Archive for the ‘Common-Place Book’ Category
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
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...
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
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
Furchtbar Herzig
[Kurt] Gödel, who has often been called the greatest logician since Aristotle, was a strange and ultimately tragic man. Whereas Einstein was gregarious and full of laughter, Gödel was solemn, solitary, and pessimistic. Einstein, a passionate amateur violinist, loved Beethoven and Mozart. Gödel’s taste ran in another direction: his favorite movie was Walt Disney’s “Snow […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Moyers on Fundamentalist Facism
These are words from a speech given by Bill Moyers the week of 5 September 2005 at Union Theological Seminary. The speech was called "9/11 And The Sport of God". Before the main excerpt, here is a short quotation from near the end of the speech, a statement of the impediment that right-thinking Americans must […]
White House Under Water
One of the creepier vanities of most political leaders is the private yearning to be tested on a historical scale. Bill Clinton used to confide that, no matter what else he did as President, without a major war to fight he could never join the ranks of Lincoln and F.D.R. During the Presidential debates in […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Let Them Eat Cheap Cake Then!
On Aug. 30, the day after the hurricane hit, the Census Bureau released figures showing that the poor had increased by 1.1 million since 2003, to 12.7 percent of the population, the fourth annual increase, with blacks and Hispanics the poorest, and the South remaining the poorest region. Since Bush has been in office, poverty […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Well, It Did Happen
Maybe Mr. Bush will now also tell us: "It's not the government's hurricane – it's your hurricane." […] The Bush team has engaged in a tax giveaway since 9/11 that has had one underlying assumption: There will never be another rainy day. Just spend money. You knew that sooner or later there would be a […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Dean on Direction
The Democratic National Committee chairman, Howard Dean, said this [the evident ineptitude of the Administration to deal with the Katrina disaster] could be a transitional moment for his party. "The Democratic Party needs a new direction," he said. "And I think it's become clear what the direction is: restore a moral purpose to America. Rebuild […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Progress Is Possible
Sacramento — The state Assembly, in a stunning victory for the gay rights movement, approved a landmark bill allowing same-sex marriage Tuesday night and sent it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The measure, which passed with no votes to spare, marks the first time that a legislative body in the United States has approved a bill […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
DMort Estimates
A co-owner of Shelbyville-based Gowen-Smith Chapel has been deployed to Gulfport, Miss., to help with recovery since Hurricane Katrina, and his business partner here has described the grim task there. "DMort is telling us to expect up to 40,000 bodies," Dan Buckner said, quoting officials with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, a volunteer arm […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
NO Green Zone
Iraqis watching the New Orleans drama unfold are suggesting that a section of the city be found which is still dry and not on fire which can be designated a Green Zone. There a little city within a city can be set up with running water, lights, toilets, air conditioning and a mess hall suitable […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Chimps? Bush?
Has anyone tried yet to sequence the President's DNA to determine how close he is to chimpanzees, genetically speaking, of course? THE CHIMP: COMPLETE GENETIC MAP CONFIRMS DARWIN'S THEORY. Scientists at MIT and Washington University, St. Louis, announced Wednesday that they have determined the precise order of the 3 billion bits of genetic code needed […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Tupper Inspiration
Earl Tupper was born in New Hampshire in 1907. He came up with the idea for air tight plastic food storage containers while working at Dupont. In 1938 he founded the Tupperware Plastics Company in Orlando, Florida and in 1946 introduced his line of Tupper Plastics at hardware and department stores. Sales were dismal at […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Curious Stuff
Condi Lends a … Foot
What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue [in New York city], Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Polygyny and Anteaters
Two selections from today's reading in Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2004), mostly to confound fundamentalists and creationists: The Ethnographic Atlas of G.P. Murdock, published in 1967, is a brave compilation. It lists particulars of 849 human societies, surveyed all over the world. From it we might hope to count numbers of […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
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...