the when the mouse is away the cats would play.” (pg. 5)
a couple of great Churchillian notes--
Just fun today: two examples of Churchill’s wit.
From Steven F. Hayward’s Churchill on Leadership: Executive Success in the Face of Adversity:
Concerning Arthur Balfour [,Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905,] Churchill remarked: “If you wanted nothing done, Arthur Balfour was the best man for the task. There was no one equal to him.” …
[When Clement Attlee was Prime Minister and Churchill was Leader of the Opposition, Attlee was preparing for a trip abroad. Churchill said that] “no doubt [Attlee's] afraid the when the mouse is away the cats would play.” (pg. 5)
Bashing the French?? Mais Oui!
I can't resist posting these,
from the incomparable Kim DuToit at http://theothersideofkim.com/
Ten Great Moments in French History
1. 770 AD: Charlemagne marries (bigamously) the 13-year old Hildegard of Swabia, thereby setting the standard for French sexual behavior for future generations.
2. 1756: Mayonnaise is invented in the kitchens of the Duc de Richelieu. The chef’s name was not Hellman.
3. 1790: Metric system devised, for people unable to count past the number of fingers on their hands. The metre was redefined in 1960, and again in 1983. Thus, something “1-metre long” made in 1955 will have different dimensions to the same item made in 1965, and 1985.
4. 1792: The guillotine is first used, on a highwayman. Politicians follow soon afterwards.
5. 1862: Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is first published, after 17 years of writing.
6. 1871: France surrenders to Germany. (Repeat performance occurs in 1940.)
7. 1886: Paul Vieille invents smokeless gunpowder. One hundred years later, Simone de Beauvoir dies, not from gunfire.
8. 1893: Guy de Maupassant dies of syphilis at age 43. His publicist calls it “bad writer’s cramp”.
9. 1943: Catherine Deneuve is born. All men born within ten years before and ten years after are grateful.
10. 1985: The Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) sinks Greenpeace’s ship, the Rainbow Warrior, at the direct authorization of President Mitterrand. Since then, the French government has done nothing worthwhile*.
*Factoid: One of the French officers involved in the sabotage was Lt. Gerard Royal - brother of current Socialist politician and presidential hopeful Ségolène Royal. Ségolène Royal was a ”chargée de mission” (special adviser) to Mitterrand in 1985.
from the incomparable Kim DuToit at http://theothersideofkim.com/
Ten Great Moments in French History
1. 770 AD: Charlemagne marries (bigamously) the 13-year old Hildegard of Swabia, thereby setting the standard for French sexual behavior for future generations.
2. 1756: Mayonnaise is invented in the kitchens of the Duc de Richelieu. The chef’s name was not Hellman.
3. 1790: Metric system devised, for people unable to count past the number of fingers on their hands. The metre was redefined in 1960, and again in 1983. Thus, something “1-metre long” made in 1955 will have different dimensions to the same item made in 1965, and 1985.
4. 1792: The guillotine is first used, on a highwayman. Politicians follow soon afterwards.
5. 1862: Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is first published, after 17 years of writing.
6. 1871: France surrenders to Germany. (Repeat performance occurs in 1940.)
7. 1886: Paul Vieille invents smokeless gunpowder. One hundred years later, Simone de Beauvoir dies, not from gunfire.
8. 1893: Guy de Maupassant dies of syphilis at age 43. His publicist calls it “bad writer’s cramp”.
9. 1943: Catherine Deneuve is born. All men born within ten years before and ten years after are grateful.
10. 1985: The Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) sinks Greenpeace’s ship, the Rainbow Warrior, at the direct authorization of President Mitterrand. Since then, the French government has done nothing worthwhile*.
*Factoid: One of the French officers involved in the sabotage was Lt. Gerard Royal - brother of current Socialist politician and presidential hopeful Ségolène Royal. Ségolène Royal was a ”chargée de mission” (special adviser) to Mitterrand in 1985.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Update-- URL for Kersten column
In the previous post, I blundered and failed to put in the URL for the column itself.
It is
http://www.startribune.com/191/story/921368.html
It is
http://www.startribune.com/191/story/921368.html
Only Words? Hardly!
