The flight of the curiales from Wisconsin and Indiana to the welcoming arms of Illinois is such transparent, temporizing, time-wasting nonsense that a large hole should be dug for all the legislators - ALL- from both states, plus the governors. Then they should all -ALL- do the decent thing. If they can persuade the same officials in Illinois to join them, I'm sure the hole can be enlarged to fit.
To do what has to be done, these cowards, of every political persuasion, are terrified of appearing the bad guy and risking their pathetic careers. So the Donks flee the state, ostensibly to block legislation, while attempting to make the Trunks look bad and do a Pontius Pilate for their constituencies. The Trunks threaten draconian executive action to terminate thousands of state employees, while attempting to make the Donks look bad and do a Pontius Pilate for their constituencies.
As I have the habit of doing, I'll let others speak for me:
"There are three principles in this Constitution, and they are very precious. They are compromise, compromise, and compromise."
-James Madison, Father of the U.S. Constitution
On a more global level, we resort to the poets:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
- William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
"And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."
- Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach
"There are four types of homicide: felonious, accidental, justifiable, and praiseworthy."
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Understanding what is commemorated
Today is -I think- the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden by the Allies in February 1945. Thanks to the historicism and just ahistorical opinions of those who were never lived through that awful struggle. I'll just commemorate it by posting the best quote I've ever read on the subject:
"My mother was a child in occupied Belgium. Unfortunately, her town had a factory that the Germans converted to make airplane parts, so the bombers came. The American bombardier mistook the elementary school for the factory. Officials laid the children's bodies out on the playground so their parents could come claim them.
I've told people this story a hundred times, but on a visit to Scotland 10 years ago, me and a friend of mine would go to a pub in Ullapool regularly, called "The Ferry Boat Inn". It was one of the last stops when you were going to the most Northern point of the English Isles. After Ullapool, there was nothing but lochs, moors and rocks.
One evening, an older man came to sit next to us on a barstool. We started talking and I noticed he had a pin on his vest that I couldn't recognise immediately. When asked, he calmly said "Oh, I was in Belgium you see. Lost a lot of friends then ... ."
Offering him a drink, which he refused, I told him "we had a lot to thank him for", while my friend opposite of me nodded (he was a history buff, with enough brains to know what sacrifices the fights around Ieper, or Ypres, had taken and what they had meant for our country and others).
Until today, I clearly see in front of me the blink in this veteran's eye, from the tears that were starting to well up, while he briefly stared in my face. He got up from the stool, saying "Thank you Sir, thank you very much" silently, almost whispering, opened the door and went.
As I read that again, tears well up in my eyes. People here still run the risk of getting killed by bombs, every winter there's a few that rise out of the fields, every summer there's one that rises up from the beaches, but the first guy that would complain about them Rednecks leaving bombs behind would be considered a nut. My grandfather spent time in Bergen-Belsen (be careful if you have a sensitive stomach) and escaped, while his then-girlfriend tried to hide from V1's and V2's. My best friend's grandfather spent time in a Norwegian concentration camp, escaped, and stayed hidden in the snow for months, thanks to a caring Norwegian family.
The city I currently live in was bombed and shot to pieces in WWII, it was phosphorized in WWI. At least two of my grandparents were "White Lions", a well-known resistance brigade. If I tell you that only two of them are still alive, then do you have a clue why I say "at least"?
Each and every one of my 30-something friends knows at least one of their family member's stories about " fourty - fourtyfive " ... . We also take care to try and learn about Dresden, and we know the images of the mothers and children, hiding in tunnels, burned alive because of the goo that came out of some bombs, or suffocated because the explosions drew the air out of the tunnels.
Every city, every town, every village, every major street, every god damned cul de sac in this country has at least one statue or plaque commemorating men and women who gave their lives, and we owe them our past, present, and future.
Now, if you know of a better way, that would have been more suitable to end the world's misery in those black 40's, then I suggest you go and tell those people, because whether they were up in the air or beneath on the ground, they surely didn't do it just for the fun of "pointlessly slaughtering kids".
My hat goes off to all who served. We are forever in debt."
"My mother was a child in occupied Belgium. Unfortunately, her town had a factory that the Germans converted to make airplane parts, so the bombers came. The American bombardier mistook the elementary school for the factory. Officials laid the children's bodies out on the playground so their parents could come claim them.
I've told people this story a hundred times, but on a visit to Scotland 10 years ago, me and a friend of mine would go to a pub in Ullapool regularly, called "The Ferry Boat Inn". It was one of the last stops when you were going to the most Northern point of the English Isles. After Ullapool, there was nothing but lochs, moors and rocks.
One evening, an older man came to sit next to us on a barstool. We started talking and I noticed he had a pin on his vest that I couldn't recognise immediately. When asked, he calmly said "Oh, I was in Belgium you see. Lost a lot of friends then ... ."
Offering him a drink, which he refused, I told him "we had a lot to thank him for", while my friend opposite of me nodded (he was a history buff, with enough brains to know what sacrifices the fights around Ieper, or Ypres, had taken and what they had meant for our country and others).
