Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Banned Books
Today I learned that this is the week in which the American Library Association promotes "Banned Book Week"; at their website they conveniently provide a Suggested Activities and Action Guide, chock full of ideas. The same person# also pointed out the article "The American banned list reveals a society with seious hang-ups", by Ben MacIntyre […]
A Tragic Anti-Hero
When Avedon Carol wrote If I were a kinder person, I might actually feel sorry for the boy king – he tries so hard to be better than his dad, but he either repeats his errors accidentally or, in trying to out-do him, screws up royally by deliberately departing from the old man's decisions. she […]
Cowflops of Complacency
"We are not gray grains of oatmeal in a porridge of privilege," said Lloyd Bentsen in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. Just so. Also, we are not cowflops of complacency in a meadow of mediocrity. We are not quasars of querulousness in a galaxy of greed. We are not pousse-cafés of presumption in […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Prez Whiz
While doing some research this morning for a different essay, I read this assessment by Hendrik Hertzberg of a phrase in Bush's 2004 State of the Union Address: In last year’s State of the Union, Bush’s buzz phrase was “weapons of mass destruction,” the threat of which justified the impending conquest of Iraq. This year’s […]
In: All, Such Language!
Toe Monsters
The Republican movement against same-sex-marriage is purely a political tactic which feeds off the unjustified fears of easily influenced Americans, as we witnessed during last year's presidential campaign. Gay marriage does nothing to threaten you or your marriage, but the anti-gay right-wing wants to make you feel that way in order to consolidate their power. […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Repeal the Second Law?
There is one major achievement of ninteenth-century science — namely, thermodynamics — that neither had significant practical application of which the public were aware nor penetrated the imagination of HMS [= "l'homme moyen sensuel" i.e., "the average man"]. To HMS the subject seems abstruse, and irrelevant to daily life. Moreover, it lacks visual appeal. One […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Darwinism: Real vs. Social
Darwinism was more readily accepted by the Church in England than it was by the rigid Protestant sects of the New World, a pattern that is maintained by the almost complete absence of present-day controversy [NB: the author was writing this c. 1997] over evolution in Great Britain, in contrast to the continuing clashes between […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Centuries Old Truths
A month ago I wrote a posting ("Mystery and Creationism") in which I suggested that Christian fundamentalists who feel that their religion is imcompatible with science should take the advice of the late Pope and ascribe the incomprehensibility to mystery, since mystery is theologically acceptable. In that piece, I quoted someone quoting Pope John Paul […]
In: All, Such Language!, The Art of Conversation
Who Could Have Known?
You may remember the incident earlier this year when a small plane flew unexpectedly into DC airspace and our nation's capital responded to a terrorist red alert. I do, although I think it didn't come back into my mind until Frank Rich referred to "…the cinéma vérité of poor people screaming for their lives". Those […]
A Republican Motto
Today we were driving back from our Saturday shopping, and we talked for a moment about the latest bit of Bush League shenanigans, whatever it was — it's hard to keep track. However, I can say with certainty that it would have had something to do with bilking avearge Amerians in some way to line […]
Gleick's Newton
Yesterday I finished reading Isaac Newton, by James Gleick (Pantheon Books, New York, 2003), and I was quite impressed by it. Gleick managed to write in what I think of as a "high" tone, a slightly lofty rhetorical style, on the poetic side, and sustain it throughout the book. It's a difficult voice to maintain, […]
In: All, Books, Writing
Science as Nuisance
From the beginning, the Bush White House has treated science as a nuisance and scientists as an interest group—one that, because it lies outside the governing conservative coalition, need not be indulged. That's why the White House-sometimes in the service of political Christianism or ideological fetishism, more often in obeisance to baser interests like the […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Effective Governing?
Hurricane Katrina struck at the core of Bush's presidency by undermining the central assertion of his reelection campaign, that he was a strong and decisive leader who could keep the country safe in a crisis. To paraphrase the favorite question of an earlier Republican president, do y'all feel safer than you did 5 years ago? […]
Blurbing Over
I have not written any stories in over a year now. This is a bad thing. I managed to write one that I was reasonably pleased with last year for Ron Suresha's anthology of bi-men stories to be published next year, but that's been my total production ever since I fell out of my routines […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Writing
Rediscovering Lalla Ward
This was one of those hit-me-over-the-head-with-a-brick moments in tonight's reading, one that caused me to exclaim aloud at my computer monitor. I was reading a not-bad interview* with Richard Dawkins by Jim Holt; most of the discussion was about topics to be found in Dawkin's The Ancestor's Tale, which I happen to be reading and […]
Marriage Equality in MA on Firmer Ground
A mere year ago, when campaign passions were running high and the rhetoric was white hot, those of us who support marriage equality (and know that it will ultimately prevail) were a little taken aback by the ease with which the Massachusettes legislature passed an amendment to their state constitution that would have undone the […]
Ali Baba's Ass
In this week's Carnival of Education, hostess Ms. Frizzle tells of an e-mail contribution she received from one Graycie, an anecdote about Graycie's first ever day of teaching, which reportedly happened years ago: The assigned first unit of the year for me was short stories. The first part of this unit covered the characteristics of […]
In: All, Such Language!
Miller's Skepticism
But science is more than the sum of its hypotheses, its observations, and its experiments. From the point of view of rationality, science is above all its method–essentially the critical method of searching for errors. It is the staunch devotion of science to this method that makes the difference. […*] It took Popper's genius to […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, The Art of Conversation
State of Mind of State
Oddly, at the end of their article commenting on that little pee-pee note that Bush wrote to Condi while sitting in a UN meeting, The Scotsman commented: In January, a sheet of doodles sparked a debate on the state of Tony Blair's mind, even though it turned out the note was created by the Microsoft […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
In Shambles
How many places will be in shambles by the time the Bush crew leaves office? [Maureen Dowd, "A Fatal Incuriosity", The New York Times, 14 September 2005.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics