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Word Salad – the term for the times
I heard the closing moments of the Kennedy Nixon debates on Radio Free Bernstein a few weeks ago and was struck by how novel it seemed. – they both seemed genuinely smart, and off the cuff, not rehearsed. The most striking thing was that there were almost no pauses for emphasis, which meant that the listener has to actually listen (any modern speech you can do the auditory equivalent of skimming, thanks to the pauses).
Word Salad seems to be the most apt phrase for modern political speech.
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The perfect metaphor for l’affaire de Kavanaugh
Is the Iraq war – with the sides reversed – consider
- People similar to him have done horrible things (those people being violent drunken men)
- 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
- One side of the aisle has an interest in hyping the matter
- 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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Interesting links on a Tuesday
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Insight from a cloudy day
Originally in an email send to JungleLand – I found it insightful
I’ve been listening to the collected works of the Blue Sky BoysListening 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 -
Quotes of the day
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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Reviewing my old twitter posts…
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;
}
} -
Thought of the day – from somewhere
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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The notion of privilege
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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Juliath eats Collard Greens
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Juliath joins the family
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