Posted on August 30, 2008
social conservative
Liberal: I’ll believe in what I want to believe in – you believe what you want to believe in.
Conservative: I’ll believe in what I want to believe in – you believe what I want to believe in.
It’s been my experience that someone who is socially conservative is someone who knows – based on social traditions? – how I should live my life, keeping me morally straight in thought, word and deed.
Sorry, I’ll take care of myself.
FollowPosted on August 24, 2008
you’re one of them
While waiting at the checkout at the supermarket yesterday, the guy ahead of me was talking to the cashier. The checker-outer was a teenager, I’m guessing late teens and the checkout-ee, the guy with the groceries, was an older middle aged man. They were talking sports, Mets – Yankees. The kid was a Mets fan. In New York there is an alignment of fan loyalty and these two were discussing it. “Yeah”, the older one said, “Yankees, Giants, Rangers – Jets, Mets, Islanders”.
The kid says, “Yankees, then you’re probably Republican”, (think Rudy Giuliani) but the customer denied it. “So, you’re going to vote for Obama?” asks the checkout guy.
The other guy answers, “I don’t know if I can vote for him”, then he adds, “I don’t know who I’m going to vote for”.
I’ve just read an article about undecided voters and a study done in Italy showed that quite a few undecided voters aren’t really as undecided as they might profess. (I think there’s just a couple o’ guys up there and this asshole is one of them! 1)
1. Dawson: Silverado (1985)
Posted on August 22, 2008
shelby foote
I was watching a CSPAN channel last night, a call-in interview with the late writer, historian Shelby Foote. In the age of multi-media – books, books on tape, video, movies, internet Googling – I am amazed at how compelling (at least in a personal sense) the knowledge comprised by a single human being can be. On watching the Shelby Foote program I am reminded of Bill Moyer’s interviews with Joseph Campbell, different scholars, different subjects, but the same comprehensive command of subject.
Generally speaking, there is an amazing capacity for the human brain to acquire knowledge as evidenced by these interviews. The facts and insights possessed by scholars are easily accessible through their books and papers, but the cross referencing and the integrated command of a subject that is displayed during a well executed interview harkens back to pre-media oral traditions. It’s as if – not as if – they actually do draw references from the books they have written -but not from the books per se- but from the original source of their writings which is the inner workings of the brain. In Shelby Foote’s case, a brain that is cram full of facts is also a repository of life experiences that just can’t be transcribed. Mr. Foote’s related experiences decorated with the timbre of the voice and a southern drawl, give a layered, multi-dimensional richness to historical facts. I was inspired to hear Shelby Foote say that he visited the battlefields of the Civil War in conjunction with the anniversary dates of those battles, enabling him to understand the lay of the land and also to experience as close as possible, the environments in which these battles took place. I can’t help but think how amazing the workings of the conscious mind are.
I envision Mr. Foote’s brain as a sort of stage in a theater with me sitting in the audience. The stage is set with the scenery and props supplied by his first hand experiences. His recollections and researched facts are drawn from backstage; entering through the wings they give an educational and extremely entertaining performance. When the show is over the scenery and props get stored away and the performers return backstage to await the next production.
Posted on August 21, 2008
did you know 8/21/2008
There’s this thing in my brain that consistently needs to correlate things. Did you know, this morning’s New York Times has a front page article describing how a federal inspector general found that claims made by Medicare officials relating to cutting fraud in 2006 were themselves fraudulent? It seems that outside auditors didn’t use the right criterion while compiling their figures. Meanwhile, on page 16 of The Times there is an unrelated article stating that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting a decline in workplace deaths in 2007. Hmm. Can I assume that someone from the inspector general’s office will revise those figures in 2009? As you well know you just can’t believe everything you see and hear, can you? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be on my way1.
1. “EXP”, Axis, Hendrix
Posted on August 11, 2008
swimming in the now
The U.S. 4×100 meter relay swimming team won the Gold Medal today, beating a favored French team and shattering the world record by almost four seconds. Beating a world record by four seconds is unheard of. Prior to the event, the commentator on television kept saying that as he kept going over the race on paper, he just couldn’t see how the Americans could win. But as anyone could tell you, you don’t swim on paper, you swim in the water. And that’s how the Americans won, trapped in time and swimming in the now.
