A sad headline passed across the screen today, and with it, I knew that Jerry Reed had passed from the world.
He was one of Georgia's greats, a simple man with a long laugh. I guess most people know him best -- or only -- from his role as the Snowman, the outlaw truck driver in Smoky and the Bandit. He also wrote and sang the theme song, and indeed all the songs from that movie.
He had quite a talent, though, for jazz, blues, and rockabilly, as well as country music. If you were from the South in that time, you probably saw him far more often than that once. He and Chet Atkins did a large number of pieces together. Here they are playing our state's song.
You might have heard this song during the high gas prices of the summer:
Along with the Late, Great Lewis Grizzard, Jerry Reed was a pretty good icon for what Georgia was about in the 1970s and early 1980s. It's amazing how much the place has changed in so short a time.
Thanks, Jerry. Goodnight.
G'night, Jerry.
Hadron
Via Shari, a remarkably coherent lesson in particle physics:
I wouldn't have thought that rap music would be an ideal teaching tool, but it certainly works here.
Bristol Palin
I realize that this will be a topic for discussion in coming days. In order to ensure that the Hall's courtesy is in full force, we will treat the young lady as if she were a member of the Hall.
The regular courtesies will apply, as if she were here to listen to what you have to say. You may say what you want about her philosophy, if she has one you can find; but we will be respectful of her personally, as we are of each other. The normal ethic of the Hall is: 'Be nice to your neighbors, be hell to their ideas.' So: be nice to the lady, though we may debate the issues in terms that are not personal.
Comments in violation of this rule, as usual with comment violations, will be deleted. My co-bloggers, all of whom have access to the comment code, are invited to use their discretion in this matter. I will honor their judgment in cases of dispute.
In Praise of Sen. Obama II
I once lauded Senator Obama's defense of his wife; let me now laud his defense of his mother, and by extension, the daughter of Gov. Palin. He said:
Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama Monday afternoon issued a strong statement to "back off" reports of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, telling reporters families — and especially children — are off limits in this presidential campaign.Let it be noticed here that the Senator is entirely correct on this occasion. Good for him.
Mr. Obama, campaigning here, also noted that his own mother was 18 when she gave birth to him.
"People's families are off limits," he said. "People's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president."
FoF
I don't know anyone in Alaska to ask about Gov. Palin directly; but I do have a friend who has an old friend, known to him from Vietnam and elsewhere, who has a few things to say. He sent me this today. I have redacted personal information about the sender, as indicated by notes or ellipses.
I met and spoke with Sara Palin about two years ago at our downtown Park Strip. It is a place for walking, carnivals, political outdoor things and such. She was cooking hotdogs at a fund raiser and introducing herself to the public as a Governor hopeful. She came by and said the usual "Hi, I'm Sara Palin and I am running for Governor"...and I expected her to keep on to the next person but she asked me who I was and what I did in Alaska and we ended up talking for 15 minutes about me [personal details redacted, but you should know this is a pilot. -Grim]. She is a pilot (Super Cub) I'm told although all she told me about that was that she loved flying.This is the first candidate we've had in the race to whom I've felt any personal sympathy. I was supporting the McCain ticket merely because it was the least-bad option; but I think I genuinely like this governor.
As I watched her over the next six months as she successfully ran for Governor I was really impressed. I was impressed greatly even before that after she resigned a good position (Alaska Gas and Oil Regulatory Commission) because a fellow Commission member (Chair of the Alaska Republican Party) misused their office and position. He was using the FAX, computers, printing room and all to promote the Republican endeavors while in a State job. That is a huge no-no in any government employment position. She resigned and made her point and within weeks Randy Ruderich (the above bad guy) found his ass out on the street and a subsequent investigation found him guilty and he was fined $12,000. Small change actually but a giant point was made.
Next she went after our most horrible Governor ever, Governor Murkowski, and damned if she didn't beat him! All of us here in Alaska, except the Democrats, are sick of our State's corruption. That fact was shouted to the heavens after she was elected with an overwhelming point spread. After she got into office she started after corrupt legislators and with the FBI's help we've put four of them in prison, indicted six more and the "Corrupt Bastard's Club" as they arrogantly called themselves (even had hats made with CBC on the front!) suddenly found it no fun anymore. Club membership is now in the toilet!!
