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First-timers please visit Guidelines and Contents. Thanks/sbw
| Question for Obama |
| Question for Obama: Senator Obama, when you said, "My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington." which you do you intend to represent? |
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Posted by Webmaster on 2/21/08; 9:30:49 AM
from the Comments Dept. Permanent link: #
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| Where have I heard Obama before? |
| Hmm. Barack Obama said, "I want to go before the world and say that America is back and that we are ready to lead." I have the strange sense I've heard all this before. Oh, yeah. I remember where:
"We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country" - Dan Quayle
"We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward." - Dan Quayle
"The future will be better tomorrow." - Dan Quayle
"This President is going to lead us out of this recovery." - Dan Quayle
"My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will, never, never surrender to what is right." - Dan Quayle
"What you guys want, I'm for." - Dan Quayle |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 2/20/08; 8:19:33 PM
from the Opinion Dept. Permanent link: #
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| When culture and society compete |
| The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, lends his intellect, education, and experience to resolve the conflict between British law and other cultures... and fails. I try Helping Rowan Williams. |
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Posted by Webmaster on 2/12/08; 9:50:33 PM
from the Dept. Permanent link: #
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| Not wasting 5 minutes 42 seconds of my life |
| Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds, pointed to a video link where Mickey Kaus and Robert Wright discuss the welfare-terrorism connection for 5 minutes and 42 seconds. Clicking on the link I discover that to find out if I am interested at all I am obliged to pay the video penalty. I can't read a summary. I can't scan through a summary.
Take a note for Web 3.0: Video and audio are not the answer -- they are only an option. When they become the requirement, people bail. Time is too valuable to fritter away listening to people talk at their speed, not mine -- the talk is too slow, or too fast, or too detailed, or not detailed enough. Convince me to listen, don't make me. |
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Posted by Webmaster on 2/11/08; 12:50:37 PM
from the Opinion Dept. Permanent link: #
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| The Archbishop of Canterbury just doesn't understand |
On another blog, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has called for new laws to protect religious sensibilities that would punish 'thoughtless and cruel' styles of speaking. I commented (at 1/29/2008 8:53:26 PM):Your assignment for tomorrow: Plan an essay explaining why the freedom to offend is a core principle of society.
Hint:
1) Start with a reflection on your own past when you thought you were correct and were mistaken.
2) Then, in humility, consider how you depend on others to help you recognize those mistakes.
3) Finally, explain how you depend on an accurate mental map of reality to plan your best future.
Deduce from this mind-experiment why it is that the freedom to offend, and to be offended is essential to an individual. Then project this insight to where groups of individuals interact. We call this society. Interesting, isn't it, that democracy codifies the humility that any one person can think of a better way to do something, and to try to convince others of it. This, my friend, is the freedom to offend -- to tell someone something they may not care to hear.
Now that you have planned the essay, instead of writing that one, write an essay on why this insight is not taught in schools.
Assignment number two is to consider why the freedom to offend does not imply the necessity to do so.
Hint: respect for others who share humility.
These two insights are the cornerstones of civilization. |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 2/9/08; 4:35:44 PM
from the Comments Dept. Permanent link: #
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| Support Ezra Levant's human rights |
Ezra Levant, a magazine publisher has been hauled before an inquisition known as the Alberta Human Rights Commission for publishing the Danish Muslim cartoons, about which some ass took offense. My comment to his website follows:Fly this cartoon high: Toonophobia -- The irrational fear of blasphemous cartoons
And do not talk of free speech as a right -- rights are bestowed by authority. Far from a right, Free Speech is civilization's cherished necessity.
Civilization is impossible without the freedom to say what other people don't want to hear. Why? Because sometimes people think they are right, not because they ARE right, but only because they THINK they are. And, if mistaken, they cannot accurately plan their best future. Even if it offends, the greatest respect one can show is to help one see more clearly.
Civilization requires only two considerations: 1) humility -- to consider the possibility one just might be wrong; and 2) respect for others who can help one see more clearly.
You see it every day in practice: The core value of democracy is that it codifies humility -- the permanent cycle of elections pays homage that today we just might be wrong and best learn from experience; and that democracy honors the smallest voice that can suggest a better way of doing things and try to convince others -- even if the small voice offends.
You can deduce this from your own experience. You can recall instances when you thought you were right and were mistaken -- that your mental map was wrong. From yor own experience it becomes obvious that whatever the intentions of the HRC, they poison the well of society. |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 1/12/08; 11:08:57 PM
from the Comments Dept. Permanent link: #
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| Blogs that rust unnoticed |
| It started, innocuously enough, with an Instapundit pointer to the throwaway blog observation of an experienced Knoxville online editor. It ended with the observation that many bloggers poison their own future.