Katherine Kersten has an excellent column in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune discussing the loss of familiarity with the great literature of our English language. Example--
For my money, nobody dissed 'em better than William Shakespeare. The unparalleled master of the English tongue may have lived 400 years ago, but he made name-calling an art. Take the words he put in Prince Henry's mouth in "Henry IV, Part 1": "Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch!"
Along the same lines, a friend recently emailed me the following neologisms, many are quite good--
--The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any
word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and
supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners. Read them carefully. Each is an
artificial word with only one letter altered to form a real word.
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your
money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from
penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the
near future.
4. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially
impotent for an indefinite period.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't
get it.
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes,
right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
11. Decafalon: The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only
things that are good for you.
12. Glibido: All talk and no action.
13. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at
you rapidly.
14. Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally
walked through a spider web.
15. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at
three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
16. Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're
eating.
And the pick of the lot:
17. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
For my money, nobody dissed 'em better than William Shakespeare. The unparalleled master of the English tongue may have lived 400 years ago, but he made name-calling an art. Take the words he put in Prince Henry's mouth in "Henry IV, Part 1": "Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch!"
Along the same lines, a friend recently emailed me the following neologisms, many are quite good--
--The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any
word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and
supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners. Read them carefully. Each is an
artificial word with only one letter altered to form a real word.
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your
money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from
penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the
near future.
4. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially
impotent for an indefinite period.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't
get it.
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes,
right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
11. Decafalon: The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only
things that are good for you.
12. Glibido: All talk and no action.
13. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at
you rapidly.
14. Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally
walked through a spider web.
15. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at
three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
16. Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're
eating.
And the pick of the lot:
17. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
Self Deception
I found an excellent essay by Arnold Kling at TCS Daily. The URL is http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=010407A
Kling discusses the common human trait of selectively finding evidence which supports one's views, and avoiding contrary evidence--
I am going to suggest that democratic politics is a very poor information-processing mechanism. The great mass of people form their political beliefs with little regard for facts or logic. However, the elites also have a strategy for avoiding truth. Elites form their political beliefs dogmatically, using their cleverness to organize facts to fit preconceived prejudices. The masses' strategy for avoiding truth is to make a low investment in understanding; the elites' strategy is to make a large investment in selectively choosing which facts and arguments to emphasize or ignore.
There is an excellent follow-up essay by Gagdad Bob athttp://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2007/01/truth-and-how-to-avoid-it.html#links
Kling discusses the common human trait of selectively finding evidence which supports one's views, and avoiding contrary evidence--
I am going to suggest that democratic politics is a very poor information-processing mechanism. The great mass of people form their political beliefs with little regard for facts or logic. However, the elites also have a strategy for avoiding truth. Elites form their political beliefs dogmatically, using their cleverness to organize facts to fit preconceived prejudices. The masses' strategy for avoiding truth is to make a low investment in understanding; the elites' strategy is to make a large investment in selectively choosing which facts and arguments to emphasize or ignore.
There is an excellent follow-up essay by Gagdad Bob athttp://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2007/01/truth-and-how-to-avoid-it.html#links
On the Trails
Two good hikes this past weekend. Saturday, 8 of us headed out for the Clifton Gorge area by Yellow Springs, Ohio. We did 6.7 miles through John Bryan State Park and Clifton Gorge Natural Area. The Little Miami River was running very high due to the recent heavy rains. Temps were in the upper 40s and low 50s, with cloudy skies. After a good leg stretch, most of us headed for the fabled Young's Dairy, for an ice cream extravaganza [except D, who opted for chili and fries].
Sunday, 6 of us went on the trails at Shawnee Lookout County Park, overlooking the Ohio River and the Great Miami River. An early cloudy start soon gave way to pouring rains, so we cut our trip short at 3.7 miles or so. Again, the trail then led to the Cleves Drive-In, a pretty good place.
Sunday, 6 of us went on the trails at Shawnee Lookout County Park, overlooking the Ohio River and the Great Miami River. An early cloudy start soon gave way to pouring rains, so we cut our trip short at 3.7 miles or so. Again, the trail then led to the Cleves Drive-In, a pretty good place.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Great Aurora Photo
A superb photo of the Aurora by a crew member on the Space Shuttle, from Dec. 20 206--
http://tinyurl.com/y8g76e
Seeing the Aurora fairly often was a great thing about living in Alaska.
http://tinyurl.com/y8g76e
Seeing the Aurora fairly often was a great thing about living in Alaska.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Times of London, on notable books
An interesting set of notable books, chosen by British critic Peter Kemp, from the
Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-2465349,00.html
All of these books look worth reading, but the most intense one appears to be the book discovered by the daughter of Irene Nemirovsky-- Kemp describes it thus--
The year’s great literary discovery. More than half a century after Irène Némirovsky, a Russian-born novelist deported from France under the race laws, died in Auschwitz, one of her daughters opened a leather notebook she had left behind, and found an unfinished novel. While its later parts never got beyond intensely fascinating notes, the first two sections (essentially, free-standing novellas) are masterpieces. One depicts the fall of Paris in 1940; the other, the occupation of a village deep in the French countryside. Riveting biographical material included in this book shows the night- mare conditions in which these beautifully subtle, unillusioned and generous-spirited works were composed. Written not just about a terrible cataclysm but from the heart of it, combining documentary fascination with fictional power, Suite Française is a triumph of both human indomitability and literary genius.
Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-2465349,00.html
All of these books look worth reading, but the most intense one appears to be the book discovered by the daughter of Irene Nemirovsky-- Kemp describes it thus--
The year’s great literary discovery. More than half a century after Irène Némirovsky, a Russian-born novelist deported from France under the race laws, died in Auschwitz, one of her daughters opened a leather notebook she had left behind, and found an unfinished novel. While its later parts never got beyond intensely fascinating notes, the first two sections (essentially, free-standing novellas) are masterpieces. One depicts the fall of Paris in 1940; the other, the occupation of a village deep in the French countryside. Riveting biographical material included in this book shows the night- mare conditions in which these beautifully subtle, unillusioned and generous-spirited works were composed. Written not just about a terrible cataclysm but from the heart of it, combining documentary fascination with fictional power, Suite Française is a triumph of both human indomitability and literary genius.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Tolkien, WWI, and the Lord of the Rings
I found this fascinating post at a blog site which discussed the influence of his WWI service in the trenches on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
this is the permalink, http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/wordpress/?p=196
this is the permalink, http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/wordpress/?p=196
Redneck Therapy
On a lighter note,
Bubba went to a psychiatrist.
"I've got problems. Every time I go to bed I think there's somebody under
it. I'm scared. I think I'm going crazy."
"Just put yourself in my hands for one year," said the shrink. "Come talk
to me three times a week, and we should be able to get rid of those
fears."
"How much do you charge?"
"Eighty dollars per visit, replied the doctor."
"I'll sleep on it," said Bubba.
Six months later the doctor met Bubba on the street. "Why didn't you
ever come to see me about those fears you were having?" asked the psychiatrist.
"Well eighty bucks a visit three times a week for a year is an awful lot
ofmoney! A bartender cured me for $10. I was so happy to have saved all
thatmoney that I went and bought me a new pickup!"
"Is that so! And how, may I ask, did a bartender cure you?"
"He told me to cut the legs off the bed! - Ain't nobody under there
now!!!"
Bubba went to a psychiatrist.
"I've got problems. Every time I go to bed I think there's somebody under
it. I'm scared. I think I'm going crazy."
"Just put yourself in my hands for one year," said the shrink. "Come talk
to me three times a week, and we should be able to get rid of those
fears."
"How much do you charge?"
"Eighty dollars per visit, replied the doctor."
"I'll sleep on it," said Bubba.
Six months later the doctor met Bubba on the street. "Why didn't you
ever come to see me about those fears you were having?" asked the psychiatrist.
"Well eighty bucks a visit three times a week for a year is an awful lot
ofmoney! A bartender cured me for $10. I was so happy to have saved all
thatmoney that I went and bought me a new pickup!"
"Is that so! And how, may I ask, did a bartender cure you?"
"He told me to cut the legs off the bed! - Ain't nobody under there
now!!!"
