Saturday, July 22. 2006
Re-posted from April 4, 2005I have always felt that the purpose of secondary education is to make it possible, within their potential, for everyone to have the chance to be an informed, honorable citizen with the basic values and morals of our country and our traditions, and to be made capable of functioning in a literate world. And that the practical purpose of a college education was for those of a scholarly bent to be able to read the Sunday NYT from cover to cover and understand every detail and every reference - from the Book Review to the Arts to Business, etc. Plus the Tuesday Science Times. (Just an example - not an endorsement of the NYT's political agenda.) But I never thought that it was practical at all, or job-training - I thought it was mind-training and life-enriching. You can't really "get" the world until you've studied Geology and Locke and Bernini and Adam Smith and the glory of the calculus and Biochemistry and Statistics and Plato, and learned Shakespeare. Well, you might think you "get it," but you don't know ----. "The less you know, the smarter you think you are," as my pal Bird Dog likes to say. Fact is, you can do 99.9% of the necessary work in America without a college education - look at Bill Gates, Bob Dylan, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Edison, many Brown University graduates, and tens of millions of honest, hard working folks, etc etc etc. But I have to accept that I may be old-fashioned and that times have changed. It appears that, for many, a college degree is now a job "credential," and we all know that there are many colleges out there which are very happy with below-average high-school-level work, as long as they can fill the seats and bring in the $. This is a pathetic, decadent development but it reflects the deterioration of standards and expectations in our society. I've spent a fortune providing education to my kids, as my Dad did for me, and as his Dad did for him. Maybe I am a bit of a snob, but I always felt that public education, in our time, was the K-Mart version of the thing. But I've been wrong before, once or twice...at most. Speaking of Locke, let's hear him on education: "Locke continues: “Having laid the foundations of virtue in a true notion of a God, such as the creed wisely teaches, as far as his age is capable, and by accustoming him to pray to Him, the next thing to be taken care of is to keep him exactly to speaking the truth, and by all the ways imaginable inclining him to be good-natured.” " Read entire, re Locke vs. Dewey: Click here: How Far Have We Fallen?
Thursday, July 20. 2006
 Maggie's Farm readers know how fond we are of Box Turtles and Wood Turtles - two woodland species which can be found in New England, and both under extreme population pressure in these parts - essentially endangered.
When we see them, we tend to see the Box in the shady woods, and the Wood Turtle in the streams, but our pup finds the Wood Turtle in the wet pasture too. We train our dogs to bark at them, but to never pick them up. The first time they find one, we give them heck with the shock collar and they learn that these turtles are radioactive. My introduction to the charming Box Turtle was at the Massachusetts Audubon Society sanctuary in Wellfleet as a kid. Cape Cod was full of Box Turtles then. Many fewer now, due to cars and dogs and coyotes - and the northward march of raccoons. Why does the subject come up? Tuesday night, with lightning flashing all around and rumbling thunder in the distance, I took an evening stroll with the flashlight, and stumbled on a Box Turtle digging a hole for her eggs in a sandy patch surrounded by oaks, not far from the marsh. Slow and steady. I have never seen this before. My first thought was "Wish I had my camera," but my second thought was "Why photograph everything?" It makes it no more real, and this is a special sight, a real gift from nature. So I turned my light away, and left her alone to her arduous task. Image of a box turtle digging a nest hole, in daylight, from Univ of Ga.
When Dalrymple talks about criminality and addiction, you have to listen. He is an ex prison psychiatrist. He makes the case that opiate addiction is not a "disease," which therefore requires "treatment." Is any great harm done by pretending that opiate addiction is a disease like any other? After all, a portion of mankind will always resort to mind- altering drugs to obscure the existential problems that confront us all. Certainly methadone when prescribed carelessly — as it is in Britain — is a dangerous drug, and can cause nearly as many deaths as heroin itself. There is a more intangible harm, however, to the pretence: the existence of drug clinics sends a message to addicts that they are ill and in need of treatment rather than they have chosen a disastrous path in life. It conceals from people their responsibility for their own lives, a responsibility we all find irksome at times, but acceptance of which is the only basis of a meaningful life.
Although AA tends to term addiction a "disease," they approach it as a problem with the soul and the spirit, as does Dalrymple. Read the whole thing, which runs contrary to the usual pieties and victim mongering. Comment from Dr. Bliss: I like Dalrymple very much. And I don't care whether you call addiction a disease or not - the concept has been so degraded that they call acne and PMS diseases these days. The implication that addicts are real, or latent, born criminals is not born out by my experience. Some are, some aren't. "Help" for them? Some require detox - that's a medical function. After that, AA is the best bet, unless they have other psychiatric problems. AA is the exact opposite of a government program.
Tuesday, July 18. 2006
 Our author of the Aliyah Diary just sent this in:
I am fine. Things tense here. Last night dinner with a psychoanalyst from Brazil, Dr. E (and a guest who spoke Yiddish). Dr. E's son heard a rumor that the army is moving MLRS (multiple launch rockets) from Golan to Leb border; today, my realtor had to leave early to get ready for his call-up tonight - tanks being moved to Leb border. MLRS have never been used by Israel: they rain steel. The Air Force dropped pamphlets over areas of southern Lebanon warning citizens to leave certain areas as these will be bombed. M. said that MLRS is a serious move towards war.
In Tel aviv today to meet with realtor and seller about apt in Jer. We were on the 16th floor, watching the horizon. Hezbollah had threatened to hit Azraeli towers at dusk (when radar doesn't work as well). An empty threat.