In a way, they eat their young. See: Why do you eat your young? |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 1/12/08; 11:51:36 AM
from the News Dept. Permanent link: #
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| Iran meddles in American politics |
| Captains Quarters asks how close we were to war with Iran. I saw it as campaign meddling.
This seems more like a political gambit than a test of naval procedures. Had the American ships responded, the Iranians would have hoped to cement Democratic poitical outrage. And votes. Losing a few small boats and men is worth it if the next election reinserts foreign ambivalence in the White House.
If it happened, any astute Democratic candidate should close ranks with the President. I just am not sure any of the Democratic candidates are that savvy. |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 1/7/08; 9:10:13 PM
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| Andrew Olmstead |
| Andrew Olmstead's blog entry following his passing. He wished no politics on the occasion. But his essay is a tribute to which all politicians need respond. |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 1/5/08; 4:52:41 PM
from the Pointers Dept. Permanent link: #
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| New Year's Resolution, Number One |
| I resolve no longer to "Have a great day!" when anyone insists.
That little snippet of boilerplate has ceased to have meaning, if it ever had any to begin with. It was foisted on us by get-ahead gurus as if it indicated the individual had some pocket of energy beyond our own capacity and extra interest in our affairs. It was a front. A facade.
It sends the wrong message. Those who want me to "Have a great day!" should simply say "Goodbye." |
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Posted by Webmaster on 1/3/08; 8:13:31 AM
from the Opinion Dept. Permanent link: #
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| When did life get better for the poor? |
| Back in September, Econlog, by Arnold Kling and Bryan Caplan, asked, and I answered: When did life get better for the poor? (Not quite for 5-year-olds)
Life got better for the poor around the late Middle Ages when they learned they could take responsibility for their lives, resolved to learn how, and acted on that resolve.
Since then, the quality of life for the poor has gotten better or worse according to time and place depending on the direction of science, education, and social institutions. Mathematics fostered invention of money and science. Understanding science advanced agriculture, improved tools, techniques, and shelter, harnessed energy, and advanced sanitation and medicine. That gave people the leisure to learn to see the universe more clearly, the better understand one's place in it, and advance the social institutions that allow people both liberty and responsibility. Whether life stays better is a choice people make every day by their thoughts and actions.
Posted September 30, 2007 05:52 PM |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 12/25/07; 11:39:18 AM
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| Whose next? Time's 2007 Man of the year. |
| OT: Is it too late to put in my wager for Time's "Man of the Year" -- assuming they don't give it to TM[Tom Maguire] for the second year in a row?
It should go to General David Petraeus, but Time being Time, Al Gore is a shoe in -- and yes, I spelled shoe correctly.
Posted by: sbw | December 17, 2007 at 11:43 AM |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 12/17/07; 10:45:09 PM
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| Delicious iPod reading |
| Ann Althouse takes The New Republic to task for an editorial that diminishes new technology for reading books. Printed books are treasures, but to love them should not diminish the opportunities offered by technology. My comment to Ann's blog:
Bleak House, and any Dickens, is best read... by having it read to you. Originally, by the fireside and candle, the only light available, as the evening's entertainment. And now, by audiobook, in the car on the way to work, in an airport. The words are delicious on the ears.
TNR has no clue, and doesn't know it needs one.
IF you want a new tech joy, buy the Audio CD of P.J. O'Rourke's, "On the Wealth of Nations," -- yes, a delightful, overdue tribute to Adam Smith. Load it into iTunes for your iPod. Listen to it once, because you must, even though you might drift.
Then -- and here's the joy -- listen to it a second time on Shuffle! Imagine! Because it was recorded in three minute segments, you get pithy, important Adam Smith, with your ears regularly cleansed by the rest of the music on your iPod! |
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Posted by Webmaster on 12/13/07; 9:08:34 AM
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| Still a newspaper optimist |
| Back in 1993 I gave an officemate a copy of a letter I wrote about the future of newspapers. He just retired, found the letter while cleaning his desk, and returned it to me. Written before the Internet became popular, the letter still stands up to scrutiny. Read it at A 1993 Newspaper Optimist. |
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Posted by Stephen Waters on 12/7/07; 9:48:15 PM
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After many years of computers and newspapers and even more years of quiet experience, its time both to learn some more and to give back. |
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