Thursday, May 01, 2008
Every Time I Come Home
...I get a head bump or two on my ankles, a good, long leg rub and then I get the "glad to see you flop" whereupon our Maximum Leader lays down on her side right at my feet as if to say, "I missed you, please pet me!" It looks like this.
Bridging the Web 2.0 Generation Gap
I'm working to introduce blogging, wiki-ing and other web-based communications methods at work. Much of it is going well because the web offers much better access to information than intermittantly connected shared hard drives. Email works for small groups, but does not scale well at all for sharing information when a dialog is required or when the intended audience is not explicitly known.
The biggest problem I'm facing is the generation gap. My older colleagues are used to email and MS Office. Working on the web requires a different set of skills. It's hard to post a PowerPoint presentation on a website and have it show up as something other than a file to be downloaded. Yes, I know that you can save a PowerPoint file as html, but even that is something new and different and for most colleagues, new and different is too hard.
I'm thinking of recommending that each group hire a student as their blogger-in-residence. The student would take their information and translate it onto the web. It seems to be the only real solution to the bridging the gap between the employees and the blogs.
The biggest problem I'm facing is the generation gap. My older colleagues are used to email and MS Office. Working on the web requires a different set of skills. It's hard to post a PowerPoint presentation on a website and have it show up as something other than a file to be downloaded. Yes, I know that you can save a PowerPoint file as html, but even that is something new and different and for most colleagues, new and different is too hard.
I'm thinking of recommending that each group hire a student as their blogger-in-residence. The student would take their information and translate it onto the web. It seems to be the only real solution to the bridging the gap between the employees and the blogs.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Preying on Hate
Just another couple of thoughts on the Obama - Wright issue.
From Barack Obama's modified-updated-thistimeireallymeanit speech responding the Rev. Wright:
Why is this so hard for people to say? An entire community wallowed in racist filth for decades, relishing it, enjoying it, reinforcing it and still Obama tries to deflect the analysis of it and somehow infer that this fed hate. It did not feed hate, it was hate. Are the journalists going to ask anything about this? Was any of what you saw in Rev. Wright's NAACP speech and his press conference any different than what you saw in the YouTube videos? To me it looked like the exactly same thing, only spoken at a lower volume and with a little more of an intellectual foundation.
Will Barack get a free pass endlessly on this one?
From Barack Obama's modified-updated-thistimeireallymeanit speech responding the Rev. Wright:
You know, I have been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992. I have known Reverend Wright for almost 20 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.Rev. Wright had been peddling racist lunacy for decades. We saw that in the video segments that Barack previously said were taken out of context. Rev. Wright and his congregation, the hundreds of people whooping it up every time he screamed another crazy, racist rant, are the ones filled with hate.
Why is this so hard for people to say? An entire community wallowed in racist filth for decades, relishing it, enjoying it, reinforcing it and still Obama tries to deflect the analysis of it and somehow infer that this fed hate. It did not feed hate, it was hate. Are the journalists going to ask anything about this? Was any of what you saw in Rev. Wright's NAACP speech and his press conference any different than what you saw in the YouTube videos? To me it looked like the exactly same thing, only spoken at a lower volume and with a little more of an intellectual foundation.
Will Barack get a free pass endlessly on this one?
So When's the Press Conference?
Now that Rev. Wright has explicitly described his lunatic theories and now that Obama has said he never heard of the man and 20 years isn't a long time and he wasn't really paying attention when the guy talked, when does the grilling by the press start?
We've already seen that Barack does not like difficult questions and runs away after only a few. We've seen that he doesn't like debates where he is asked about cavorting with bombers. What's the press conference going to be like when the reporters ask all the questions they need to ask? Even if they go soft on him, it's still going to be very difficult for him.
We've already seen that Barack does not like difficult questions and runs away after only a few. We've seen that he doesn't like debates where he is asked about cavorting with bombers. What's the press conference going to be like when the reporters ask all the questions they need to ask? Even if they go soft on him, it's still going to be very difficult for him.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Where is the Secular St. Augustine?
As I’ve gone through my exercise of learning about the decline of marriage in America, its causes and results, what’s beginning to strike me is just how naïve and simplistic secularism is. As we have jettisoned organized religion, we’ve also jettisoned the intellectual foundations of morality.
Do you know how to build a jet engine? You don’t, do you? And yet, every time you fly, you rely on them and implicitly you rely on the people who have studied the design and construction of jet engines. You trust yourself to the collective experience of the jet engine industry.
When we abandon religion, we are discarding the collective experience and thought of centuries of theologians and replacing it with ... what? Catholic theology and morality is the result of generations of thinkers, both great and small, each building on each other and upon the observations of the secular world around them. St. Thomas Aquinas built his theological constructs on philosophers dating back to ancient Greece. St. Augustine’s contributions to theology are built primarily upon his desire to reconcile that which he observed in the world around him with religious and moral theory. His book Confessions is the story of his intellectual journey from hedonism to morality.
What is the secular corollary to this? Certainly secular philosophers like Rousseau produced great works, but where is the corresponding St. Augustine? St. Augustine turned from the Manichees to Catholicism because it became clear to him that the former did not fit the reality of the world around him. Now that it’s clear that hedonism and a self-focused lifestyle is detrimental to society, who in the secular world is leading the movement back to the success of traditional morality? Bill Cosby?
It might be possible to separate morality from theology, but I would suggest that it is impossible to separate morality from a deliberate construction of it from first principles. The secular world is paying the price, as we all are, for discarding the basis for morality.
Do you know how to build a jet engine? You don’t, do you? And yet, every time you fly, you rely on them and implicitly you rely on the people who have studied the design and construction of jet engines. You trust yourself to the collective experience of the jet engine industry.
When we abandon religion, we are discarding the collective experience and thought of centuries of theologians and replacing it with ... what? Catholic theology and morality is the result of generations of thinkers, both great and small, each building on each other and upon the observations of the secular world around them. St. Thomas Aquinas built his theological constructs on philosophers dating back to ancient Greece. St. Augustine’s contributions to theology are built primarily upon his desire to reconcile that which he observed in the world around him with religious and moral theory. His book Confessions is the story of his intellectual journey from hedonism to morality.
What is the secular corollary to this? Certainly secular philosophers like Rousseau produced great works, but where is the corresponding St. Augustine? St. Augustine turned from the Manichees to Catholicism because it became clear to him that the former did not fit the reality of the world around him. Now that it’s clear that hedonism and a self-focused lifestyle is detrimental to society, who in the secular world is leading the movement back to the success of traditional morality? Bill Cosby?
It might be possible to separate morality from theology, but I would suggest that it is impossible to separate morality from a deliberate construction of it from first principles. The secular world is paying the price, as we all are, for discarding the basis for morality.
Blog-induced Nausea
After reading through the Puppy Blender's round-up of links related the latest Rev. Wright spew, I don't feel like blogging. Take a trip through that particular hog fat rendering plant yourself if you'd like. I'm going to go enjoy my daisies instead.
Monday, April 28, 2008
A Sprint Coverage Quiz
Q: What's the only place that has worse Sprint coverage than where you are right now?
A: Everywhere else!
A: Everywhere else!
Jet Kayak
Yesterday I took a walk along Shelter Island here in San Diego and I saw something wild.
What on Earth is this?
It turns out that it's a Jet Kayak. I Googled for a bit and came across Mokai Manufacturing, a company that either made this one or makes something quite like it.
I have to say that I was a bit disappointed that another cultural icon had been tarnished. I had always associated kayaking with the rugged, outdoor life. You could load this thing up with donuts and pork rinds and motor hither and yon, munching away while claiming you were kayaking.
It turns out that it's a Jet Kayak. I Googled for a bit and came across Mokai Manufacturing, a company that either made this one or makes something quite like it.
I have to say that I was a bit disappointed that another cultural icon had been tarnished. I had always associated kayaking with the rugged, outdoor life. You could load this thing up with donuts and pork rinds and motor hither and yon, munching away while claiming you were kayaking.
On Marriage and Individualism
This is another in a (sporadic) series of posts exploring how the decline of the traditional family occurred in America and what effect it has had on us. The previous post in this series can be found here.
I returned to reading James Q. Wilson’s book, The Marriage Problem and went through his analysis of how changes in our law reflected changes in our views on marriage and personal independence. Here’s a thumbnail sketch.
For centuries, marriage in the Western world has been a consensual affair. People have chosen their spouses. Personal freedom in this regard has always been central to marriage. In the past, marriage was considered more important than individual freedom. Over time, personal freedom has gained primacy to the detriment of marriage.
To a great extent, the simplistic, naïve pursuit of personal freedom has led to the breakdown of the teamwork required to perform what is in fact a very complicated task.
I would not want to construct this vehicle nor raise these children on my own.
I returned to reading James Q. Wilson’s book, The Marriage Problem and went through his analysis of how changes in our law reflected changes in our views on marriage and personal independence. Here’s a thumbnail sketch.
For centuries, marriage in the Western world has been a consensual affair. People have chosen their spouses. Personal freedom in this regard has always been central to marriage. In the past, marriage was considered more important than individual freedom. Over time, personal freedom has gained primacy to the detriment of marriage.
Leading figures in England and America at the end of the nineteenth century spoke of marriage as a “state of existence ordained by the Creator”…Each marriage, many said, affects not only the spouses, but all other persons. The Supreme Court described marriage as more than a “mere contract”; it was instead “a sacred obligation,” “a holy estate,” and “the foundation of family and society, without which there would be neither civilization nor progress.”It is particularly striking to see the word “holy” come from the Supreme Court. If it was used in a decision today, members of the ACLU would spontaneously combust. I digress. Over the course of the 20th century, legal regard for marriage has declined.
A century later, virtually every one of these laws has been changed, some for the better, some for the worse, but everywhere in ways that denied that marriage and the family had any moral status…These changes are fully in accord with the rise of a modern, secular, individualistic state…And this, I think, hits the nail right on the head. Complicated undertakings such as building a car, designing an airplane or raising a family, are not things best done by an individual. Contrary to Hillary’s suggestions, it does not take a village, because villagers have only an indirect interest in the success of family members. Instead, it takes a team, in this case at least a two-person team, if not an extended family, to raise children with a high rate of success. Those who cannot see into the future, those who see single-parent families as equivalent to traditional families do not see the complex tasks involved in raising a family.
What is striking is not that there are so many divorces and so many cohabiting couples, but that there are any marriages at all…Simply living together provides the immediate benefits without any legal formalities…
(E)verywhere cultural expectations are vulnerable to the new individualistic ethos, as we can see from rising levels of cohabitation. Which leaves a desire for children and companionship (as the primary remaining reasons for marriage)…Some people can see far enough into the future to recognize that marriage offers long-term benefits. For them, marriage will be preferable. But many people do not see very far into the future…
To a great extent, the simplistic, naïve pursuit of personal freedom has led to the breakdown of the teamwork required to perform what is in fact a very complicated task.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
John McCain is Sandbagging Barack Obama
John McCain recently told the North Carolina Republican Party to pull a TV ad which highlighted Barack Obama's relationship with his racist, lunatic pastor, Rev. Wright. Barack has been touting himself as a new kind of politician and yet he has repeatedly, deliberately misquoted John McCain, first about the war and then about the economy.
I think this is a deliberate set up of Obama. A few months of this kind of demagoguery on the part of Barack and then John McCain, just as he did with Mitt Romney when he went incessantly negative, will unleash the hounds and tear Barack to shreds. Because of Rev. Wright and Barack's unrepentant terrorist buddy Bill Ayers, John McCain has a huge arsenal of weapons to use if he decides to go negative. I think he's going to go as long as he can without using them to demonstrate to everyone that he wants to run a clean and positive campaign. In the end, however, he'll launch all those weapons. He'll have to. Barack is too arrogant and too stupid to see that he's completely outgunned and won't have the brains to call off his own attacks until it's too late.
Teasing the tiger gets you eaten. Barack will find that out before this is all over.
This will be the last thing Barack Obama sees after one too many lies about John McCain.
I think this is a deliberate set up of Obama. A few months of this kind of demagoguery on the part of Barack and then John McCain, just as he did with Mitt Romney when he went incessantly negative, will unleash the hounds and tear Barack to shreds. Because of Rev. Wright and Barack's unrepentant terrorist buddy Bill Ayers, John McCain has a huge arsenal of weapons to use if he decides to go negative. I think he's going to go as long as he can without using them to demonstrate to everyone that he wants to run a clean and positive campaign. In the end, however, he'll launch all those weapons. He'll have to. Barack is too arrogant and too stupid to see that he's completely outgunned and won't have the brains to call off his own attacks until it's too late.
Teasing the tiger gets you eaten. Barack will find that out before this is all over.
Sewer Diving with Barack Obama
I've been debating whether or not to post any more Rev. Wright videos on this blog and join in the further exposure of this hateful, racist lunatic. A few friends of mine who read this blog have not yet seen them and it makes me wonder how many others have yet to hear them. With that in mind, I'm going sewer diving with Barack one more time. It is Sunday today and I will be going to Mass. If you go today, did you hear anything like this?
Barack Obama and Rev. Wright are trying to spin their way out of the firestorm of criticism that has come from these, claiming that they were all taken out of context. Friday on Hugh Hewitt's radio show I heard large portions of the sermons these were taken from and they are most certainly not taken out of context. What you see in these video clips is the real deal, the church Barack attended for 20 years and to which he gave tens of thousands of dollars.
I think these sermons should be published far and wide. If Barack really wants to have a dialog, then this is a good starting point. As usual, Mark Steyn had a great analysis of this.
Barack Obama and Rev. Wright are trying to spin their way out of the firestorm of criticism that has come from these, claiming that they were all taken out of context. Friday on Hugh Hewitt's radio show I heard large portions of the sermons these were taken from and they are most certainly not taken out of context. What you see in these video clips is the real deal, the church Barack attended for 20 years and to which he gave tens of thousands of dollars.
I think these sermons should be published far and wide. If Barack really wants to have a dialog, then this is a good starting point. As usual, Mark Steyn had a great analysis of this.