I feel safe, but unsettled. I sent you (I think) my account of the walk with D. before his deployment north. These Arabs are not worth the death of a single Jew.
The shelters have been opened here. I rather do not want to be cooped up with the people in the merkaz klita.
I've been asked to go north tomorrow to work with olim hadashim in safed and such; not sure this will take place. tomorrow evening, have been asked to run group meeting for oilim in Ra'anana.
Ironically, Jerusalem is one of the safer places to be -- for a change.
Hope to have my soldier book off to press by end of month (I have minor surgery July 28). Meeting with the artist, I hope, on thursday. Look forward to starting the Jacob and Joseph book. Also have a paper on dreams and another paper that I have left sitting for some time.
I don't think this war will last too long: the Israelis are doing too well and the U.N. doesn't tolerate that.
We have much to be proud of. At dinner last night, the yiddish-speaking guest described his father's activites in the concentration camps; I thought of my father's sad attempts to smuggle food and an occassional bullet into the ghetto. Jews need to be strong first. And forever. Editor's note: Sounds like it's all going as predicted by our news here in the US. And it's nice to have most of the Islamic nations on Israel's side, for once. Perhaps sanity is sinking in? Someone has to take out the garbage. Including Ahmadinejad, whose lovely comments today are here and here.
Sunday, July 16. 2006
July 16, 2005 A soldier readies for deployment north
I stay with small stories. The big ones - political matters, wars - are too large a canvas for me. Tolstoy I am not.
Today - after two soldiers killed and one kidnapped in Israel by Gaza, after several soldiers killed and two kidnapped in Israel by Lebanese, after rockets designed in Iran have landed in Haifa, Sfad, Carmiel, Naharya, and other places - I sit in Netanya in the down-at-the-heels Green Hotel lobby, the TV running with news of the eight killed in Haifa today to write.To tell about D.,a 21 year-old sergeant in Nachshon, a unit trained for close-combat urban warfare.
About how he prepares his nine men for deployment in the North. Saturday, D. approaches me in front of the Beit Kenesset after services. Wants to talk with me some time today, before he gets called back. He must check in hourly for status, but has been getting intermittent phone calls from his men. Asks them to call only if it seems critical. These newly trained recruits, trained by D., seem nervous, I think. The other trainees consider D. too tough, to distant, too demanding. His men defend him. I gather that D. is particularly good at training his men to stay alive. For this they are grateful. He knows that at the end of the training in a few weeks, he will "break distance": they will be able to call him by his first name, likely toss him into a pool and such. For now, he keeps the distance he needs to keep them alert. He does night guard duty with some of his men to make sure that they stay awake. Tells them do push-ups, run to stay awake. When one fellow takes a jog to keepalert, he is almost clocked by a buddy; the night is no friend to "friendly fire."
He apologizes that he did not call me Friday when he returned: had an hour to spend with his main squeeze on the beach; apologizes for not being in shul this a.m.-- went with his little sister to see her friend at an another shul; wants to see me today for one of hour walks that last a few hours. He will be heading back at nightfall.
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Continue reading "Note from Nathan, in Israel"
Our Crocosmia is in full bloom, but a bit weighted down by their flowers, and by over-growth from all of the rain. The bulbs are fairly expensive (wrong - mine were $35 years ago, but cheap now), but they spread vigorously in a sunny spot and you soon have bulbs (I think they are technically "corms") to give away. Hummingbirds love these. (lens had a little condensation from coming out of the A/C) Tropical-looking, they grow well in Yankee-land. 
Saturday, July 15. 2006
Re-posted from 7-5-05 Mark Helprin Update Soldier of the Great War is my favorite of the four books of his I have read, but many know him only through his WSJ opinion pieces. An excellent interview, mini-bio, and update in Harvard Magazine. An excerpt from the piece: No living authors influence his writing, Helprin says. Instead, his lodestars include Dante, Shakespeare, Melville, Mark Twain. There are indeed echoes of Twain in his new novel, Freddy and Fredericka, due out this summer. It narrates the journey of a wayward British royal couple rusticated to America, where they travel incognito and survive hilarious adventures that read, as the dust jacket has it, “as if de Tocqueville had been rewritten by Mark Twain (with a deep bow to Harpo Marx).” Helprin is a classicist. He believes in history, tradition, and eternal verities. He values aesthetic symmetries and the literary forms the centuries have passed down to us. To Helprin, the principles of modernism are fatal to art, and he has no truck with the avant-garde. “The avant-garde are frauds,” he bluntly declares. “Modern literature is all cool and detached, even though a lot of modern writers are passionate about their politics. To me, passion should be for literature, and reason and detachment for politics. “A lot of people hate heroes,” he continues. “I was criticized for portraying people who are brave, honest, loving, intelligent. That was called weak and sentimental. People who dismiss all real emotion as sentimentality are cowards. They’re afraid to commit themselves, and so they remain ‘cool’ for the rest of their lives, until they’re dead—then they’re really cool.”
Photo by Jim Harrison in Harvard Magazine Update: Did read Freddy and Frederika this past winter. It would work for beach reading.
Self-defence is a basic human right, both for individuals and for nations - or for animals, for that matter. It is the most basic right of living creatures. An unprotected home is not a safe and secure home, and a handy gun is as essential as a shovel, duct tape, or a pair of pliers. You cannot defend yourself and your family with a whistle and a phone call to 911 any more than Israel can defend herself with a phone call to the UN. Guns are the best tools for self-defence by far, plus they are fun, too. And, thank God, we are still allowed to shoot when bad guys invade our space and our lives. Looked at one of these yesterday at the gun shop. The Marines use them. I like it. Bad guys hate it, because it can turn their heads into instant pizza-topping, which is highly discouraging to those with evil intentions. The Benelli M4. One ugly-looking shotgun. 
Tuesday, July 11. 2006
 This very large crested Woody Woodpecker-looking bird was extremely scarce in New England during the 50s and 60s, but they have become more common in recent years as the farmlands return to woodlands. Their numbers have always been stable in the South, I believe.
I often see them hanging around dead trees where beavers have flooded woods. The loud kuk kuk kuk call announces their presence, and the large rectangular holes they chip in trees, looking for bugs, lets you know that they are around. More about the wonderful Pileated here at CLO. Image borrowed from the excellent CLO website. I have rarely seen a tree with as many Pileated holes as the one below, from this photographer's website. Interesting to see the old, healed Pileated holes in the Hemlock immediately behind. 
Monday, July 10. 2006
I do not think that having the "netroots" visibly on your side is doing any favors to the electability of Dems. I have several reasons: 1. Hate rarely produces good outcomes, 2. I haven't seen what they stand for other than hatred of those who think differently - or, more accurately - feel differently, and, 3. They always sound paranoid and nutty. Ace discusses David Brooks' piece on the subject. Freud's concept of "the narcissism of small differences" helps explain how the Dems can be in a hot fight against one of their own most visible leaders, Joe Lieberman who, in fact, is a very liberal if not Leftist politician. In politics, you aren't supposed to eat your own. It is counterproductive, unless you are caught up in something wierd. But what if something wierd is going on? After contemplating all of the above, and recent news on the blogs, etc., one must consider all of the rumors going around that The Daily Kos blog is a Bush-CIA-RNC Nixonian construct designed to discredit the Democratic Party. Since all of the Rovian hallmarks are there, I suspect that it is likely, but I can't prove it. Just think about it: you set up a couple of websites to get a million angry amateurs and mentally unstable kooks (many of them probably CIA junior staff guys and RNC junior staff folks having great fun posting and cheerleading, plus thousands of Christian right-wing extremist volunteers) to dig into the core of your opposition, and weaken it from within. What could be more Rovian? More devilishly ingenious and convoluted? And to hire a haute-nurdy ex-Army guy for cover... too clever to be an accident. Don't ya think? And, just consider - how many blogs could rent a place in Vegas for a meeting of their readers? Could your blog do that? Hmmmm. I suspect half of the attendees were plants, collecting personal info, and half looked like homeless brought in for free food and tee-shirts to set the stage for the sting, and the third half, if my math is right, was true believers. What better way to get names and ID but to gather people at hotels voluntarily? Only an evil genius could create a trap that people would take out loans to get into, while easily harvesting their credit card data, addresses, gambling and other private personal habits (I have heard a story from an anonymous source that all Vegas hotel rooms are bugged and videoed for "security" purposes), etc. Now this Affaire Frisch - definitely a suspicious effort to discredit the Dems: she provokes, takes a fake fall, and gets her checks and reappears with another alias and a fresh outrage in a few weeks. Don't tell me she didn't intend to get "caught," because every good sting has people getting "caught" to add verisimilitude. A pro only gets caught on purpose. And the selection of Lieberman as a target - highly suspicious to pick the one guy the Repubs would like to keep on board - it's perfect cover, while it turns the netroots against the Dems, and distracts them from the Repubs - and Lieberman will win anyway. Ned Lamont? A useful idiot in the game - a pawn, utterly unaware of his role, targeted for the multi-millions of his own he could spend to complete the charade....after all, if half of the netroots are agent-provocateur posters with CIA-generated aliases and locations, and half are pot-addled hippies stuck in the 60s and paying off their PCs with Disability checks, where else would the money for a campaign come from? Think about it. And this is happening shortly after Rove left his White House berth for "other operations." Could all of this be pure coincidence? Didn't Rove openly say "We have a plan, and we will win"? And, to date, Markos Mole-itsas has yet to deny the rumor. I have heard some even speculate that the rumor itself is CIA-generated, so as to appear to discredit Kos, thus adding an additional layer of cover for Markos as his visibility increases. That would be classic CIA. As soon as Rove-Bushitler-Nixon-CIA tracks all the names they want under the guise of "anti-terror," watch out!
The University of Wisconsin at Madison has, in their wisdom, hired a certain Mr. Barrett to teach a course called "Introduction to Islam." Mr. Barrett has founded an organization called: "The Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9-11 Truth." That sounds nice, if a nightmare for the caterers; people of many faiths getting together to... hey! What's this "truth" he's talking about? ''The physics of those collapses clearly could not have resulted from plane crashes and jet fuel fires with office materials.'' Barrett says jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel, and says recent tests on melted steel from the building prove his theory that it was wired to collapse, by the Government. Barrett says the Bush Administration is fooling the American public with the Adolf Hitler 'Big Lie Technique'...
Out there in Iowa...I mean Wisconsin... That's truth with a capital "T" and that spells out Trouble! the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance, which claims the Bush administration planned the attacks to create a war between Muslims and Christians. He argues that members of the faiths must work together to overcome the belief that terrorists were to blame.
"The 9/11 lie was designed to sow hatred between the faiths," Barrett has written on the organization's Web site.
"Either we discuss the compelling evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, or there is precious little to talk about."
Oh, I see. George Bush is a crazy lunatic that wants to foment war with the Muslims. Hmmm. Well, since George Bush is the President, I guess he can do that without all the genocidal urban renewal Mr Barrett figures he needs to undertake, but hey, I'm not the expert. Apparently, Mr. Barrett is. He claims to know all about the structural properties of skyscrapers, and the ramifications, if you'll pardon the term, of ramming big airplanes filled with jet fuel into them. Who are we to quibble? He's got degrees in Arabic and African Folklore. Those come in handy when you're setting rebar in concrete, no doubt. He's a deep thinker, Mr Barrett: 9/11 was designed by non-religious, Machievellian-Straussian cynics who believe that hatred and hostility are what move the world. By uniting for 9/11 truth we are standing up for love and compassion against their hatred. And we are standing up for astonishment and awe against their cynicism. For them, it was just a minor special effects extravaganza, put together by Hollywood specialists to manipulate audience emotion and pave the way for war—a slightly more realistic version of Wag the Dog. For them, the deaths of a few thousand people mean very little..
Astonishment and awe? I thought it was "shock and awe." And he wants to do swell things by talking about this stuff: Kevin Barrett will discuss strategies for turning the 9/11 psychological warfare operation against its perpetrators, and using 9/11 truth as a "magic bullet" that could demilitarize the American economy, overthrow corrupt elites, turn attention and resources toward pressing environmental concerns, and usher in a new era of peace and justice.
Hmm. Magic bullets. What, no magic beans? Now when someone tells me they want me to believe them about one thing, so they can get me to do something else, I wonder about the veracity of that thing I'm supposed to believe. Like when bums ask you for money for food. Sometimes, I hate to disappoint you, but they spend the money you give them on booze and drugs. That's just FYI; I don't want to cast aspersions on hobos by associating them with Mr Barrett. And so if Mr. Barrett wishes to have me pay attention to his beliefs on environmental concerns and so forth, which seem, well, not germane to discussions of mass murder, and to get me to do so by accusing the President of the United States, along with large numbers of other persons in the government and military necessary to mount such an audacious scheme, I have but one question for him. Just the one.
Continue reading "Just One Question, Please, Mr. Barrett"
The Kamahameha Schools: a Private Charitable Trust Being Nationalized by the Ninth Circuit The Bishop Estate has assets of around $10 billion, and is one of the richest private charities in the world. It is also the largest private property owner in the state of Hawai’i. The sole beneficiary of this immense trust, created in 1884 by the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha, is the Kamehameha Schools www.ksbe.edu/. In her will, Princess Pauahi created the trust, "to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools, one for boys and one for girls, to be called the Kamehameha Schools." Last August, a panel of the notorious Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decreed that the Schools practiced unfair discrimination, citing “segregation academies” in Old Dixie. Peter Brown in RealClearPolitics wrote: For 118 years, the Kamehameha Schools have limited enrollment to those with native-Hawaiian blood. Its highly regarded K-12 schools are funded by an almost $7 billion trust left by 19th century Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Supporters claim that because no tax money is involved discrimination is permissible, although federal courts decades long ago dismissed that same argument in Dixie by segregation academies. Enrollment is offered to all "qualified" native-Hawaiians. If spaces there left over, members of other races may be considered. But only a handful of the 5,400 students on the school's three campuses are not of native Hawaiian descent. School officials say a history of unfair treatment of native Hawaiians justifies the policy. The Supreme Court has allowed racial preferences to compensate for past discrimination in limited cases. A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals last August said the schools' policy does not meet that criterion. The decision triggered a massive protest demonstration by native Hawaiians. The full 15-judge Ninth Circuit in June heard an appeal. Regardless of the verdict, the case seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gwynnie fails to see the problem. The schools were created by a private individual long before Hawai’i became a state and continue to be privately supported. Why can’t her wishes be sustained? For the same reason that Catholic seminaries can restrict admission to Catholics, a Hawaiian should be able to fund the education of Hawaiians. The purpose of a private school is to restrict admissions to those they select, and Gwynnie asks who is harmed by the policy of the Kamehameha Schools?
Continue reading "More on the Kamahameha Schools: The 9th Circus Rides Again"
I view evil as sin without guilt or remorse. I define sin more or less Biblically. Evil does exist in this world. My Leftist academic friends refuse to see it because it would mess up their world-view and they might have to fight something a bit more dangerous than golfer Republicans with pink pants, and my re-born Fundie pals (yes - academia has some closet Bible-readers) insist that the word is "Devil" with the "D", not "Evil." There is a culture gap there which will never be crossed. "Devil" implies an external force; "evil" implies a human source. But put me in the "Believing in Evil" column anyway, even though C.S. Lewis convinced me that it makes as much sense to believe in a God as in a Devil. And I do believe in a God, although my degree of faith varies day to day. It would chart like the Dow Jones, with its long-term upward trend. The denial of evil is dangerous. It leads naive or willfully naive folks to trust when they should not. Whenever I consult with a new patient, one of the first several things I quietly assess is their degree of what we call "sociopathy" - the strength of their conscience. Not whether they behave well, but whether they care enough in their bones about the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, integrity or deception, manipulation vs. genuine vulnerability, self-interest vs. genuine love. It's not about how they act in public, or about what they say - successful sociopaths can be actors and good schmoozers, flattering, engaging and ingratiating, and sometimes charismatic. Those traits are red flags. Sociopathic people are rarely awkward or genuinely vulnerable. And while they are ultimately "takers" and "users," they don't want that to show, and, if they're really good, they can even make you feel good about it. They'll tell you how great you look and buy you a drink while they pick your pocket. It is important for a psychiatrist because sociopathic people are beyond help, and we should not take their money. They don't tell us the whole story, and they shade it, distort it, provide false confessions and play other tricks. They cannnot help it, and that is the tragedy. Self before all, Self as God. Like Tony Soprano. And they find ways to justify or "rationalize" (a shrink term for justifying or excusing sin) this to themselves, or they don't even bother. Yes, they feel pain, but it's the wrong kind. There's only narcissitic pain - self-pain, or shame, or self-pity. But, even as I write this, I see myself falling into my own trap, i.e. talking about evil as if it were pathology. It is not. When evil is strong, it is a form of spiritual death, of soul death - a thing that "chokes the breath of conscience and good cheer" and which brings pain and misery and destruction to others with it. This happens because the experience of soul-lessness, of inner hunger, of spiritual emptiness, drives people to fill the emptiness with money, power, admiration, adolescent-style nurturing, attention, a feeling of self-importance, multiple love or sex partners, "substances," etc. - always putting their image needs, and instinctive needs, first. Life as an extension of high-school. Feeling like objects, they treat others as objects too - as sources to fulfill their needs and hungers. When I try to blend my psychoanalytic training with my religion, I view self-love as one key to thinking about evil. I don't mean ordinary vanity and conceit - I mean the hidden destructive self-interest which is easily concealed behind any number of facades, such as modest, victimized, or innocent demeanors, for common examples. Pride, envy, vengefulness, destructive or angry inner selves - these sins reside in all of us, which is why we need Christ to bail us out - but only evil can put on a real show of care. The only thing psychiatrists have to offer to evil is prayer. Why discuss this in The Blog? Because I think it is relevant to our view of the world, not just our personal lives. The Stalins and Hitlers and Saddams and Castros are too easy. Don't be paranoid in life - just insist that trustworthiness and decent intentions be proven, whether in world affairs or in your personal life, before you bestow the gift of trust. And, for Heaven's sake, don't look for those good things in the world of international affairs. Just think about it for one second - who would want to be President of Russia? Or Dictator of Venezuela? The only reason I have some trust in Bush is because I don't believe he ever really wanted the job, or felt worthy of it. That is a "plus" in my book.
Saturday, July 8. 2006
A propos of the post by Bird Dog below on Race in Hawaii, and before I go out for a rousing morning ride with the spouse on antsy horses who need exercise badly, due to all of the rain we have had, I thought I might highlight a piece by LaShawn entitled Georgia's Darkies, which begins thus: Update (4:31 p.m.): A judge has decided that blacks in Georgia (use BugMeNot to bypass reg.) are too helpless to go to the DMV and obtain a free state-issued ID.
———————————————————————————– Even if I lived a thousand lifetimes, I don’t think I’ll ever understand why there aren’t more black people outraged by the implication that blacks are ignorant and helpless. Every time I hear or read about some white liberal arguing for lower academic standards for black children, supporting set-aside programs for black-owned businesses, and blaming “racism” for crime and other pathologies, I want to vomit. But I retch alone.
But of course, LaShawn: everybody of every color enjoys a freebie - it's human, but undignified and shameful - so folks try to rationalize it so as not to feel embarassed or sleazy. See our piece on White Guilt. LaShawn's whole piece here. However, I believe that all of the opposition to voter ID is about permitting vote fraud. No-one legally in the US lacks some form of ID, if only a library card. To prove the point, the only time I have ever voted without having to show ID was in NYC, in 1970-something. If I had no conscience, I could have voted all day long. I'd love to see a serious audit of NYC voting, someday. Not holding my breath. By the way, the judge involved was a racist, I believe. And I hate to throw that kind of ugly term around, but only a racist could make such a contemptuous and paternalistic ruling, like a good plantation-owner exercising pseudo-Christian noblesse oblige. We are way past that. In fact, I find Americans all to eager to open their arms to anyone and everyone, with remarkable naivete at times. Let's expect the best from all, and reproach the worst when it occurs, and ignore this skin-color BS - it is superficial and disgusting and un-American. Putting people in color groups is kindergarten. Show me who you are. I could care less what you look like.
 Hawaii deals with race in very different ways than we do on the mainland. I think it is safe to say that most Americans' ideal is to ignore race entirely, and to deal with people as people, without preference and without prejudice.
"Created equal" was the noble, and historically mind-boggling term, as I recall. (Of course, character, manners, brains, honor, etc., are another matter...but basic human dignity is yours for free in the USA, unless you renounce it with bad behavior or unfortunate choices. But that is free choice.) We posted the piece at RCP by Peter Brown this week, which asked whether Hawaii was part of the US, especially with respect to their handling of race - specifically, those descended from the native Hawaiians. Bird of Paradise emailed us this comment on that piece: Aside from the sheer ignorance of the writer of the actual "culture" and "ethos" of Hawaii Mr. Brown simply fails to mention that, unlike the segregated academies of the Dixie-South, the Kamehameha Schools was educating Hawaiian students in this manner (as interpreted in Princess Pauahi Bishop's will and endorsed by her husband after her death) back when Hawaii was an independent nation. There is a strong sense of justice in Hawaii that appears to have been completely lost to Mr. Brown. Here in Hawaii we respect the people who were once the sole inhabitants of this land and whose ancestors ruled and governed Hawaii as an independent nation (one of the few in the world during the 19th century) until a coup-d'etat overthrew the monarchy and established a republic that later became a territory of the United States and then, in 1959, our 50th state. The Hawaiian people have, with little complaint (except for a few hateful individuals) been granted over 100 legal exemptions to state laws by the Hawaii legislature over the years (including access to certain private properties for gathering herbs, etc., etc.) There are few who begrudge the admissions policies of the Kamehameha Schools (although there are many who desire that the Pauahi Biship Estate be better and more fairly administered to meet the many needs of the many poor and needy children of Hawaiian ancestry in the state.) This is one reason why the Akaka Bill was supported by many in the Hawaiian & Hawaii communities (not a majority, but still a sizable number--I opposed the bill but only because it is so loosely written that the full implications of the bill would not be known until years after its passage). By granting "native Hawaiians" indiginous legal status (as Native American tribal groups have) these exemption laws and the admission policies of the Kamehameha Schools could remain intact AS APPROVED BY THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND ENDORSED BY THE PEOPLE OF HAWAII rather than having these cultural "rights" thrown out by a bunch of legal bozos in San Francisco (who have nearly 2/3 of their decisions overruled anyway). I am not pro-sovereignty for the Hawaiian people but I do desire (as virtually every resident in Hawaii does also) to extend to them certain rights and priviliges appropriate to their heritage, culture and traditions. While the current interpretation of US Constitutional law may, in fact, negate those legal priviliges now enjoyed by the Hawaiian people (as distinct from the "people of Hawaii") it is nonetheless the clear consensus in this state that, in this case at least, Dickens was right when he wrote that, "The law's an ass." Aloha -
One hates to steal from a man of the cloth, but... Photo of Hanalei Bay on Kauai from our friend Bird of Paradise's blog - link above.
Friday, July 7. 2006
There always seemed to me to be a contradiction to have small-government conservatives and libertarians in positions of power, because ideologically they supposedly dislike and distrust government power - especially Federal power. Even Reagan was unable to get rid of the Dept of Education, which has no reason for existence as far as I can tell other than to announce, in FDR-style, "We care; we try," but of course at our expense, so we end up paying dearly for the BS that is fed to us. And I am a Dem, but not a Lib. I do not dislike George Bush - in fact, I sort of like his casual style. But he is neither a Repub nor a Dem - he's our Pres. - not an easy job, with the full force of the Lefty press against him and with plenty of big-mouths getting angry about every single decision the guy makes. He is only human. The wacko Left, who damage us Dems badly, try to deify every Dem president, like the Romans did. False gods. Wrong approach for free-thinking Americans. Our pols, like most pols, are egomaniac smoothies with nothing better to do, or nothing else they can do. That's the deal. There is One God, and I hope He can find humor in some of our preoccupations. Both Bush administrations disappointed conservatives deeply, not because they are tricksters, but because politics and governance seem to require at least the illusion of a "can do" Federal govt. And, since FDR, Americans have learned to look to Washington to "fix it," or at least to look as if they are trying. They (we) will never un-learn this, since it is built into human nature to lean on power for help and protection while, as Dr. Bliss has taught us, striving for personal goals and independence. In democracies, where people can vote themselves free stuff - something the Founders never imagined in their wildest dreams because their culture of the time could not have imagined such weakness of spirit existing in a free new world of boundless, classless opportunity and freedom to own property - conservatives are at a disadvantage, whether "good govt" Dem conservatives like me, or conservative Repubs. Thus Buckley's conservatism "stands athwart history, yelling Stop..." Boston College Political Science Prof. Alan Wolfe has written a piece, Why Conservatives Can't Govern. It is an over-heated, hyperbolic, and fact-twisting anti-Bush rant (for just one example, he makes it sound as if K Street were a Repub thing - it's not. K Street just follows the influence - they don't care who it is) rather than a calm, thoughtful essay, but he does have some good points. A quote: If government is necessary, bad government, at least for conservatives, is inevitable, and conservatives have been exceptionally good at showing just how bad it can be. Hence the truth revealed by the Bush years: Bad government--indeed, bloated, inefficient, corrupt, and unfair government--is the only kind of conservative government there is. Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are not likely to do it very well.
Despite the partisanship and erroneous rhetoric, there is a point or two in this piece. What he omits is that the Liberals do no better - or worse. (Clinton, and his abandoned wife, are, in my opinion, left-tilting, amoral pragmatists for whom power, money, and self-importance is the goal, not ideolology. Both have more cojones than they have wisdom, and not only am I smarter than they are, but they couldn't run the businesses I run for five minutes. Truman, at least, ran a haberdashery.) I do believe that if our Liberal Dems had full power, the US would be a train wreck like France. (I have yet to see the Liberal "world-class boeuf bourguignon." World-class things - like great restaurants - are produced in the private sector.) But I will not donate the time to refute every Lefty talking point in this piece - just see if you can find the good stuff in it. Which is more foolish: Antagonism towards government, or faith in government?
Answer: Both.
