Archive for the ‘All’ Category
"Noble" Lies
This was an unexpected but perceptive analysis of neocon philosophy from my current reading:* Platonic elitism, unfortunately, is not merely a matter of ancient history; it is still drastically afflicting the human race even in the twenty-first century. The architects of American foreign policy who carried out the imperialist assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq are […]
It Takes Balls to Navigate
I'm reading a somewhat odd book at the moment: A People's History of Science.* As you might surmise, the book has an attitude and a rather overt agenda but, aside from occasional philosophical inconsistencies on the part of the author, it's more interesting than annoying so far. At any rate, the author was talking about […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Today's Huey Long
Many years ago the Nobel Prize winning novelist Sinclair Lewis warned us that when fascism came to America it would not arrive wearing a swaztika and marching a goose-step in jack boots. It would arrive looking like a good ole boy, speaking with a twang and smiling a friendly down home smile. He meant Huey […]
Walnut Ketchup & Friends
I quite enjoyed reading Cooking with Jane Austen (by Kirstin Olsen, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2005). Talking about food that had been mentioned by Ms. Austen in her writing, the book is about Regency period eating habits, food, and cooking. There were some recipes I wanted to make a note of, and I didn't really […]
Class Warfare, Bit by Bit
How odd. I just read a fascinating article by Blake Fleetwood ("A Nation of Frequent Flyer Junkies–25th Anniversary", The Huffington Post, 2 May 2006) about frequent-flyer awards programs. His thesis, which seems all correct and in order to me, is that these programs have created a hidden, two-class system in air travel, working to build […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Splenetics
Lies, Damned Lies, and White House Statistics
I've mentioned that I get occasional statements from Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) through the House Government Reform Committee, Minority Office. The following is the complete text of one that I got dated 28 April 2006. It's an interesting and rather petty example of the lengths to which the White House will go to manipulate facts […]
Interactive Toys
I can always count on my friend George to keep me up on the latest currents in popular culture. Just last week, for instance, we were talking in a casual way about recent events around the country when the conversation — somehow — naturally touched on sex toys, dildoes in particular. I wondered whether anyone […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, The Art of Conversation
Beard of the Week
This beard, a lovely specimen of the modern version of the van Dyke, reminds me of one of the more extraordinary beards I've ever seen. I saw this extraordinary beard only once some eight years ago. There were no bells that rang nor sirens that sounded; I was simply eating lunch at (of course!) my […]
Call It Macaroni
He [Parson Woodforde, writing in his diary c. 1820, in England] also, on more than one occasion, notes eating a somewhat exotic starch: "Maccaroni," which had been popularized in England by young men returning from the Italian portions of the Grand Tour. (Some of these aristocratic young men, in the mid-eighteenth cnetury, formed a club […]
In: All, Eureka!, Such Language!
On Turning 50
My birthday is 30 April. This year I turned 50. It struck me that this is, for some reason, a landmark age at which one is expected to reflect and offer wisdom. I don't, however, really have any wisdom to offer. We did manage to have a busy weekend, though. My preoccupation last week was […]
Today's Reactions
Don't you wonder how any working person in America is getting any work done? There are so many polls going on to show how low W's "approval rating" has sunk (down to 32% and dropping) that one imagines everyone spending all their time on the phone answering pollster's questions. (Love this title: "God's Foreign Policy […]
Spend Less, Get More
The U.S. Health system looks especially dysfunctional when you consider how much money we spend per capita on healthcare — $6,000 plus per year, twice as much as any other country — and how little we get for it. Canada spends $2,163 and boasts a life expectancy of 79.8 years, two and a half years […]
Feingold on Honesty
"They're not very good at running the country," [Russ Feingold] said of the GOP, "but they're brilliant at intimidating Democrats." As for his fellow Democratic contenders for the 2008 nomination, he suggested that many of them are still dominated by fear of a Rovian attack on their patriotism or national security credentials. Feingold argued that […]
Gore on Equality
Former Vice-President Al Gore was the keynote speaker at the Human Rights Campaign's Gala event on 25 March 2006 (apprarently in Los Angeles, CA). IN Los Angeles magazine excerpted parts of his speech, of which these are only a few paragraphs. As I was on the way here, I reflected on why is there so […]
Beard of the Week
This week we double our fun. The young gentlemen — unknown to me, alas — are showing off two styles of beard that are probably the most popular in current fashion: a van Dyke (on the left) and a trimmed, full beard (on the right). The van Dyke — a chin beard with mustache that […]
Prairie Ayatollahs
This is almost breathtaking, coming* as it does from a small town in my home state of Kansas, a state that's been having some high-visibility troubles lately with religious extremists on its State Board of Education: it's an editorial in The Hutchinson [KS] News called "The Prairie Ayatollahs". It begins this way: Members of the […]
Bunpeepegg
Some years ago, I was fascinated by the experiments that some people performed on Hostess Twinkies to determine their physical properties (conductivity, Young's modulus, stuff like that). Later on, that seemed to have inspired various fun stuff that could be done with marshmallow Peeps. Although I've never tried it myself, I'm fascinated by the idea […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Food Stuff
Condoms Please!
Laura Barcella wrote* about another irritating skirmish in the war against conservative extremists and their encroaching prudery — they just seem to keep getting sillier and pettier and ever-more exasperating, don't they? The war on safe sex in America just keeps heating up – to conservative Bushies' delight. As Suz Redfearn in the Washington Post […]
The Expectation of Disbelief
Egalia, writing at Tennessee Guerilla Women ("Duke Rape Scandal: Disbelieving Women"), offers "snippets" from a piece by Jesse Jackson about the Duke Rape Scandal ("Duke: Horror and Truth"). The Jackson piece is good, but here I'd rather emphasize Egalia's potently distilled introduction: Jesse Jackson weighs in with a calm and rational voice on race, sex, […]
Witchcraft in Georgia
From the Gwinnett [County, GA] Daily Post and the continuing saga of the woman who filed the complaint to have the Harry Potter books removed from school libraries because they promote witchcraft, come these tidbits*: “I want to protect children from evil, not fill their minds with it,” Mallory said. “The ‘Harry Potter’ books teach […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics