Friday, August 26, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Jon Stewart at his finest
Here is Jon Stewart's take on the right wing's response to Warren Buffet's op-ed in the NYT that he and others in his income bracket are not taxed enough. In today's WSJ, Harvey Golub of American Express is using the line that the Faux News commentators threw out: 50% of American don't pay any income tax.They need "skin in the game."
The section on how well of the poor have it is particularly devastating. Interestingly, blaming the poor for their condition is not new. Even Ben Franklin felt this way in the middle of the 18th century, as I found out in Nash- The Urban Crucible
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives | ||||
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Here's part two.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over | ||||
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Very Good New Yorker Articles
by Stephen Greenblatt, a pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar and general editor of the The Norton Shakespeare. This is on his reading of The Nature of Things by Lucretius, which I read for a Latin Lit in Translation course in college. I of course never got nearly as much out of it as he does. He writes at one point how his mother obsessed about her own death and would frequently tell him that he might not see her again when he went off to school. This passage from Lucretius is especially profound.
The other article I like from this week's is
I have a friend, an analytic philosopher and convinced atheist, who told me that she sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, anxiously turning over a series of ultimate questions: “How can it be that this world is the result of an accidental big bang? How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can it be that every life—beginning with my own, my husband’s, my child’s, and spreading outward—is cosmically irrelevant?” In the current intellectual climate, atheists are not supposed to have such thoughts. We are locked into our rival certainties—religiosity on one side, secularism on the other—and to confess to weakness on this order is like a registered Democrat wondering if she is really a Republican, or vice versa.
The other article I like from this week's is
I have a friend, an analytic philosopher and convinced atheist, who told me that she sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, anxiously turning over a series of ultimate questions: “How can it be that this world is the result of an accidental big bang? How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can it be that every life—beginning with my own, my husband’s, my child’s, and spreading outward—is cosmically irrelevant?” In the current intellectual climate, atheists are not supposed to have such thoughts. We are locked into our rival certainties—religiosity on one side, secularism on the other—and to confess to weakness on this order is like a registered Democrat wondering if she is really a Republican, or vice versa.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Don't Bend it Like Beckham
The MLS All star game was fun from the point of view of a United fan. The All Stars looked very anemic as they lost 4-0. No one on the team looked impressive. We had good seats in the corner which, it may be a rationalization to say, are preferable to seats at the center line. We were much closer to exciting action and saw two United goal. Of course we were far away from the action the second half especially since the MLS did absolutely nothing worthwhile. But if we were in the center we'd have been far from both centers of activity. Watching the mid-field play is no where near as compelling as what goes on in the box. Here is a view of a Beckham free kick on which he not score. It shows what the view from the seats looked like and how totally inadequate a Blackberry camera is. The guy in front of me had an IPhone which was taking great pictures.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Manchester United vs. MLS All-Stars
I really thought that I was going to missed seeing United on this tour. My original plan was to see them this Saturday vs. Barcelona in D.C. I would then fly to Las Vegas from Baltimore. Unfortunately, the game is in the evening so it made getting a flight impossible. So my second choice was the All-Star game in Newark. When I checked for seats though they were inexplicably sold out. That struck me as very odd as I didn't think soccer had increased in popularity to that degree even if it is Manchester United. A few weeks ago, I got an email with a special 4 game package that included the All Star game so I bit. It turns out the game is being held at the smaller stadium of the local team, the Red Bull, which holds only 25,000, not Giant Stadium which holds 70,000. That explained the ticket disappearance. I have really good seats so I am pleased. This will the 4th time I am seeing them: 2003 in Philly vs. Barcelona, 2004 vs. Bayern Munich at Soldiers Field in Chicago and last year in Philly again vs. the Philly Union, the MLS team.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Still hotter than hell here
It is still miserably hot. It is definitely not weather for yard work, which of course I don't mind. It is even too hot for just sitting on the deck and reading. The heat has messed up my running schedule a bit. I am training for the Philly R&R half again. I was supposed to do 8 on Saturday. My original plan was to get up at 5:30 and run while it was still cool. But even at 6 am it was in the low 80s. So instead I went to the gym and did it on the treadmill. The limit on the machine is one hour which gave me 7 miles. I stopped the machine and restarted to do the extra mile I needed. It wasn't quite as tedious as I assumed it would be because I was listening to a podcast of This American Life. The theme of the show as The Psychopath Test, which looked at what went into creating the test, had two segments related to it and then tested the member of the show's staff to see if they had any tendencies towards psychopathy. I won't give away the ending. I am happy to say that I don't think I have psychopathic tendencies, at least based on the interview with developer of the test describing the characteristics of a psychopath.
Also so hot that I decided that my office needed a thorough cleaning. It was very dusty so I got out my trusty mini-vac and went to work. I also started throwing out lots of stuff related to work: brochures, books, electronic equipment (two full sets of Clickers.) I also bought a new paper shredder to get rid of all of the old sales and personnel stuff I accumulated over 25 years.
Also so hot that I decided that my office needed a thorough cleaning. It was very dusty so I got out my trusty mini-vac and went to work. I also started throwing out lots of stuff related to work: brochures, books, electronic equipment (two full sets of Clickers.) I also bought a new paper shredder to get rid of all of the old sales and personnel stuff I accumulated over 25 years.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Burning Man
Funny story. My old boss will be going to Burning Man Festival in Nevada. 
She went to see some friends in San Fran awhile ago. One of their friends was someone she hit it off with during the visit. Somehow the topic of the Burning Man Festival came up. None of them had ever attended but they both thought it would be fun. She made plans to fly back and go with him. He borrowed a small RV from some of his friends, which she said barely sleeps two. So now she has the anxiety of going the festival along with spending a week with someone she doesn;t really know. The schedule looks interesting.
She went to see some friends in San Fran awhile ago. One of their friends was someone she hit it off with during the visit. Somehow the topic of the Burning Man Festival came up. None of them had ever attended but they both thought it would be fun. She made plans to fly back and go with him. He borrowed a small RV from some of his friends, which she said barely sleeps two. So now she has the anxiety of going the festival along with spending a week with someone she doesn;t really know. The schedule looks interesting.
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