Thursday, July 6. 2006
Is it moral to sell your kidney? Your placenta for stem cells (or does it belong to your kid?) What are the ethics - if any - and morals of commerce of the human body? Which is an indirect way of asking what the morals and ethics of capitalism are. We know what many libertarians would say, but what would each of us say? Eric Cohen at New Atlantis has a fine wide-ranging essay on the subject, covering Calvin, Voltaire, Weber, Adam Smith, Irving Kristol, etc etc.: Biotechnology and the Spirit of Capitalism. Couple of quotes: In 1991, with the last vestiges of communism crumbling and the Cold War ending, Irving Kristol warned that the greatest threats to a capitalist future were spiritual and cultural. “In a sense,” he said, “it is all Adam Smith’s fault. That amiable, decent genius simply could not imagine a world where traditional moral certainties could be effectively challenged and repudiated. Bourgeois society is his legacy, for good and ill. For good, in that it has produced, through the market economy, a world prosperous beyond all previous imaginings—including socialist imaginings. For ill, in that this world, with every passing decade, has become ever more spiritually impoverished.” In the end, Smith’s error was his lack of “eschatological realism.” Man is not simply an average being who seeks to improve in material ways. He is also an imperfect being who yearns for perfection, a mortal being who yearns for immortality, and an ambitious being who sometimes believes that he can make others more perfect or less mortal through his own mastery of nature. And so Adam Smith’s world of practical commerce—a great success—is still haunted by the Protestant desire for other-worldly grace and by Voltaire’s desire for “terrestrial paradise.” We demand that material progress offer salvation—which is exactly what socialism once promised and what biotechnology may promise in the future. Or we demand that material progress be abandoned in the name of salvation—soberly, by those who seek to preserve sacred retreats in a profane world, or radically, by extremists who seek to dismantle modern life altogether.
Read the whole thing. It's an education.
Vizslas, aka Hungarian Pointers, 
are not only the most
frequently-misspelled breed, but, in my experience, the most eager, alert, energetic, and driven hunters I know for upland game. They are considered medium-sized, but I have hunted with some that were fairly small, which was good for getting under briar patches and alder thickets: I prefer the smaller bloodlines. They are said to be very tolerant of the cold, but I have seen them shivering and miserable after four or five hours in Maine sleet. But so were we brainless humans, who should have been sitting by the wood stove sipping brandy and telling lies. Cuddly babies at home, they are lions in the field. The svelte Vizslas have only come out of Hungary in the past 50 years. Excellent, loving pets, too, but they were born to run and need lots of space and vigorous exercise. I'd love to have one or two of these guys.
Wednesday, July 5. 2006
 We have been rough on the New York Times since Maggie's Farm opened for business. I think it is because many of us grew up with this newspaper, and had come to rely on her.
But she done us wrong. Things have changed, since Pinch took over. So many feel betrayed, and played for fools. And have cancelled, despite missing much of their unobjectionable, good, well-written material on non-political matters. We, and others, have caught them many times with their pants down, but now they are caught dead to rights: Powerline It's a damn shame that they chose this route. If you have an opinion, send it to the public editor at public@nytimes.com, but do not expect any satisfaction. They have already drunk the kool-aid, and have left objectivity far in the past, with Abe Rosenfeld. Now, they are not only flagrantly partisan, but dishonest and anti-American. You might almost think they were French, but, God knows, they might take that as a compliment.
At a July 4th party last night, saw the daughter of friends - hadn't seen her in a year or more. Last time I saw her, she had purple hair and body piercings, acted sullen, etc. She graduated from Princeton two years ago, and has been working at a media company in NYC since graduation. At the party, where we all took part in reading pieces of the Declaration of Independence and drank gin and tonics, this nice young gal - who no longer has purple hair, etc., told me that she is joining the US Army and beginning Basic Training in September. I said "God bless you." I asked all about how they do boot camp for gals, etc. Some is co-ed, and some is not. Interesting. She wants to go into Army Intelligence. She should. She said "They didn't quite know what to make of my resume." I said, "Read Illario Pantaro's Warlord." She didn't know about it. What a fine thing to hear about on the Fourth of July. The moral of the story for me was: Never judge a kid by what they're like as a teen-ager, because most of them grow up.
Reposted from July 27, 2005  The young Cornell engineer Willis Haviland Carrier patented his "Apparatus for Treating Air" in 1906, for industrial purposes, and it was quickly taken up by the paper industry. By 1926, Hudson's Department Store in Detroit had A/C, which was a huge draw. His technique came to him in an instant of inspiration at a train station. By 1928, residential machines first became available, and after the war they became common in new housing developments. But their appearance in movie theaters in the 40s was maybe the most dramatic event - even more important than the magical moment of color in the Wizard of Oz. The A/C alone was worth the price of the 25-cent ticket. The first air-conditioned car was the 1940 Packard.
While we must be grateful to Mr. Carrier on days like today, the downside is that his machines eliminated the traditional months-long July and August vacations to places like New Hampshire, Cape Cod, Maine, and the Berkshires, where at least nights are cool and breezy. And it eliminated the wonderful screened "sleeping porch" which late 1800s houses often located on the second floor, in the back, of course. My Great Aunt Buffie had one, and her bed got moved out there for the summer. Camping out, in town. And I suppose it made the old front porch redundant too, where you rocked and sipped beer or lemonade in your undershirt to the tune of the crickets and katydids, smoked a Lucky or two, watched the young folks promenading past, flirting and courting, and could hear, in the distance, the muted, murmering conversations of the neighbors on their porches. A/C pulled people indoors, and isolated them, I suppose, from both neighbor and nature. Not to mention its effect on high-rise buildings - A/C is right up there with Mr. Elisha Graves Otis and his elevator. Many traditionalist Yankees continue to eschew air conditioning at home, but they don't sleep very well in the summer. And they drip sweat on their paperwork. They view A/C as a weenie pantywaist luxury, unnatural and indulgent. Which it is, for sure. But what a fine and inexpensive luxury. Surely it's not a sin? Call me ambivalent about it - but I could not work without it. A major effect in the US was that it permitted the huge business growth, and population growth, of the South and the Southwest. I guess you could blame Carrier for the Red State phenomenon, in a way. You can read about the the A/C compressor and refrigerant works here, and more about Mr. Carrier here.