Until today, I clearly see in front of me the blink in this veteran's eye, from the tears that were starting to well up, while he briefly stared in my face. He got up from the stool, saying "Thank you Sir, thank you very much" silently, almost whispering, opened the door and went.
As I read that again, tears well up in my eyes. People here still run the risk of getting killed by bombs, every winter there's a few that rise out of the fields, every summer there's one that rises up from the beaches, but the first guy that would complain about them Rednecks leaving bombs behind would be considered a nut. My grandfather spent time in Bergen-Belsen (be careful if you have a sensitive stomach) and escaped, while his then-girlfriend tried to hide from V1's and V2's. My best friend's grandfather spent time in a Norwegian concentration camp, escaped, and stayed hidden in the snow for months, thanks to a caring Norwegian family.
The city I currently live in was bombed and shot to pieces in WWII, it was phosphorized in WWI. At least two of my grandparents were "White Lions", a well-known resistance brigade. If I tell you that only two of them are still alive, then do you have a clue why I say "at least"?
Each and every one of my 30-something friends knows at least one of their family member's stories about " fourty - fourtyfive " ... . We also take care to try and learn about Dresden, and we know the images of the mothers and children, hiding in tunnels, burned alive because of the goo that came out of some bombs, or suffocated because the explosions drew the air out of the tunnels.
Every city, every town, every village, every major street, every god damned cul de sac in this country has at least one statue or plaque commemorating men and women who gave their lives, and we owe them our past, present, and future.
Now, if you know of a better way, that would have been more suitable to end the world's misery in those black 40's, then I suggest you go and tell those people, because whether they were up in the air or beneath on the ground, they surely didn't do it just for the fun of "pointlessly slaughtering kids".
My hat goes off to all who served. We are forever in debt."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
First Nanny
Now, the new, improved First Lady has suddenly emerged as full-blown First Nanny in "Partnering with" -never say "scolding"- the restaurant industry to cut down on the portions it serves. This is typical of the top-down unrealistic idealism that pervades certain circles of our society, and the audiences it garners, who believe that celebrity somehow equals authority. There' s not the slightest reason to believe that Michelle Obama is any better informed on this issue than the next person, and yet she receives instant credibility from the media.
In fact, there are many very good reasons why this proposal is going to fail. Restaurants serve large portions of food in this country because food is a relatively cheap part of overhead, and the portions justify the amount the restaurants must charge. Many people who don't want large portions simply get a doggie box and take what they don't eat as leftovers, which helps with their perceived value of the meal. And people who are still hungry will probably just eat more, regardless of the portions being served.
And, last, the timing of such an initiative is extremely poor. The country is in a recession, which has cut into restaurant revenues, and the proposal is to do something that may cut into them even more. Push this enough, and it could precipitate the ultimate disaster.....people might actually learn to cook for themselves.
In fact, there are many very good reasons why this proposal is going to fail. Restaurants serve large portions of food in this country because food is a relatively cheap part of overhead, and the portions justify the amount the restaurants must charge. Many people who don't want large portions simply get a doggie box and take what they don't eat as leftovers, which helps with their perceived value of the meal. And people who are still hungry will probably just eat more, regardless of the portions being served.
And, last, the timing of such an initiative is extremely poor. The country is in a recession, which has cut into restaurant revenues, and the proposal is to do something that may cut into them even more. Push this enough, and it could precipitate the ultimate disaster.....people might actually learn to cook for themselves.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
This is our relationship to news
And for the apropos comment o' the week, that I wish I had written:
"Kids, i remember when the media used to report news. news traveled slow, so you only got some basic facts about a thing at first and then later as stories were researched and collaborated, you the fine viewing or listening audience got a finer story.
Now, as soon as 'it' happens, it's a rock thrown into the e*versal stream of consciousness. What's happening with 'it' NOW? Were experts wrong about 'it?' What does Obama/Cameron/Beck say about it? Has 'it' shown any drunken skin at an awards show? To the Googles.
Instead of being the observer of the 5 blind men with the elephant, we've become 1 billion blind men with the elephant."
"Kids, i remember when the media used to report news. news traveled slow, so you only got some basic facts about a thing at first and then later as stories were researched and collaborated, you the fine viewing or listening audience got a finer story.
Now, as soon as 'it' happens, it's a rock thrown into the e*versal stream of consciousness. What's happening with 'it' NOW? Were experts wrong about 'it?' What does Obama/Cameron/Beck say about it? Has 'it' shown any drunken skin at an awards show? To the Googles.
Instead of being the observer of the 5 blind men with the elephant, we've become 1 billion blind men with the elephant."
Monday, December 6, 2010
The trouble with the Internet
"South Park did a decent job encapsulating a skeptics view of the Joseph Smith story, but in the main I would take Tacitus over South Park for historical accuracy, and South Park over Tacitus for poop jokes.