One Small Step for the Car, One Giant Leap for Mankind
I was hoping this would happen soon. A company is offering a wireless WiFi service that can operate from vehicles on 95% of American roads. http://tinyurl.com/yex3yy
The link goes to an online story at businessweek.com. this is really neat news. My travel pal, R, and I have often longed for internet access while on on a road trip, to look up info on places to stay, interesting sites coming up on the trail, etc. Soon the permanent linkage will be effective!
Wired magazine online has a similar inspiring story, about a 700 square mile hot spot centered around Hermiston, Oregon, in the high desert in eastern Oregon. The article mentions that the area is so sparsely populated that there were no political objections to the establishment of the WiFi system, which was set up by Fred Ziari, an immigrant from a small Iranian town on the Caspian Sea. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,69234-0.html
Ziari notes that the WiFi service is free to the individual user, but that it is supported by money paid by businesses and government agencies which need the wireless access. The same could be done in any city, but obstruction from existing ISPs and cell phone companies prevents it in most places.
The link goes to an online story at businessweek.com. this is really neat news. My travel pal, R, and I have often longed for internet access while on on a road trip, to look up info on places to stay, interesting sites coming up on the trail, etc. Soon the permanent linkage will be effective!
Wired magazine online has a similar inspiring story, about a 700 square mile hot spot centered around Hermiston, Oregon, in the high desert in eastern Oregon. The article mentions that the area is so sparsely populated that there were no political objections to the establishment of the WiFi system, which was set up by Fred Ziari, an immigrant from a small Iranian town on the Caspian Sea. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,69234-0.html
Ziari notes that the WiFi service is free to the individual user, but that it is supported by money paid by businesses and government agencies which need the wireless access. The same could be done in any city, but obstruction from existing ISPs and cell phone companies prevents it in most places.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Peter Wood on the New Anger
I ran across a very interesting review of a new book by Peter Wood, done by Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online, http://books.nationalreview.com/review/?q=NDdmY2FlYjZkOTg3YjQ5Njg2YTQ2MzViZDkzYzdiODg=
Kurtz discusses the "Old Anger," generally restrained, as compared to the "New Anger," often observable in current political discussions, especially in the blogosphere.
What exactly is New Anger? Let’s find out by first having a look at Old Anger. Before we lionized all those angry anti-heroes — from Jack Nicholson in the movies, to John McEnroe on the tennis court — Americans admired the strong silent type: slow to boil, reluctant to fight unless sorely provoked, and disinclined to show anger even then. Gary Cooper in Sargent York comes to mind. Old Anger was held in check by ideals of self-mastery and reserve. As Wood puts it, “Dignity, manliness, and wisdom called for self-control and coolness of temper.”
“For the first time in our political history, declaring absolute hatred for one’s opponent has become a sign not of sad excess but of good character.” That, Wood says, is why our political anger is now New Anger. For Wood (a conservative who’s written for National Review Online) New Anger is a phenomenon of both Left and Right. Yet Wood eschews false symmetry, and one of the fascinations of A Bee in the Mouth is following Wood’s attempt to make sense of New Anger’s long, slow, and decidedly incomplete seepage from the Left to the Right side of the political spectrum.
Kurtz discusses the "Old Anger," generally restrained, as compared to the "New Anger," often observable in current political discussions, especially in the blogosphere.
What exactly is New Anger? Let’s find out by first having a look at Old Anger. Before we lionized all those angry anti-heroes — from Jack Nicholson in the movies, to John McEnroe on the tennis court — Americans admired the strong silent type: slow to boil, reluctant to fight unless sorely provoked, and disinclined to show anger even then. Gary Cooper in Sargent York comes to mind. Old Anger was held in check by ideals of self-mastery and reserve. As Wood puts it, “Dignity, manliness, and wisdom called for self-control and coolness of temper.”
“For the first time in our political history, declaring absolute hatred for one’s opponent has become a sign not of sad excess but of good character.” That, Wood says, is why our political anger is now New Anger. For Wood (a conservative who’s written for National Review Online) New Anger is a phenomenon of both Left and Right. Yet Wood eschews false symmetry, and one of the fascinations of A Bee in the Mouth is following Wood’s attempt to make sense of New Anger’s long, slow, and decidedly incomplete seepage from the Left to the Right side of the political spectrum.
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