The current flap which has cost her a ten point loss of popularity (she's still 82%!) was over firing a popular Commissioner of Public Safety who is responsible for our Alaska State Troopers. She fired him for no STATED reason which was her prerogative as the Gov. He served entirely at her option. She and her whole family had a bad, bad experience with a rogue Trooper who was married to Sara's sister. His name is Trooper Wooten. This dimwit Trooper had threatened Sara's father (death threat!), threatened Sara ("I'll get you too"), tasered his 12 year old stepson, drove drunk in his AST cruiser, got a pass by a fellow Trooper who stopped him for erratic driving a second time while in civvies and just a host of other things not yet released to the public. He got away with it and got another pass by the Commissioner's appointed AST Trooper Internal Affairs investigator with a tiny slap on the wrist. Five days off without pay to be exact!! This maverick Trooper is still on the payroll but only just. The Union intervening saved his malcontent ass. He'll yet get his I'm sure. Incredible heat is being heaped on the Troopers. Public heat, not the Governors office. The Democrats had the audacity to appoint a obviously biased investigator, Rep. "Gunny" French (so called because he lied about being in the USMC while running for the Legislature) is a staunch liberal and under the orders of Senate President Lyda Green who hates Sara. She hates Sara because after being elected Governor Sara told the whole Legislature in one of her first meetings with them that, quote; "All of you here need some Adult Supervision!!!". Sara was seriously pissed and not afraid of anyone there.
That played wonderfully well with Alaskan's after all of our corruption and after all of her successful battles against a seriously entrenched corrupt government here in Alaska. It pissed off the whole Legislature though! They have stayed pissed but also afraid of her because of her popularity. She reminds me personally of our Alaska wolverine which will fight anything in it's path if it see's fit to do so. No respect at all for size or position....
In closing I must tell you that she is the best, most moral and most focused leader I've seen since President Reagan. I feel, really strongly, that like Alaska the rest of our country will love her within a few weeks. Put simply, she represents middle America like NO leader we've ever had.
I think McCain made a totally brilliant move in choosing her. She's a maverick who is probably tougher and more focused than McCain himself....and she won't be a total "Yes Man" or more appropriately, woman. McCain will love her.
In 2012 she will be President.
My best to all of you in the hurricane belt....
Semper Fi
The Lady of the Lake
This post is to follow upon this series from April, on how the ethics of chivalry may help repair our own culture's division between men and women.
A culture has powerful images, symbols that the people do not fully understand, may not fully be aware of knowing: but they are there, and echo in our lives. I wrote about the Paladin while I was in Iraq, and again a few weeks later. These were legends from Charlemagne and Arthur, that modern men were living out. And in a sense they knew it, as you can see from the name they chose for the artillery and the banner that marks Camp Slayer: but in a sense it travels below consciousness, as you can see from the heraldry that ties Sir Lancelot to the 3rd Division.
I'm going to quote a section from The Return of King Arthur: The Legend Through Victorian Eyes by Debra N. Mancoff. It is a beautiful book available here; though many of the paintings are also reproduced in this book by David Day, which is available used for less than two dollars.
The commentary, however, is Dr. Mancoff's.
In the early hours of the morning of 20 June 1837, William IV died in his bed in Windsor Castle. The lord chamberlain and the royal physician were dispatched to Kensington Palace in London, to convey the grave news to the duke Kent's widow, whose daughter, Alexandrina Victoria, was the next in the line of succession. Only nineteen years old, Princess Victoria was the new queen. She had been sleeping in her mother's bedchamber, a habit maintained from childhood, but when she received emissaries from Windsor she received them alone.This is the beginning of the story of how Victorian England produced not only the greatest power ever known by the British Empire, but also a renaissance in art reviving one of the main themes of Medieval literature: the Arthurian epic. The story is fascinating and important in its own right, but I wish only to follow her this far for now.
...
[H]er diminutive figure, swathed in the Parliament Robes of crimson velvet, trimmed with ermine and embellished with golden lace and tasseled cords, gave the crowds pause.... [She] stirred compassion as well as loyalty in the hearts of her subjects. As small as she was, she was ready to serve... The gentlemen knights of England now had their fair lady, and the new reign channeled romantic energy into practical service.
The power of the thing lies in this phrase: "...their fair lady, and the new reign channeled romantic energy into practical service." It happens that the lady was young, and seemed to need protection; but the channeling of romantic love into practical service has a deep history in the West, one where often -- usually! -- the lady was more powerful than the knight offering his service. Maurice Keen, in Chivalry, explained how the Medieval ethic of courtly love allowed women to enter the power structure. A knight could be loyal to his lord in friendship, as brothers in arms, but this ethic allowed him to base his loyalty to his lady on that strongest foundation: love.