It's funny if you read The Annals (heh heh) of Tacitus that he's largely objective about events and other cultures, and saves all his mouth foaming for Christians. I guess Paul must have been as popular in Rome as he was with the Jerusalem church."
This is a quote taken from a rather popular Internet forum that acts as a sendup of dozens of contemporary news items. The first paragraph may be taken as strict opinion, and not subject to any meaningful comment.
The second paragraph is more interesting. The first sentence presents an opinion of Tacitus, a complete unknown to more one half of one percent of persons currently alive. It then states that Tactus is somehow historically accurate about "events and other cultures," and only irrational about Christians.
Well, someone reading this might then go and read a translation of Tacitus, or read some hideous scholarly article about Tacitus, but by and large that sentence will sit in their memory like some tiny, poisonous toad, unquestioned. In fact, Tacitus was a historian in the sense that what he said was accepted up into modern times as "historical," but some of what he says is factual, and some is just risible. In between, we have such things as his commentary on the Germans, who Tacitus chose to present as a moral model to contrast with the Rome of his own time, which he despised for its decadence and corruption.
The Germans were described as strong, simple, sturdy folk with good bedrock moral values and great integrity…in fact, superior in just about every way Tacitus could think of, except, of course, that they were barbarians.
This presentation of the Germanic tribes was taken out of its Taciturn context and was a standard reading in classrooms throughout Germany well into modern times. German youth were presented with an opinion (what was, in fact, simply whole cloth from some Roman who had never been near Germany or the Germans, except perhaps some he had run into in Rome) as if it were demonstrable historical fact.
Generations of German youth were persuaded to accept Tacitus' account as the basis for the superiority of the Germans and German culture, which was part of the foundation on which the Hohenzollern Empire built its theory that Germany was entitled to its "place in the sun," and on which the Nazis built their theories of race and world conquest.
So much for objectivity.
It's funny if you read The Annals (heh heh) of Tacitus that he's largely objective about events and other cultures, and saves all his mouth foaming for Christians. I guess Paul must have been as popular in Rome as he was with the Jerusalem church."
This is a quote taken from a rather popular Internet forum that acts as a sendup of dozens of contemporary news items. The first paragraph may be taken as strict opinion, and not subject to any meaningful comment.
The second paragraph is more interesting. The first sentence presents an opinion of Tacitus, a complete unknown to more one half of one percent of persons currently alive. It then states that Tactus is somehow historically accurate about "events and other cultures," and only irrational about Christians.
Well, someone reading this might then go and read a translation of Tacitus, or read some hideous scholarly article about Tacitus, but by and large that sentence will sit in their memory like some tiny, poisonous toad, unquestioned. In fact, Tacitus was a historian in the sense that what he said was accepted up into modern times as "historical," but some of what he says is factual, and some is just risible. In between, we have such things as his commentary on the Germans, who Tacitus chose to present as a moral model to contrast with the Rome of his own time, which he despised for its decadence and corruption.
The Germans were described as strong, simple, sturdy folk with good bedrock moral values and great integrity…in fact, superior in just about every way Tacitus could think of, except, of course, that they were barbarians.
This presentation of the Germanic tribes was taken out of its Taciturn context and was a standard reading in classrooms throughout Germany well into modern times. German youth were presented with an opinion (what was, in fact, simply whole cloth from some Roman who had never been near Germany or the Germans, except perhaps some he had run into in Rome) as if it were demonstrable historical fact.
Generations of German youth were persuaded to accept Tacitus' account as the basis for the superiority of the Germans and German culture, which was part of the foundation on which the Hohenzollern Empire built its theory that Germany was entitled to its "place in the sun," and on which the Nazis built their theories of race and world conquest.
So much for objectivity.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Science is in Intensive Care
Attempts to popularize Science and rationality as it was purveyed 30 or 40 years ago was invariably done by someone with credentials, and who approached it in a systematic manner (Martin Gardner comes to mind), and where what you learned invariably made sense in one's further readings*.
Now.....the best way to put it is that we are screwed. The popularization of Science has been taken over by movies, TV and the mass media, and there is so much that is twisted, rampantly Procrustean, or just plain wrong that there is literally nowhere to begin.
It may be that Mass Man never had any real chance of integrating Science with spirituality and a balanced view of the world, but we'll likely never find out.
*My citations here should in no way be construed as to apply any label of atheist or rationalist to me. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Now.....the best way to put it is that we are screwed. The popularization of Science has been taken over by movies, TV and the mass media, and there is so much that is twisted, rampantly Procrustean, or just plain wrong that there is literally nowhere to begin.
It may be that Mass Man never had any real chance of integrating Science with spirituality and a balanced view of the world, but we'll likely never find out.
*My citations here should in no way be construed as to apply any label of atheist or rationalist to me. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Taking the Pulse of the Patient
As far as the inability of the COOTWH* to govern, this Newsweek article by Mickey Kaus makes some excellent points. An appeal to common sense, and that leadership must actually involve some.......leading.
*Current Occupant Of The White House
*Current Occupant Of The White House
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