Colbert Succintly States the Republican Strategy

"Tragedies are like facts: you have to pretend that they don't exist."

The Daily Dicking

I rather liked the philosophical discussion in chapter 89, Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish, about how we are all in some ways owned by someone and in some ways free for the taking. Reading it wouldn't ruin the story if you want to take a look. It also includes this bit of wit from our good fellow Melville:

In the course of the defence, the witty Erskine went on to illustrate his position, by alluding to a recent crim. con. case, wherein a gentleman, after in vain trying to bridle his wife's viciousness, had at last abandoned her upon the seas of life; but in the course of years, repenting of that step, he instituted an action to recover possession of her. Erskine was on the other side; and he then supported it by saying, that though the gentleman had originally harpooned the lady, and had once had her fast, and only by reason of the great stress of her plunging viciousness, had at last abandoned her; yet abandon her he did, so that she became a loose-fish; and therefore when a subsequent gentleman re-harpooned her, the lady then became that subsequent gentleman's property, along with whatever harpoon might have been found sticking in her.

Technorati tag: Moby-Dick06

Is There a Limit?

A patron walks into a library, walks up to the counter, and tells the librarian, “I need to build a tree house.” So the librarian does a quick catalog search and finds three books with step-by-step directions for a variety of cool tree house designs. Then the patron says, “I’m not real comfortable with books. Would you read them for me and tell me what they say?” So the librarian does. The patron proceeds to run across the street to the hardware store, buy all the necessary materials, and bring them back to the library. “I’m not very good with my hands. Would you build the tree house for me?” So the librarian does. Sound ridiculous? I think most people would agree that it does.

So why, then, does the same scenario not seem outrageous to people when it applies to computers? From sending and receiving emails to writing resumes to doing taxes, patrons are not satisfied with the library simply providing access to the information. They want the librarians to do the actual work for them. I try to draw the line at providing step-by-step directions, even if it means reading the website and making sense of it for them, but there have been a few instances where the person was insistent enough that I actually gave in, took over the computer, and did the work for him or her. It’s tax season right now, so most of the demands relate to taxes. I’m sorry, but we’re librarians, not CPAs. We’ll gladly do what we can to help, but we won’t do your taxes for you just because a computer is involved in some way.

Life is like a box of chocolates...

We always end up with the almond crunch. We are deathly allergic to almonds. Hopefully this sets the scene.
So, I was off of work for quite a while due to a wretched case of bronchitis and sinus infections. Well, things got really tight with money and now they have gone from bad to worse. I applied for disability, and oddly enough, I was able to get it. So I went through all the paperwork and yadda yadda. Finally they said I would receive it in my next pay check. So Leelu and I decided to go out and get some of the essentials that we needed food wise and household wise. We got groceries, paper towels, fuel for our cars, etc. The whole time thinking that the disability would come through in my check as promised. Well guess what. With overdraft fees, bounced check penalties and a myriad of other fun things added, we are now negative over $450. And we don’t know exactly when I will get my disability check. They supposedly mailed it out on Friday, but then, we know how honest they are, so we are up the creek until it arrives and well after.
The next bit is even better. We bought a rat for a pet about a month or so ago. Well, it was cool for a while, but then it started getting a little aggressive. So we called the store we bought her from and asked what was up. They said she might be pregnant. Well she wasn't pregnant, she was lonely. So we bought her and buddy and things started to get a little better, until she started breathing funny and her nose started bleeding. So we took her in and the guy at the store said she had an upper respiratory infection and that he would send her to the vet and we could pick her up later, but from the looks of things, he didn't think she would survive. So I asked if I could get a different rat instead. So we got a different rat. Well she had some red around one of her eyes and the guy at the store said it was probably just from her fighting with the other rats that were in the cage with her. Well, turns out she was actually sick too. She got the other rat sick and we took them into the vet for which ran us $120 we didn't actually have (see the connection here) and they said they had upper respiratory infections. We got them back home and gave them their medicine. That night/morning, my wife got up to get a drink and went to check on the rats while she was up. The second one we bought had died during the night. This broke her heart and she cried for a good long time while I held her. The other rat is fine so far. We have been giving her medicine and she seems to be getting much better.
And finally, yesterday, while we were out and about, Leelu started getting really uncomfortable in the abdominal area. Where our just over 6 month baby is currently living. It kept getting worse and worse, so she called the doctor. She is now under doctor’s orders to stay home and resting until her appointment tomorrow afternoon. We are going to go in and see if anything is wrong or if it is just regular pregnancy stuff.
Do you see why I might be a little worried at this point?

Music Recommendations

Despite a desire to avoid becoming completely an out of touch adult, I find myself knowing less about current music all the time. Two fairly recent releases that I have been enjoying consistently enough that I think they're more than just a phase and may eventually end up on my list of favorites are Heron King Blues by Califone and Arular by M.I.A.

Weekend Update from Sin City

Things started disciplined enough with a really good swim workout before work Friday morning, but I don't know that the words "in training" or "diet" can be applied to anything after. Friday night was the going away party, so, other than a few shopping stops along the way, I headed straight to T's house after work. An excellent time. The most cheerful I've seen J in a couple of years. It was still bitter sweet and sad, but her oppression had been lifted and she had hope. Lots of socializing with lots of fun people. I think I was present when the cool quiet room shifted into the cool smoking room. Don't ask me why, but I even let Scott talk me into trying a cigar (must be that demonic hold he has over me as DM). That on top of polluting my body with constant snacking and such. But I lasted to the bitter end, so I not only got all the general gossip, but the really good stuff (available to the highest bidder). I didn't make it home and to bed until 3:30.

We got up a little before 9:00 Saturday morning and I immediately jumped in the shower to wash off that icky smoke smell. The wife and I went to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant at the City Market for brunch, then we headed out to Independence Center for shopping. Dillard's had all sale/clearance items and additional 50% off, so we spent a good bit of time there. I go a cool new Fossil watch. Then we toured the rest of the mall some. Eventually we made it home and spent the afternoon in bed (instead of enjoying the sunlight with a workout, as we should have).

Upon waking, we did our homework for the weekend: finishing the last few details of her school's yearbook and submitting the rest of the pages (online).

Then we celebrated. We made the 90-minute trek through Weston, Atchison, and Horton to the Golden Eagle Casino. $1 roulette (as opposed to the $5-10 minimums in town). Plus it's nice sometimes just to leave the city and enjoy the countryside, and a road trip always seems to make for good conversation. I lost my $20 of roulette money (after enough up-and-down play to make it fun), but we both got lucky at the slot machines. Right after we first arrived she walked up to a machine that still had a $1 token in the tray. She popped it in and 3 minutes later she quit with $16. While walking away she found another machine with a stray token and turned it into $4. Eventually she lost the $1.35 in nickels we brought but turned the found money into $50. During a break from roulette I put $5 into a 50 cent machine. After two pulls I was up $63 and quit with $60. Those kinds of possibilities are what make the casinos fun. Before leaving we couldn't resist the allure of free pop and cheap snack bar, so the weekend gluttony continued.

Once home we explored vacation options (something with a beach) for immediately after school gets out in May, but haven't found anything quite affordable enough yet. We didn't end up getting to sleep until almost 1:00.

We felt rich from our winnings on Sunday morning and overate at the brunch buffet at Cinzetti's. Then I had a three-hour shift working at the community center while she met with a fellow teacher to discuss some action-research. Finally we decided to try something active, although I'll stop short of calling it actual exercise. We took the dogs walking at Shawnee Mission Park. We felt too lazy to cook, so we had dinner at Qdoba (like Chipotle). I'm doing my online stuff while she does homework. I'm contemplating cooking lunch for tomorrow next, then plan to watch Vampire Hunter D on DVD before bed. Here's hoping we get back on a regular sleep schedule, get back on the diet, and have good workouts all week.

Pages read for the reading challenge the last three days: 0
Chapters listened to in Moby-Dick the last three days: 0

Hey, Look

External notice:

http://retracted.blogspot.com/2005/11/id-debate.html

http://thegirlinblack.blogspot.com/2005/11/knowing-is-half-battle.html

Breaking News!

In an attempt to thwart the spread of bird flu, George W. Bush has bombed the Canary Islands.

The Daily Moby

I have to wonder if Melville was a vegetarian. And while I don't have the committment to act on it, I can't really disagree with his argument: "But no doubt the first man that ever murdered an ox was regarded as a murderer; perhaps he was hung; and if he had been put on his trial by oxen, he certainly would have been; and he certainly deserved it if any murderer does. Go to the mean-market of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds staring up at the long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not that sight take a tooth out of the cannibal's jaw? Cannibals? who is not a cannibal? I tell you it well be more tolerable for the Fejee that salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Fejee, I say, in the day of judgment, than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who nailest geese to the ground and feastest on their bloated livers in they pate-de-foie-gras." (from Chapter 65, The Whale as a Dish)

I guess, though, that I've never truly attained profound thought: "And I am convinced that from the heads of all ponderous profound beings, such as Plato, Pyrrho, the Devil, Jupiter, Dante, and so on, there always goes up a certain semi-visible steam, while in the act of thinking deep thoughts. While composing a little treatise on Eternity, I had the curiousity to place a mirror before me; and ere long saw reflected there, a curious involved worming and undulation in the atmosphere over my head." (from Chapter 85, The Fountain)

A nice quote: "Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eye." (from Chapter 85, The Fountain)

A curious quote: "In man or fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority." (from Chapter 86, The Tail)

The key to an enjoyable life: "But in gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels." (from Chapter 86, The Tail)

Technorati tag: Moby-Dick06

Book Jacket Fun

This place has a fun selection of book jackets to put over your real book the next time you're reading in public. Imagine the reactions. Hadrian might even get lucky offering a few meaningful glances up from reading How to Overcome Nymphomania, for instance.

Oklahoma City Trustees Identify 12 Sensitive Kids' Topics

Oklahoma City's Metropolitan Library Commission has identified 12 social issues that it deems sensitive enough when treated in a children's book to warrant the title being restricted to the parenting collection established by commissioners last fall. The 12 restricted categories are alcoholism, child abuse, child abuse prevention, child sexual abuse, child sexual abuse prevention, domestic/family violence, drug abuse, extramarital sex, homosexuality, medication abuse, premarital sex, and substance abuse.

"Please do not insult me and others like me by passing this reprehensible proposal that segregates us and equates us with child abuse, drug abuse, and family violence," Rev. Dr. E. Scott James, who said he is gay, asked commission members before they okayed the guidelines in a 12-1 vote. Four commissioners were absent.

"Our commission, while divided, voted to retain the materials in the children's area and not limit access," library Executive Director Donna Morris told American Libraries. The titles in the parenting collection will be limited to the reading-level categories of easy, easy-reader, and tween, and selected by staff members based on their judgment of which subjects "would indicate that guardians might want to control the time and manner at which children are introduced to a topic," the revised library policy states. She went on to say that commissioners are hopeful that the new section will be "a positive collection for parents and children."

Posted February 17, 2006; revised February 21, 2006.

As If We Needed Reminding

The Mensch Gap
"A mensch is an upstanding person who takes responsibility for his actions. . . . Officials in this administration never take responsibility for their actions. When something goes wrong, it's always someone else's fault. . . . But how did such people attain power in the first place? Maybe it's the result of our infantilized media culture, in which politicians, like celebrities, are judged by the way they look, not the reality of their achievements. Mr. Bush isn't an effective leader, but he plays one on TV, and that's all that matters."

The Torturers Win
"We're in a new world now and the all-powerful U.S. government apparently has free rein to ruin innocent lives without even a nod in the direction of due process or fair play. . . . Mr. Arar's case became a world-class embarrassment when even Syria's torture professionals could elicit no evidence that he was in any way involved in terrorism. After 10 months, he was released. No charges were ever filed against him. . . . In other words, it wouldn't matter how hideously or egregiously Mr. Arar had been treated, or how illegally or disgustingly the government had behaved. The case would have to be dropped. Inquiries into this 21st-century Inquisition cannot be tolerated. Its activities must remain secret at all costs. . . . Under that reasoning, of course, the government could literally get away with murder. . . . Oh yes, by all means, we need the federal courts to fully protect the right of public officials to lie to their constituents."

I'm the Choir for This One

If I wasn't posting so much today already, I'd consider sharing this whole article. It relates to a conversation I had with Gobula a few weeks back, and certainly makes sense to me. The bigger question, in my mind, is not whether he's right or wrong but what to do about it. If culture and not economics shapes the world, how can we most successfully pursue peace and justice?

