Tuesday, January 10. 2006
ON SHEEP, WOLVES, AND SHEEPDOGS By Lt.Col. (ret.) Dave Grossman, Army Ranger, psychology professor, author of "On Killing" and the upcoming "On Combat".
"Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for?" - William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997.
Continue reading " A Re-posting: On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs"
Indian Lore
It was October and the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new Chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Chief in a modern society he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.
But being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?"
"It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.
A week later he called the National Weather Service again.
"Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?"
"Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied,
"It's going to be a very cold winter." The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.
Two weeks later the Chief called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"
"Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever."
"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.
The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy."
Monday, January 9. 2006
Rousseau "Nothing is more depressing than the general fate of men. And yet they feel in themselves a consuming desire to become happy, and it makes them feel at every moment that they were born to be happy. So why are they not?" Jean-Jacques Rousseau From a review of a new book about Rousseau, by Dirda in the WaPo: "Rousseau's contemporary, the arch-conservative Edmund Burke, labeled him "the Socrates of the National Assembly" (that is, of the hated French Revolution). Come the 20th century, this radical thinker had grown into the great beast of all who revere traditional institutions, worship in established churches and either fear or exploit the common man. Yet no one, of whatever political or philosophical persuasion, would deny how deeply Rousseau's sensibility pervades the past 250 years, from the poetry of the Romantics ("One impulse from a vernal wood/May teach you more of man . . . ") to the slogans, pop songs and lifestyles of the 1960s: Drop out, "Let it be," back to Nature, hippies, communes, self-realization. Yet Rousseauian ideals also lie behind our unabated, unassuaged longings to live more humanely in a bureaucratic, technological and often unjust world. Even the staunchest meritocrat or most self-satisfied scion of inherited wealth must find it hard to discount the truth of the discourse on inequality's final ringing lines: "It is manifestly against the Law of Nature . . . that a handful of men wallow in luxury, while the famished multitudes lack the necessities of life." Such thrilling emotional language has always contributed to Rousseau's powerful appeal. Contrary to a widespread misconception, many philosophers have also been superb prose stylists -- just think of Plato, Hume or William James -- but this largely self-educated former valet may be the finest of all. Rousseau actually had to beg his readers to disregard his "beau style" and just pay attention to his ideas. But this is impossible. His sentences are musical and absolutely limpid, at once classically balanced yet intimate, oracular and confessional. One is simply swept along, no matter what the subject." Read entire review.
Politics and the English Language The above-named essay by Orwell made a big impression on me when I first read it in high school. I cannot say that I follow his rules, but I do aspire to. In this piece in Appellate Advocate, Orwell's basic rules of writing are applied to legal briefs.
 One common failing of good-hearted people is to imagine that everyone else is good-hearted and well-intentioned, if not at least justified in their emotions. We're all entitled to our beloved emotions, right? Since Rousseau changed the rules?
Similarly, cold, suspicious and malevolent people tend to imagine that all people are malevolent or purely self-interested. Both are fatally foolish. Everyone who knows anything about themselves knows that we all contain both loving and destructive aspects. Civilized humans in Western civilization try to put a leash on their destructiveness and selfishness, so as to join a civil and humane society based on our remarkable, unique, and precious Judeo-Christian religious ideas about the God-endowed value of individual human existence. We may sometimes fail in this ideal due to emotional weakness, character flaws, or immaturity, but civilized people in the Western world aspire to this sense of community, respect, mutual concern, trust, and sympathy. It's an implicit religious-cultural-social contract, and many if not most of us try our best to live up to that contract, both for respect from others and for self-respect. It means a lot to most of us, and we do, and should, feel rotten and self-contemptuous - guilty - when we break this contract of "conscience and good cheer". Is this approach to the world and to reality worthy of protection with arms? I say "Yes". I say that it is precious, far beyond anything material or comfortable. Our material blessings are just a lucky side-effect of our view of reality, but they can be seductively tranquillizing and sedating. But such an attitude towards life is not universal - it is cultural and even personal. Such attitudes towards life make us suckers and easy prey for the malevolent, the schemers, the predators, the anti-social, the power-seekers and the con artists - The Lords of the Flies who dominate so much of the planet from Sicily to Africa to Venzuela to Gaza to North Korea to our neighborhood insurance scammers and grifters and politicians. I have already written a little on the blog about evil here, and about related subjects here. Humans tend to want to live in fairy tales of their own creation, to inhabit worlds that they spin out of their own hopes and dreams and fears and imaginations - their own fictions - until a harsh reality comes to call. At that moment, we humans can either rise and grow, or succumb and regress deeper into fantasy, and to raise the walls of defense of our fantasy world. Commonly, it is external misfortune or aggression which trigger these challenges to our psychological comfort and waken us from our personal dreams. It is truly painful for everyone to be forced to adjust to disturbing realities. It is the burden of being human. Why do some people seem to want to deny the existence of evil in the world? Because they will have to deal with it, and it's a hassle, or worse. It disrupts a comfortable illusion. And it requires that we confront whatever malevolence we may have in ourselves, too, which is not fun to do. Nevertheless, confronting true external evil is daunting, scary, and complicated, and forces us to locate the required courage and aggression within ourselves - to the point of being willing to die for home and family and country - when we would prefer to be comfortable. In psychiatry, among other things, we deal with fear, both realistic and imaginary (aka "neurotic") fear. To reduce all external danger to the realm of the neurotic is the height of decadance and naivete, as it the opposite. The world contains both lions and imaginary lions. Humans have to be wise enough to discern the difference. The world is full of plenty of people seeking power and domination. That's the way the world is. Maybe they are crazy, or maybe not, but they still exist. Pretending that they do not is to be a modern-day Candide. And to casually dismiss evil or aggressive intentions of others, trusting in their basic humanity, can be suicidal. The Jews who remained in Germany found that out recently, as did people in Stalin's Russia, Serbia, Rwanda, the World Trade Center, the Sudan, and now in the Congo. Humans, especially in groups, can be a highly dangerous, ruthless, murderous species - especially to their fellow man. Is this news? It runs deep in American culture to stand up to evil, and to point it out, and to actively resist it, whether in our own society or in others. That is a fine, strong, and noble societal trait, and I hope we will always remain true to that tradition.
Sunday, January 8. 2006
 Book-Based Travel
Travels with Homer. From an extraordinary essay by Halkin titled Sailing to Ithaca: "I first set foot on the island of Ithaca by swimming ashore. This was not how it was done by Odysseus, who was carried from a ship in early dawn by the sailors conveying him on the final leg of his long journey home. “Then they stepped forth on the land,” Homer tells us, “and first they lifted Odysseus out of the hollow ship . . . and laid him down on the sand, still overpowered by sleep.”1 He would have had to be sleeping quite soundly not to awake, for we have just been told that, in beaching, the ship “ran full half her length on the shore in her swift course, at such pace was she driven by the arms of the rowers.” That must have given her a powerful jolt. One cannot beach a modern yacht, which has a keel to give it stability in the water. Ancient Greek ships lacked true keels and so—at least to judge from Homer—they often capsized in rough seas. Nor did ancient Greek harbors have docks or piers. The Greek coast is rugged and its mountains continue down to plunge beneath the water line, making the drop-off too steep to allow for the sinking of pilings in Homer’s time. And while one could always moor or anchor offshore, this made loading and unloading cumbersome. The best harbor was a protected spot with enough sand or gravel for oarsmen to put a ship on." Read the entire wonderful essay.
Saturday, January 7. 2006
Sexual Harrassment in the Workplace: How To's and How Not To's Quick video download: harrasment.wmv
Friday, January 6. 2006
Our Brit blogger cousin Mr. Free Market posted this photo of his non-local non-fox hunt with non-horses and non-foxes in front of the non-local non-pub on non-New Year's Day. God Save the Queen. Good old civil disobedience, in the tradition of Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Bravo, Brits. 
