• Law

    The perfect metaphor for l’affaire de Kavanaugh

    September 26, 2018 /

    Is the Iraq war – with the sides reversed – consider

    1.  People similar to him have done horrible things (those people being violent drunken men)
    2. There is very little real evidence actually presented at this point (no one besides Kavanaugh has testified yet) – damning or otherwise – it’s pretty much all Facebook conjecture
    3. One side of the aisle has an interest in hyping the matter
    4. The call is to BELIEVE, or BELIEVE IN the people telling the story, and not the evidence they have

    Happily this should be able to be resolved a bit better either way than that.

    On another note, many years ago I remember talking with someone who grew up in the fifties – she said that (when she was growing up) her mom did not let her go to parties if any Irish (maybe she said Catholics, I don’t remember exactly, but I think she said Irish) kids would be there, as they would just get drunk and assault-ty.  The more things change…

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  • Insight

    Insight from a cloudy day

    September 19, 2018 /

    Originally in an email send to JungleLand – I found it insightful

    I’ve been listening to the collected works of the Blue Sky Boys
    Listening to recordings from the 1940s on noise cancelling is a strange experience – I’ve been struck by how they perceive their world as both focused and big.  Very big.  History exists as  a wide, multi threaded thing, or so it seems from their music.  A true tapestry of people and events with no direction or progression.
    And bleak.  Actually like a more primal Leonard Cohen
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  • Adages

    Quotes of the day

    September 19, 2018 /

    From the same song by Dan Bern

    This song was made by algorithms for you and your peers – please like it – it’s called the future is here

    and (somewhere in the song, refering to global warming)

    Isn’t it ironic that we’re going to be killed by dinosaurs after all

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  • Rambles

    Reviewing my old twitter posts…

    August 5, 2018 /

    I thought I would review my old tweets to see if I had anything that is now embarrassing (didn’t find anything).  I did discover that none of the short coded StumbleUpon links work anymore.  the only thing worth reposting is my little song in code

    if (You==Sunshine && Me.IsExclusiveSunshine==true){
    if (Sky.Color==Color.Gray) {
    Me.IsHappy=true;
    }
    }

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  • Adages

    Thought of the day – from somewhere

    August 2, 2018 /

    The desire to teach is much stronger than the desire to learn

    I’m not sure where I heard it, and it is probably a bit more apt if you substitute “lecture” instead of “teach”.

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  • Politics

    The notion of privilege

    August 1, 2018 /

    I think much talk of “privilege” is actually false modesty on the part of the speaker – probably 90% of it actually.  However, Arnold Kling has a list of other factors, particularly

    • being tall
    • having attractive features (or at least not being extremely unattractive)
    • being naturally outgoing (extroverted)
    • not having mental disorders, such as autism, depression, or schizophrenia
    • not having debilitating physical ailments or physical handicaps
    • growing up with your biological father (particularly if you are male).
    • having artistic gifts

    There is no political advantage to either side for these so no one ever talks about them…

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