(W)hat’s clear is there’s a consistent worldview for twenty years from this guy. The fact is, the U.S. government did not invent AIDS for the purpose of killing its own black citizens. If you believe that, you’re a nut. And if you don’t believe that, and you’re just saying it because it happens to be good show biz in your Church, then you’re deeply wicked, because you’re misleading your congregation, which is an ungodly and an unchristian thing to do...Update: Gateway Pundit has more.
(B)asically, Obama did a sort of vainglorious thing where he said this isn’t about me and my judgment and my pastor and his hateful words. But we’ll generalize it to make it about race in America. And that’s deeply insulting to the hundreds of millions of Americans who don’t go to Churches led by vile neo-segregationist, racist pastors peddling nutball theories.
I Guess We Voted for Crime
In a Herculean effort of overthinking the problem, David Skeel goes into some statistical depth to analyze how the prison populations grew under different political parties in different states. Here's a sample.
Dave goes on to draw a conclusion about crime from his statistics.
This poor lad would have been bringing daisies to his grandmother if he hadn't been thrown in jail.
Dave, let me make a suggestion. How about if you go hang out in Oakland for a while? You can either do ride alongs with the cops or you can loiter on the street corners with the thugs. Either one is fine with me. After you do that for a month, come back and tell us what you found out.
● Connecticut: From 1975 to 1991, Connecticut was governed by Democrats, and the state’s imprisonment rate rose a staggering 346%, compared to a national average of 174%. From 1991-95, Independent (and former Republican) Lowell Weicker held the governor’s chair; Republicans have held it since then. Since 1991, Connecticut’s imprisonment rate has risen 49%, compared to an average increase of 62% nationwide.Huh? Maybe Dave needs to get out more. He certainly needs to spend more time with criminals, particularly during the planning phases of their capers. Having known a criminal or two in my time, I assure you they never took into account the political leanings of the governor, the mayor, the aldermen or the family dog. They wanted things that did not belong to them or they wanted drugs or they wanted revenge or they were simply being jerks. There wasn't a whole lot of deep, intellectual thought beyond that.
● Missouri: During Republican John Ashcroft’s governorship (1985-93), the state’s imprisonment rate rose 59%; nationwide, imprisonment rose 75% during those eight years. From 1993 to 2005, Democrats held Missouri’s governorship. During those twelve years, imprisonment rose 72%, compared to a national average increase of 40%.
Dave goes on to draw a conclusion about crime from his statistics.
Criminal justice works badly when the voters whose preferences govern the system are not the voters who feel the effects of crime and punishment most directly. Over the last thirty-five years, our justice system has been governed primarily by the votes of suburban and small-town whites. But crime and punishment alike are heavily concentrated in poor city neighborhoods, and especially in black neighborhoods. Democracy works best when those making the relevant choices bear the cost of those choices.This one is just mind blowing. Is criminal justice working badly when criminals are put in jail after due process? What kind of idiot thinks that? And of course, race plays into this. You knew it would. No discussion of the destruction of the traditional family here, it's all politics and race.
Dave, let me make a suggestion. How about if you go hang out in Oakland for a while? You can either do ride alongs with the cops or you can loiter on the street corners with the thugs. Either one is fine with me. After you do that for a month, come back and tell us what you found out.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Difference Between Democrat and Republican Politicians
Our $400B deficit works out to about $5700 more debt for a family of four...
A Republican politician will take his family into a Wal-Mart, buy $5700 worth of stuff and then at the register point to his kids and tell the checker, "Bill them."
A Democrat will do the same thing and then add, "We'll be back tomorrow."
Update: Dig this comparison of Hillary and Obama when it comes to spending. Hundreds of billions more in spending.
A Republican politician will take his family into a Wal-Mart, buy $5700 worth of stuff and then at the register point to his kids and tell the checker, "Bill them."
A Democrat will do the same thing and then add, "We'll be back tomorrow."
Update: Dig this comparison of Hillary and Obama when it comes to spending. Hundreds of billions more in spending.
Catch and Release
This morning our Maximum Leader brought in a field mouse and left it clinging to a laundry hamper. After consulting the California Department of Fish and Game's Feline Hunting Regulations and measuring the mouse with a calibrated micrometer, we determined that the mouse had to be released back into the wild. Our Maximum Leader was appropriately praised and then breakfasted on a rare feast of gushifud.
Prior to releasing the little rodent, we took these photos.
Annotation from Jacob the Syrian Hamster: This was not one of my relatives, or if it was, the genealogical distance was so great that he was unrecgonizable to me.
Prior to releasing the little rodent, we took these photos.
Annotation from Jacob the Syrian Hamster: This was not one of my relatives, or if it was, the genealogical distance was so great that he was unrecgonizable to me.
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