Two Books Just finished Freddy and Fredericka. As often with Helprin, it is an adult fairy tale but, as is rare with him, it is filled with slapstick humor and vaudeville-style routines. One of the best scenes: Freddy telling the psychiatrist in the mental hospital where he is sedated and in a straight jacket that he is the Prince of Wales, and that the Governor of California will shortly order him released. (He is, and the Gov. does.) May I say that it is the sort of tale that can keep you up reading far too late? And just found this one: Ordinary Wolves. Looks like a tale about the Real Alaska by a real Alaskan. Very good Bookslut review here.
Thursday, January 5. 2006
A Mini-Cooper paint job 
Wednesday, January 4. 2006
Robust, synergistic and scalable solutions to overutilized language: Just think outside the box and you'll be good to go. Here's a site for trite, cliched, and over-used words from the tech world. Here's a list of annoying words from 2003 - still annoying. Here are 18 nasties. Lake Superior State University has begun work on their 2006 List. This is from an email making the rounds: Frank Lingua, president and CEO of Dissembling Associates, is the nation's leading purveyor of buzzwords, catch phrases, and clichés for people too busy to speak in plain English. Danbom interviews Lingua in his New York City office: Danbom: Is being a cliché expert a full-time job?Lingua: Bottom line is I have a full plate 24/7.Is it hard to keep up with the seemingly endless supply of clichés that spew from business?Some days, I don't have the bandwidth. It's like drinking from a fire hydrant.So it's difficult?Harder than nailing Jell-O to the wall.Where do most clichés come from?Stakeholders push the envelope until it's outside the box.How do you track them once they've been coined?It's like herding cats.Can you predict whether a phrase is going to become a cliché?Yes. I skate to where the puck's going to be. Because if you aren't the lead dog, you're not providing a customer-centric proactive solution.Give us a new buzzword that we'll be hearing ad nauseam."Enronitis" could be a next-generation player.Do people understand your role as a cliché expert?No, they can't get their arms around that. But they aren't incented to.How do people know you're a cliché expert?I walk the walk and talk the talk.Did incomprehensibility come naturally to you?I wasn't wired that way, but it became mission-critical as I strategically focused on my go-forward plan.What did you do to develop this talent?It's not rocket science. It's not brain surgery. When you drill down to the granular level, it's just basic blocking and tackling.How do you know if you're successful in your work?At the end of the day, it's all about robust, world-class language solutions.How do you stay ahead of others in the buzzword industry?Net-net, my value proposition is based on maximizing synergies and being first to market with a leveraged, value-added deliverable. That's the opportunity space on a level playing field.Does everyone in business eventually devolve into the sort of mindless drivel you spout?If you walk like a duck and talk like a duck, you're a duck. They all drink the Kool-Aid.Do you read "Dilbert" in the newspaper?My knowledge base is deselective of fiber media.Does that mean "no"?Negative.Does THAT mean "no"?Let's take your issues offline.No, we are not going to take them "offline."You have a result-driven mind-set that isn't a strategic fit with my game plan.I want to push your face in.Your call is very important to me.How can you live with yourself?I eat my own dog food. My vision is to monetize scalable supply chains.When are you going to quit this?I may eventually exit the business to pursue other career opportunities.I hate you.Take it and run with it.
Sunday, January 1. 2006
Wise Man of Wall St. Barton Biggs, longtime wise man at Morgan Stanley (and known to be a perpetual Bear), but more recently in the hedge fund business, has written a book: Hedgehogging. It comes out next week, but folks I know who have read advance copies say it's a very fine and entertaining inside look at the fantastically lucrative Wild West hedgie world.
Tuesday, December 27. 2005
Ya Gotta Laugh or Cry Media seeks "truthiness." It's bigger than facts. Owner's Manual
Monday, December 26. 2005
Friday, December 23. 2005
A sign in the Bank Lobby reads: "Please note that this Bank is installing new Drive-through teller machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles. Customers using t his new facility are requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts. After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE procedures have been developed. Please follow the appropriate steps for your gender." MALE PROCEDURE: 1. Drive up to the cash machine.2. Put down your car window. 3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN.4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw.5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt.6. Put window up.7. Drive off.
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FEMALE PROCEDURE:
1. Drive up to cash machine.2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine.
3. Set parking brake, put the window down.
4. Find handbag, remove all contents onto passenger seat to locate card.
5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.
6. Attempt to insert card into machine.
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car.
8. Insert card.
9. Re-insert card the right way.
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.
11. Enter PIN.
12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN.
13. Enter amount of cash required.
14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.
15. Retrieve cash and receipt.
16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside.
17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of checkbook.
18. Re-check makeup.
19. Drive forward 2 feet.
20. Reverse back to cash machine.
21. Retrieve card.
22. Re-empty hand bag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided.
23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you.
24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.
25. Redial person on cell phone.
26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.
27. Release Parking Brake.
Thursday, December 22. 2005
Metaphor and Learning Metaphor, analogy, imagery, and the like, not only make it easier to learn something - often they are what we know (shadows in the cave). The picture of that Neils Bohr atom comes to mind, like a mini solar system: that picture is a visual analogy, bearing no resemblance to a real atom. It is tough to integrate anything new without a metaphor to carry it into the brain. Jesus spoke in parables for the same reason. The below excerpt is from a piece by Hudson at The Ornery American: "The very pervasiveness of this strange way humans have of explaining concepts to one another should lead us to question why metaphor is so prevalent in our communication. Why should the conflation, for example, of roses and cheeks in the same sentence conjure up images of cherubic children with the healthy pink pallor of youth? What do lemons have to do with defective cars? I believe that the answer to these questions may have its roots in the fundamental nature of human learning. Nobel prize-winning neurobiologist Eric Kandel has shown that memory and learning are tied to structural changes in the connections between neurons that form the functional units of the brain. Essentially, whenever we learn something new there are new connections made in the brain, and those connections are what allow us to think about the new knowledge we have acquired. It is safe to say that any bit of knowledge that we have - whether it is knowledge about how lemons taste or what the color yellow looks like, or even how it feels to be in love- this knowledge must be reflected in the physical structure of the brain." If you can concentrate at this hectic time of year, read entire.
Craig's New Layout Boat, and some hunting photos Layout boats fool ducks. Here's the new one, on Saturday on Long Island Sound, surrounded by Bluebill decoys. You just lie down in it and hope a big wave doesn't drown you. You tow it out and anchor it. Another boat has the dog, etc. (Click Continuation Page below to see photo of Harley) 
Continue reading "New Layout Boat"
Monday, December 19. 2005
Ye parlor of Ye Olde New England Yankee Farmhouse on Sunday evening, with a fine granddaughter working hard on something academic in front of the fire. 
Saturday, December 17. 2005
The Mighty Kong Saw it last night and although Ms. Yazel's timeline A Timely Guide To 'King Kong' For the Fidgety is simplistic, it is a helpful guide for taking bathroom and concession stand breaks. King Kong, the story of beauty over beast is back in a BIG way and Peter Jackson has paid tribute to the Old Hollywood by using today's special effects with yesterday's comedy and drama and film for entertainment's sake attitude. Is it too long? You bet it is, and you will also need to suspend your level of disbelief when Kong races through the jungle swinging Naomi Watts (the beauty character) like a Barbie who in real life would have had every bone in her body broken and face crushed. Likewise when Jack Black (Carl the spineless movie producer, there's one in every bunch) and the rest of the rescue group are seen running for their lives as Brontosauruses stampede over them, run past them and on every which way around them and yet, most will survive to go on and on and on until some other prehistoric creature bites. Oh yes and I forgot to mention the gruesome cannibals but I recommend you stay sit in your seat and go with it. This is a movie worth seeing on the big screen but you may want to leave the kiddies at home.