"All of this has thrown a certain sort of materialistic vision into crisis. We now know that global economic and technological forces do not gradually erode local cultures and values. Instead, cultures and values shape economic development. Moreover, as people are empowered by greater wealth and education, cultural differences become more pronounced, not less, as different groups chase different visions of the good life, and react in aggressive ways to perceived slights to their cultural dignity. . . . "

"The fundamental change is that human beings now look less like self-interested individuals and more like socially embedded products of family and group. Alan Greenspan said that he once assumed that capitalism was 'human nature.' But after watching the collapse of the Russian economy, he had come to consider it 'was not human nature at all, but culture.'

"During the first few years of life, parents, communities and societies unconsciously impart ways of being and of perceiving reality that we are only subliminally aware of. How distinct is the individual from the community? Does history move forward or is it cyclical? How do I fulfill my yearning for righteousness? What is possible and what is impossible?"

For the rest: it's another one that's not free on the web, but it is on the editorial page of today's Kansas City Star or can be found with databases from the New York Times on 2/19.

Ancient wisdom still works

When a government is more benign,
the people are more productive.
When a government is more tyrannical,
the people are more rebellious.

But whatever the government,
if disaster is the bitter fruit of others’ good fortune,
How long can such injustice be tolerated?
How long we have endured the hypocrisies!

Those pretending to be righteous act deceitfully.
Those pretending to be religious revert to evil.
We have been deluded!
And each day it becomes worse!

Be firm and armed, but do no harm!
Be as sharp as a knife, but do not cut!
Be ready to transform, but do not provoke!
Illuminate the darkness of ignorance, but do not be blind!

- Lao Tsu

Just keep yourself honed.

A Different Take on Dieting

"In the 1970's, researchers fed two groups of women, one Swedish and one Thai, a spicy Thai meal. The Thai women — who presumably liked the meal more than the Swedish women did — absorbed almost 50 percent more iron from it than the Swedish women. When the meal was served as a mushy paste, the Thai women absorbed 70 percent less iron than they had before — from the same food.

"The researchers concluded that food that's unfamiliar (Thai food to Swedish women) or unappetizing (mush rather than solid food) winds up being less nutritious than food that looks, smells and tastes good to you. The explanation can be found in the digestive process itself, in the relationship between the "second brain" — the gut — and the brain in your head. . . . "

"Does this mean we should be reaching for the Krispy Kremes and forgoing the raw cauliflower? No. The food has to have nutritive value in the first place. But maybe we could take a lesson from the French, whose level of heart disease is lower than ours despite their richer diet. The French savor the taste and texture of food and the experience of eating; we tend to eat dutifully (how much cauliflower can you choke down?), on the run (hardly realizing what we're eating), or rebelliously (devouring a whole box of Entenmann's because we feel deprived)."

The rest

Being Debated in Congress

The solution, as far as the I.S.P.'s are concerned, could be what some critics are calling "access tiering," different levels of access for different sites, based on ability and willingness to pay. Giants like Walmart.com could get very fast connections, while little-guy sites might have to settle for the information superhighway equivalent of a one-lane, pothole-strewn road. Since many companies that own I.S.P.'s, like Time Warner, are also in the business of selling online content, they could give themselves an unfair advantage over their competition. More

Long, Complex, and Interesting

After Neoconservatism

"If there was a single overarching theme to the domestic social policy critiques issued by those who wrote for the neoconservative journal The Public Interest, founded by Irving Kristol, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Bell in 1965, it was the limits of social engineering. Writers like Glazer, Moynihan and, later, Glenn Loury argued that ambitious efforts to seek social justice often left societies worse off than before because they either required massive state intervention that disrupted pre-existing social relations (for example, forced busing) or else produced unanticipated consequences (like an increase in single-parent families as a result of welfare). A major theme running through James Q. Wilson's extensive writings on crime was the idea that you could not lower crime rates by trying to solve deep underlying problems like poverty and racism; effective policies needed to focus on shorter-term measures that went after symptoms of social distress (like subway graffiti or panhandling) rather than root causes.

"How, then, did a group with such a pedigree come to decide that the "root cause" of terrorism lay in the Middle East's lack of democracy, that the United States had both the wisdom and the ability to fix this problem and that democracy would come quickly and painlessly to Iraq? Neoconservatives would not have taken this turn but for the peculiar way that the cold war ended. . . . "

"Neoconservatism, whatever its complex roots, has become indelibly associated with concepts like coercive regime change, unilateralism and American hegemony. What is needed now are new ideas, neither neoconservative nor realist, for how America is to relate to the rest of the world — ideas that retain the neoconservative belief in the universality of human rights, but without its illusions about the efficacy of American power and hegemony to bring these ends about."

Nantucket Sushi

(From Chapter 64: Stubb's Supper) "'Cook,' said Stubb, rapidly lifting a rather reddish morsel to his mouth, 'don't you think this steak is rather overdone? You've been beating this steak too much, cook, it's too tender. Don't I always say that to be good, a whale-steak must be tough? There are those sharks now over the side, don't you see they prefer it tough and rare? . . . Well, for the future, when you cook another whale-steak for my private table here, the capstan, I'll tell you what to do so as not to spoil it by overdoing. Hold the steak in one hand, and show a live coal to it with the other; that done, dish it.'"

Also in this chapter is an incident I can only describe as queer (the Melville-era meaning of the word). "There are these sharks now over the side, don't you see they prefer it tough and rare? What a shindy they are kicking up! Cook, go and talk to 'em; tell 'em they are welcome to help themselves civilly, and in moderation, but they must keep quiet. Blast me, if I can hear my own voice. Away, cook, and deliver my message. Here, take this lantern,' snatching one from his sideboard; 'now then, go and preach to 'em.'" They proceed to the deck, lean over the rail, and Stubb coaches the cook through a sermon to the sharks. This can be satisfactorily read as an odd bit of character development, but I have to think Melville meant something more by it. I'm not sure what, but I'm sure it must be some kind of statement about religion.

But. But I'm not going to run out looking for commentary to find out what he was saying by it (or at least what others have thought he was saying) at this point in my reading experience. Erica has told me that her professor started by telling them the ending so they wouldn't be distracted by wondering what is going to happen but could look for the deeper meanings. That's not the experience I want with the book yet. I have the rest of my life to analyze it, to learn more about Melville, his society, and what he was trying to say about it. But once I have that knowledge I can never go back. I only have this one chance to read the book without knowing how it will end, to encounter it as a straightforward story and discover what it might mean to me in a bilateral dialogue with it without all of those other voices informing my experience. I'm very eager to start asking Professor Reynolds about the book and doing some of that literary analysis, but that discussion must wait until I complete this initial encounter.

Technorati tag: Moby-Dick06

Representing Kansas

"Is there any aspect of President Bush's miserable record on intelligence that Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not willing to excuse and help to cover up? . . . "

"Mr. Roberts had promised to hold a committee vote yesterday on whether to investigate. But he canceled the vote, and then made two astonishing announcements. He said he was working with the White House on amending the 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to permit warrantless spying. And then he suggested that such a change would eliminate the need for an inquiry."

Doing the President's Dirty Work

I Need to Read a Good Fantasy Book

Besides the obvious D&D hobby, I've written before how much I enjoy reading fantasy fiction. We went to Barnes & Noble on the Plaza earlier tonight and I went up to browse the fantasy/sci fi section like I always do. It had been a while since I'd done this, and tonight it was less enjoyable than I remembered. So much of what was there just seemed formulaic and cliched. Everything was part of an "epic trilogy." Trashy and unoriginal. There was still some quality writing, but I had to dig to find it. I think I've always tried to find the better stuff, but I don't remember being so overwhelmed by the rest of it in the past. The environment just wasn't magical tonight. I'm scared I'm losing my taste for the genre. Especially since I didn't get to the book I was planning to read before the start of the Librarians Read Challenge. I think I know what I want to read as soon as the challenge is over at the beginning of March in the hopes of rediscovering the joy of fantasy. I bought hardback copies of Gene Wolfe's Knight and Wizard a while back and haven't gotten to them. I read his Book of the New Sun in college and still feel it's the best fantasy I've read. Not necessarily the most fun or my favorite, but the best--although I'd have to reread them to really make a case for them at this point. But reading all of the blurbs from other authors on the backs of his books reminded me I need to get back to reading the man Ursula Le Guin called "our Melville."

Gene Wolfe not only entertains, he invests his work with a complexity and trickiness that place him among the most important American novelists of our time. For more than 40 years he has worked steadily at his art, each new book adding yet one more facet to his ongoing and surprisingly cohesive oeuvre. Within his genre Wolfe's living compeers are few -- Ursula Le Guin, J.G. Ballard, John Crowley -- and, like them, he should enjoy the same rapt attention we afford to Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy. (From the Washington Post's review at one of the Amazon links above.)