Archive for the ‘Reflections’ Category
Beard of the Week LXXII: Mardi Gras
"Mardis Gras 2002" photo by highstrungloner Today's beard belongs to the attractive gentleman in the leather coat enjoying street festivities during Mardi Gras, 2002, in the Latin Quarter of New Orleans. I might add that the Fu Manchu mustache his companion wears is certainly not chopped liver.* I'm particularly enchanted by the sign for […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Reflections
Beard of the Week LXXI: The Power of Words
This week's iconic beard belongs to Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), 16th President of the United States. As many have noted in this, his bicentennial year, it is also Charles Darwin's bicentennial year: Lincoln and Darwin were born on the same date in the same year.* Last week we looked at […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Reflections
Beard of the Week LXX: "Disproving" Darwin
This week's beard belongs to birthday boy Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), born 200 years ago on 12 February 1809. This photograph (which I have cropped) was taken in 1882 by the photographic company of Ernest Edwards, London.* Many people call Darwin's great idea, common descent through evolution by means of natural selection, the greatest scientific […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science, Reflections
Screaming Women! Jagged Lines!
As I've mentioned, we've been enjoying watching (on DVD) Simon Schama's BBC-produced series "Power of Art". The last episode was about Mark Rothko and his commission for the Seagram murals (June 6, 1958 in this chronology). I still tend towards thinking Rothko overrated but I was happy to hear more about him and his work […]
In: All, Music & Art, Reflections
Is He Still President?
But the brazenness of Bush’s alternative-reality history is itself revelatory. The audacity of its hype helps clear up the mystery of how someone so slight could inflict so much damage. So do his many print and television exit interviews. The man who emerges is a narcissist with no self-awareness whatsoever. It’s that arrogance that allowed […]
In: All, Current Events, Reflections
Beard of the Week LVII: A Marine in Vietnam
This week's beard belongs to an unnamed US Marine who fought in the Vietnam War. The date was 1966. I found this photograph on the website of the "White House's Commission on Remembrance". Here is the caption that accompanied the photograph (on this page about the Vietnam War): Date: 1966 Title: U.S. Marines forward reconnaissance […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Reflections
Election Day-After
I am exceedingly pleased that Barack Obama is our president-elect, that so many people voted for him, and that the strident and hysterical appeals to racism, violence, and nationalism fell only on the ears of the most hysterical of the electorate who are now free to crawl back under the rotting compost heaps whence they […]
In: All, Current Events, Reflections
Election Day 2008
I so wanted to say that I late voted, but I guess I pretty much on-time voted, even though I feel so twentieth century voting on election day. One of our ballot questions here in Maryland did, however, address the possibility of early voting in our state, so one day soon we, too, might be […]
In: All, Current Events, Reflections
National Coming Out Day 2008
As I now tend to say every year in this space, today, October 11, is celebrated annually by more and more people as "National Coming Out Day"; despite its name, people in many countries celebrate NCOD. First observed in 1988, NCOD marks the anniversary of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Reflections
One Voice Among Many
Fred wrote: All is not well. You are conspicuous in not blogging about the rise of Islam worldwide, and its threat to the sort of liberal democracy you champion. I wonder what your thoughts are, and if you are willing to do anything about the threat. To the extent that I see Islam as a […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Reflections
Qualified = Smart Enough
There is confusion, probably even intentional obfuscation, during this current election over whether Ms. Palin is "qualified" to be vice-president. Someone correctly pointed out, in the words of Wikipedia, that the constitutional "qualifications" are few. The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall […]
In: All, Reflections, Snake Oil--Cheap!
LHC: Certainly / Bailout: Maybe
In the last few days I was reading someone, speaking of the recent "$700 Billion Wall Street Bailout"* who said "and we don't even know if it will work!" This put me in mind of the Large Hadron Collider, because that's the way my mind works and because I know the laws of physics work […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Reflections
Read a Banned Book
Every year, in the last week of September, the American Library Association sponsors "Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read". The freedom to read is on many people's minds these days. We just finished listening to the end of the Biden / Palin debate. I still think Palin is a dolt and dangerous believer […]
How's that Deregulation Working Out for You?
I've been thinking recently about deregulation, the great "free-market" panacea that has been so strongly touted in recent decades. You do remember how deregulation is always always said first and foremost to benefit the American public–more competition, more choice, cheaper prices, something along those lines is always uttered as hands wave about dismissively. Frankly, I […]
In: All, Current Events, Reflections
The Majestic Unity of the Natural World
Awhile back I was doing my lunchtime reading in the very interesting book The two-mile time machine : ice cores, abrupt climate change, and our future, by Richard B. Alley. In short, the book is about deep ice cores taken from the ice cap in Greenland and the incredible amount of information they give us […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science, Reflections
I've Been Feeling Unreasonable Lately
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. — George Bernard Shaw
In: All, Common-Place Book, Reflections
Aspirations
I've always aspired to be a polymath, But so far I've only made it to dilettante. —me, last night
In: All, Briefly Noted, Reflections
Living in History
I am not totally immune to the excitement of living in history, even if it is political–at least at the moment. Yes, it was quite extraordinary that the main contenders for the Democratic nomination for president were a black man and a white woman. Exciting even. I have to admit, though, that I didn't find […]
In: All, Current Events, Reflections
Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald
I feel a connection of some kind with the current Governor of New York, David A. Paterson. Recently I was in New York for about five days, easily tripling the fraction of my life that I've ever spent there. While I was there the Spitzer Sex Scandal broke, Spitzer resigned, and then Lieutenant-Governor Paterson was […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Reflections
The Inevitability of Marriage Equality
Normally I try to practice what I preach, at least when it comes to giving attention to right-wing media personalities. Instead of jumping up and down and pointing excitedly at each instance of their reactionary excess, I prefer to turn the other way. My theory is that they will wilt without the nourishment of the […]