Archive for the ‘All’ Category
A Soldier's Epitath
Epitath for the Unknown Soldier To save your world, you asked this man to die: Would this man, could he see you now, ask why? –October 1953 W. H. Auden, Collected Poems, Edward Mendelson, ed. (Random House, New York, 1979). p. 435.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Behold Capybara: Fish!
Most rodents are mouse-sized, but they range up through marmots, beavers, agoutis and maras to the sheep-sized capybaras of the South American waterways. Capybaras are prized for meat, not just because of their large size but because, bizarrely, the Roman Catholic Church traditionally deemed them honorary fish for Fridays, presumably because they live in water.* […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Food Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Anti-Rational Politics
Politics in America will get more and more pathetic unless and until rationality and the natural world, as it is understood by science, get some respect. The anti-intellectual tradition in America is part of the cultural bedrock supporting right wing power, but the Left also has a version of it. The corresponding phenomenon on the […]
Celebrity Spokesmodel for President
Continually milling around in my mind are questions like: shouldn't someone in charge of running the country be smarter about a lot of things than I am? Why should I feel safer if the guy in charge is dumber than rocks? If I were having brain surgery, would I like the brain surgeon to be […]
In: All, Eureka!, Splenetics
New Illiteracy
Some years ago, I had an exchange with a telemarketer that I still remember fondly. She was selling subscriptions to the Washington Post, and seemed surprised that I wasn't terribly interested. In fact, I'd never developed a habit of reading newspapers, and I didn't see a reason to start. So, I explained to her: "I […]
Atoms are not Watermelons
A few days back I finished reading How to Write: Advice and Relfections, by Richard Rhodes. Although I'm frequently drawn to read them, books about writing are rarely satisfying, interesting, or useful. Rhodes' book managed all three, and I can recommend it. Here are three passages I made note of as I read that I […]
Radical Christian Cleric Faces Consequences?
CARACAS, VENEZUELA – Venezuela's government has temporarily suspended permits for foreign missionaries after a U.S. televangelist [extremist radical cleric Pat Robertson] said Washington should assassinate President Hugo Chavez. [Patrick Markey, "Venezuela halts missionary permits: Action taken after comments by Pat Robertson regarding Chavez", Reuters via Houston Chronicle, 26 August 2005.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Clam Names
Because sometimes just knowing the names (finally!) is useful, if not necessary: All hard-shell clams on the East Coast are the same species, Mercenaria mercenaria, and their common names connote their sizes. The quahog (pronounced CO-hog) or chowder clam is the largest, followed in descending order by the cherrystone, top-neck and little-neck. [Erica Marcus, "Hail […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Food Stuff
W and Nixon
Richard Nixon must have spent much of his life after the presidency wondering what went wrong — why such an insignificant matter in the grand scheme of things ended his career. I suspect he never fully appreciated how the cultivation of an environment in which the ends justifies the means infected those associated with his […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Sandwich Thoughts
I used to think I was the only one who noticed and wondered about things like: why did Subway sandwich shops change the way they cut the bread on their subs? Turns out, I'm not the only one. I don't know whether this is comforting or frightening, but it's certainly enlightening. Steve, at The Sneeze […]
In: All, Reflections, The Art of Conversation
Rangel on Fundamentalist Terrorism
"I don't even know who that person [Robertson] is," said Chavez, standing next to Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Havana's airport. In Venezuela, however, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said the U.S. response to [Pat] Robertson [who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this past Monday] would be a test of its […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Who Supports Whom?
It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted him wearing an American flag T-shirt. "I want you to know we support you," she gushed. Rivera soon reached the limits of her support. "Military service isn't for our son. It isn't […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Real Reality
Senators George Allen and Trent Lott both continue to insist we’re winning in Iraq. Don’t bet on it, bubs. “Winning” isn’t a subjective term like it is here in the United States. Hijacked voting machines won’t do anything against an insurgency, I’m afraid. [Shakespeare's Sister, "Gee, Ya Think?", 22 August 2005.]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Specious Proofs
The New York Times continues to fan the flames of the "Evolution vs. Intelligent Design" [so-called] debate in what it thinks is an objective, balanced way.* My favorite bit of reporting was this: Stephen C. Meyer, director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, compares the design approach to the work […]
Haldane on Creationism
The plants generally compete by pushing, rather than biting. […] If the world of Nature is God's plan, then attempts to banish pain are contrary to this plan. So are attempts to perfect human society by eliminating the various evils which men inflict on one another. […] Darwin made it reasonable to reject the argument […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Eureka!
Steal This Vote
I'm blogging this bit from Krugman's piece mostly because I want to make a note to read the book sometime. As Krugman hints elsewhere in the piece, simmering election scandals is merely one pot of many that's going to boil over once we see regime change in the US. In his recent book "Steal This […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
More on Terrorism Hysteria II
The story about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by London police just keeps getting worse. This from The Guardian [UK] ("New claims emerge over Menezes death "): It has now emerged that Mr de Menezes: was never properly identified because a police officer was relieving himself at the very moment he was leaving […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Pentagon Too Reality-Based?
The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad. The United States no longer expects to see […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
More on Terrorism Hysteria
As I continue to believe: it appears to have been a case of police terrorism-hysteria. This from ITN [Great Britain]: Mistakes led to tube shooting 8.25PM, Tue Aug 16 2005 ITV News has obtained secret documents and photographs that detail why police shot Jean Charles De Menezes dead on the tube. The Brazilian electrician was […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Quartos
The Evolutionary Epic
The biologist E. O. Wilson wrote (in On Human Nature): "The core of scientific materialism is the evolutionary epic. Let me repeat its minimum claims: that the laws of the physical sciences are consistent with those of the biological and social sciences and can be linked in chains of causal explanation; that life and mind […]
In: All, Common-Place Book