Thursday, December 15. 2005
 Fawlty Towers
Now that I have gotten my Christmas present copies, I will provide the link, as if you couldn't think of it yourselves. The Complete. Nothin' better. And it's clouding over and the bad weather is on the way. Bring it on! Does anything beat a fire in the fireplace, snow and sleet falling, Fawlty Towers on the DVD player, Dylan on the CD, and a Grey Goose martini in one hand, one's sweetie-pie in the other, and a good Cuban in one's third hand? Multi-tasking. Except hunting or skiing or... (Bad photo - 3-4 olives minimum, for healthy living.)
Tuesday, December 13. 2005
A Wide-Screen Narnia Trailer Here.
Monday, December 12. 2005
Christianity, Capitalism, and Technology Stark's piece in Chronicle of Higher Education Review addresses the question of how and why technology and thus prosperity developed in Europe. One selection: The most convincing answer to those questions attributes Western dominance to the rise of capitalism, which took place only in Europe. Even the most militant enemies of capitalism credit it with creating previously undreamed of productivity and progress. In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proposed that before the rise of capitalism, humans engaged "in the most slothful indolence"; the capitalist system was "the first to show what man's activity can bring about." Capitalism achieved that miracle through regular reinvestment to increase productivity, either to create greater capacity or improve technology, and by motivating both management and labor through ever-rising payoffs. Supposing that capitalism did produce Europe's own "great leap forward," it remains to be explained why capitalism developed only in Europe. Some writers have found the roots of capitalism in the Protestant Reformation; others have traced it back to various political circumstances. But, if one digs deeper, it becomes clear that the truly fundamental basis not only for capitalism, but for the rise of the West, was an extraordinary faith in reason.
Read entire.
Instant Narnia Review It gets a 5/5 from the Bird Dog crew. Enchanted and enchanting, great casting, perfect computer graphics, absolutely loyal to Lewis' tale, and, if anything, more overtly religious than the books (which are mythic, allegorical, and a very good tale). Who knew Disney had it in 'em? A perfect Christmastime movie and an instant classic. Definitely not just for kids.
Sunday, December 11. 2005
Good Education for Christmas: The Teaching Company. They are the best invention since Books on Tape. Great fun, and I wish libraries would stock up on them. You'll have to find out for yourself how excellent these are - they use great teachers - not (necessarily) great researchers - which is the right approach. Get the CDs - there's never time to sit down and watch the DVDs. Hey - listen to 'em twice (assuming you have ADD too), then share and trade with friends and relatives. Like baseball cards. Goldfish Hates Bowlmate. This will ring a bell with lots of people... life must be better somewhere else, outside of this bowl. Like jumping out and becoming a dried trisket of tiny bones on the carpet. I wanna go. Hacienda de los Santos. They have a dove shooting package too. Happiness is a warm gun (but hmm, I wonder how nasty that sounds to non-hunters, especially at Christmastime. These are White-Winged Doves - not doves of Christ or of the Holy Spirit or Doves of Peace - they are practically almost sort-of pigeons, really.) Tasty things broiled medium-rare with a strip of bacon on top of each one, and stuffed with sauteed chopped onion, apple, and pear, their livers or maybe a hunk of foie gras, and served on a buttery, garlicky piece of toasted French bread with the drippings on top...man, getting hungry. Shmoosh some of the liver into the drippings, and some cognac, before drizzling on top. Lots of pepper. Great compensation for the sore shoulder from all of that arduous shooting. Gene McCarthy. What a fine fellow he was. Fine people can be wrong. He was wrong about the war, and would have made a rotten and probably Minnesota-socialist president - but a superb gent, and more poet than politician, although some people I know say he was craftier and more calculating than he seemed. His death saddens me - I was in New Hampshire for him in my callow youth, and met him at a Georgetown party, in the 60s. A special person who followed his own path and who asked God for answers to his questions. The US economy is in great shape. Why don't we hear about the Bush Boom? Department of No Gratitude: Katrina rescuees complained about Red Cross. Jeez - that takes some nerve. I do believe this country has somehow inculcated the ethics of grievance and entitlement over gratitude. Big mistake. That path leads nowhere except to wasted time and a wasted life. Have enjoyed this for years - still have it on vinyl: Christmastime with The Judds.
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