Sunday, July 2. 2006
 For the third time this weekend - at least - I find myself reading NYT publisher Suzlberger's recent commencement address, this time in an update, dealing with the financial transaction tracking report, at Dinocrat.
What he said was, as posted by Dino: his generation “had seen the horrors and futility of war and smelled the stench of corruption in government. “Our children, we vowed, would never know that. So, well, sorry. It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” the publisher continued. “You weren’t supposed to be graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights,...”
 So this guy still buys into the adolescent grandiosity of the 60s. This guy still thinks that earthly paradise, beyond history and human nature, can be created -but now with the NYT in the vanguard of world peace, love, justice, etc. See our NYT and Love Beads link in Recent Essays - but I didn't think he was this stuck in a myth and a delusion. Has he ever held a job, or met any normal non-Manhattan people? And was he even there in the 60s? If he was, he would know how nutty it was.
Along with his honorary degree, these comments earn Pinch an honorary doctorate in Moonbatism, for having demonstrated both his grandiosity, his lack of realism, his reflexive anti-Americanism, and his inability to understand evil in the world - unless it's the evil American military, and the evil, brain-dead, ignorant, knuckle-dragging, uneducated, red-neck, right-wing extremist nutjobs like us at Maggie's.
Saturday, July 1. 2006
 Jones Beach, on the south shore of Long Island (Atlantic), receives more visitors annually than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined.
Humans do like beaches. It's a big one, and a fine birding spot during the fall and winter. It's New York City's beach - the people's back yard, and one of the world's great beaches. And no condos and no shops - the narrow barrier island is a 2400-acre NY State Park. It has some remarkable heron and egret rookeries. In winter, it's good for Snowy Owls, Rough-legged hawks, Gannets, Bonaparte's and other interesting or rare gulls, the occasional alcid (murres, razorbills, and auks), and plenty of Harbor Seals in the surf, which, at first, you think is someone's Lab taking a swim - until they dive. Plenty of Myrtle Warblers over-wintering on the bayberries. But in the summer, it is Coppertone time - time to strut your good stuff - and no-one is stalking through the scrub and poison ivy looking for birds of the feathered variety. Photo from the above link.
Thursday, June 29. 2006
 Well, we've already explained the Cult of the Daily Kos here: Daily Kos is the Amway of Bile And that was before we found out you weren't getting your platinum level member's card and special introductory Bushitlerburton T-shirt unless your moon was in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligned with Mars.
Well, peace won't rule the planet because you vent your spleen over and over in a chat room. It's our contention that Markos Moulitsas would be shoving food out a hole in a wall if he didn't preside over that coven of contentiousness, The Daily Kos; but what about his minions? Umm --toadies! Er, running dog lackeys, yeah, that's it! Nah, his, his, well, let's see... let's be polite: his commenters. What the hell makes them congregate together, simultaneously proclaiming they are an ascendant majority and a tiny vanguard minority, always being unfairly portrayed by the media and betrayed by shady cabals everywhere? What's their story? Enchiridion Militis thinks he knows: They're the 2006 version of the John Birch Society.
I advise my kids, as they grow up and enter the semi-adult social world, to appraise the people they meet - assuming they like them - before deciding to what extent they would invite them into their personal life, if at all. We have all been disappointed by people, by ignoring things that were right in front of our eyes, especially when we were young. Without ever getting into psychology, I just want them to be able to identify problem personality traits or personality types which have the potential to be damaging to them. I don't want them to obsess about it - just to be intelligently observant and to not take people at face value. It's like Bird Dog identifying birds, or The Barrister having fun identifying fallacies. Call it "Know Your People." The subject comes up because I was forwarded Instapundit's link to his wife's piece on Borderlines, at Dr. Helen. It can be difficult to write about psychological subjects for laypeople, because we tend to use so much jargon in our thinking, but she does a good job with the subject. However smart or charming Borderline women can be, guys are best off keeping an emotional distance from these often-exciting but angry and unstable females, because they can be very hurtful. Other types worth identifying "in the field": The "Slimies." This includes the ingratiating, the manipulative, the liars, the smoothies, the users, the vengeful, the overly-earnest, the conniving, the calculating. More common in men. Stay away, because how slimies treat others is the way they will treat you when you are no longer useful or convenient. The "Angries." Always a complaint, without ability to take any joy in life. Just not any fun. Occurs in both mean and women. The "Dopeys." They have never been curious enough about life to know much about anything beyond the totally conventional and superficial. Could be fun for a while, but ultimately dull and cannot enrich your life. Occurs equally in men and women. The "Narcissists." They dig themselves so much that they don't really have much interest or energy for anyone else (unless the other is a "narcissistic object" - but that's too complicated for here). They want admiring mirrors more than they want real relationships. They are takers, often attractive and charming in a way, but they can be very unpleasant when they do not get the attention or adulation they believe they deserve. Enjoy them socially, but don't get too close. Occurs equally in men and women, but more obvious in women.
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