We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Has this silly COVID phase eliminated the necktie?
As an old-time fuddy-duddy I guess, I have always thought these were the only things in a man's wardrobe that would provide some color or interest.
JFK eliminated mens' hats by never wearing them, but hats were already going out at the time. Now we're at baseball caps instead of fedoras.
What about our male readers? Women love scarves, and a tie is sort-of the same idea. Nice private schools - and charter schools, still require semi-formal dress or uniforms. It works, from the outside in.
How often do your put on a tie? Church, work, theater, nice restaurant, etc?
A lengthy documentary, but it is difficult to stop watching. Very well done. They created a civilization that makes Medieval Europe, 2000 years later, seem like a back woods barbarian place.
1928, around Cape Horn. The ship is the Peking, now resting at NYC's South Street Seaport. Grew up on a Massachusetts farm, with the accent. Similar to Vermont.
I suppose one of the functions of education is to transmit the accumulations of a culture/civilization, but it's not that simple. If you can't do Persian arithmetic, or ancient Greek trig, you are in trouble in life. Western civilization has always been open to interesting new ideas. Case in point: Christmas tree.
In "modern times", ie, say, that includes other world cultures too. Perhaps "modern times" in the West sort of began with the Roman Empire.
Modern Western civilization has borrowed much from the entire world, and made something wonderful out of it all. Sometimes I wonder that Christianity could only have emerged from the Middle East with its hodge-podge of cultural and religious history. Mostly Jewish of course, but far more than that.
I think it's great to learn about other civilizations and cultures, but I think Western people need to know their own first. Like a language. Or, including the language.
My feeling is that Western civ contains astonishing wisdom and thought - more than anybody's brain can contain. I include Jacques Barzun and Einstein in that. Legal theory, math, literary adventures, philosophy, religion, etc. You can read about Canadian aborigine medicine on your own time but it's not so easy to get a grip on Biochem.
SAT exams are a good measure of preparedness for higher education.
(They also seem to be a pretty good proxy for IQ, but of course not always. If raised illiterate in the Guatemala jungle, speaking only Mam, probably not.)
I do not know to what extent various talents of interest correlate with IQ. I'd be interested, because some people have areas of extraordinary talent, and areas with none so an LA higher ed might not be right for them.
Still, in an America in which some are obsessed with racial measures, the SATs, statistically, seem to favor Asians first, Ashkenazi Jews second, non-Jewish Europeans third, and American Blacks and Hispanics last.
Regardless of that, I feel it makes sense to try to discern what kids are prepared for a rigorous plan for advanced education. Admittedly, much of higher ed these days is an industry seeking customers, but that is another topic.
I want to add that many of the best people I have known would have been terrible with SATs, and could never have done college physics or ever aspired to read the Iliad in Greek.
I forgot to mention Caviar Pie in my authoritative American caviar post. This decadent concoction is perfect for a brunch, hors d'oevres, or munchies.
Some caterers make Caviar Pie which looks perfect, round, and daintily-finished, but the ones I've had at fancy New Year's Day cocktail brunches look a little raggedy, as in this photo. They don't have to look good because as soon as they are attacked by people armed with cheese knives or crackers it's messy anyway.
You scoop a piece out and put it on toasts, or bagel chips, or whatever. It goes fast.
As usual, one uses the most expensive caviar one can afford - or not afford.
Chopped red onion is key. Here's one recipe, but you can google for more. It's a real meal too if you want, with a glass of champagne. The height of decadence.
My annual Christmas present for my Dad used to be a tin from Petrossian. Worth every penny for the delight it provides.
Put simply, the more successful the current common-good movement is, the more it will erode one of the key pillars of American conservative thought: the idea of liberty. The biggest danger is not that America will evolve into national or imperial socialism, but that statist arguments from conservatives will end up reinforcing similar arguments made by progressives. Politics would devolve into a bidding war on which side, the Right or the Left, can buy the most votes with government handouts, win the most battles in the courts over defending “their” version of free speech, control the courts and administrative elites, or get to define what industrial and administrative policies mean. In that battle, I would put my money on the political masters of collectivism, the progressives, because that is their raison d’être.
I expected to be viciously mobbed, and possibly cancelled, like others before me. Yet the result surprised me. Although some did try to cancel me, I received a flood of encouraging emails from others who share my concern with the process by which radical political doctrines are being injected into STEM pedagogy, and by which objective science is being subjugated to regressive moralization and censorship. The high ratio of positive-to-negative comments (even on Twitter!) gave me hope that the silent liberal majority within STEM may (eventually) prevail over the forces of illiberalism.
Has this silly COVID phase eliminated the necktie?
I forgot to mention Caviar Pie in my