Her acceptance of her admirer's love (which meant her acceptance of his amorous service, not admission to her bed) was the laisser passer into the rich, secure world of the court of which she was mistress. The courtly literature of the troubadours encapsulated thus an amorous ethic of service to a lady which was essentially compatible to the ethic of faithful service to a lord: indeed, it borrowed not a little of the vocabulary from the legal vocabulary of lordship, fealty, and service.... Thus in courtly love female approbation offered a new, secular, and psychologically very powerful sanction to the secular conventions of the code of courtly virtue and martial honour. As Wolfram von Eschenbach's Willeham declared, in a great eve-of-battle speech to his knights, 'there are two rewards that await us, heaven and the recognition of noble women.'The two were often combined in the Arthurian cycle, where the lady is sometimes a messenger of God as well as a lady of power -- whether courtly or, as these are romances, sorcerous. To continue with Dr. Keen (p. 81):
The right perspective on it is given in the wonderful passage in the romance of Lancelot in which the Lady of the Lake instructs her charge in the duties of knighthood and the significance of the knight's arms. All that she has to say is permeated with religious significance and symbolism.... But we have to remember too who is giving these instructions to young Lancelot -- a great lady of regal family and endowed with magical powers, not a priest.Thus too, in Edmund Spenser's great epic poem, the Red Cross Knight -- none other than Saint George! -- is sworn to knight's service to the poem's namesake: The Faerie Queene. He is guided by a lady, Una, who keeps him on the right path and recovers him to it when he is lost. The concept of love and womankind and faith are so deeply intertwined by this point, which is less Medieval than Early Modern, that the audience is not at all bothered that Una is a symbol for the Anglican Church, and that the false lady competing for St. George's love is a symbol of a different Church (the Roman Catholic one, given the politics of the day), and that the marriage St. George gains to Una is therefore symbolic of eternal love through chastity rather than the marital release our own time would insist upon.
The key things that matter are these: the lady is noble of spirit; she, like the Lady of the Lake or Queen Victoria, has the power to bestow arms, or to approve of their use in her defense and interests; she is morally worthy of service; and she calls men to channel their feelings of admiration for her, even love for her, into practical service. Such love thus expressed is no danger to marriages -- rather, it reinforced feudal bonds by giving a useful channel to the sexual tension that might otherwise exist, and by giving the knights a way to serve the lady with as much intensity of feeling as they served their lord.
It also opened the way for women to occupy genuine positions of power in the Middle Ages, for just this reason: it diffused the tension. Even as late as Elizabeth I, a queen could be loved by many knights, though none of them were her king.
The channeling of romantic love into service takes advantage of the natural impulse of men to love more than one woman, without violating the strictures against adultery. Indeed, the romances are clear on one thing: the destructive nature of adultery, when even the greatest knights and noblest ladies should choose to give themselves to it. Arthur's infidelity leads to the birth of Modred, who slays him; Lancelot and Guinevere's, to the fall of Camelot.
We received this unconsciously, but powerfully. It is the ethic at work in Shane. He rides in as the cowboy version of a knight errant, and falls in love with the lady of the homestead. He renders what is nothing less than knight service against the raubritter, and then -- conscious that he cannot keep his love in proper limits, and feeling loyalty to the lord of the homestead as strongly as his love for his lady -- he rides off into the wilderness. Replace the hat and Colt with a sword and lance, and it could have been written in the 1400s.
For another such lady, the gentlemen of England raised their nation to heights even its proud history had not known before. Such an ethic of love and service may allow us to renew our society's connection between men and women, which we have seen strained: at least, for those who hear the call of these ancient things.
USCGE on Palin
One of the groups I deal with occasionally is the US Center for Global Engagement, a nonpartisan center that shares my interest in ensuring that US civilian agencies are able to perform at the same level as DOD in foreign policy. They support SECDEF Gates' call, which originated with LTG Chiarelli's call, for a civilian expeditionary force that can support US military COIN operations -- or that can serve as the lead in some cases, with the military supporting them.
You've probably read my citations of them several times at BlackFive, so I won't go back through the whole thing. I got a letter from them today, however, which mentioned that they had done a backgrounder on Gov. Palin in response to her selection as a VP nominee.
You can read it for yourself; but it certainly presents a different picture than what we've seen so far.
Heh
When these guys stick to their meat-and-potatoes issue of pretending to be authentic rednecks, they are really funny.
Oh, and here is another guy who -- just every once in a while -- knocks one clean out of the park.
Speak to me, O Muse, of this resourceful manJust that one line there at the end justifies the whole project, for me.
who strides so boldly upon the golden shrine at Invescos,
Between Ionic plywood columns, to the kleig light altar.
Fair Obamacles, favored of the gods, ascends to Olympus
Amidst lusty tributes and the strumming lyres of Media...
Anyway, I hope you're having a fine Labor Day Weekend.
Curious
I see via InstaPundit that there's some dirty-trickery at work from the Obama campaign. It reports a site that claims Palin is in favor of gay marriage.
Interesting. There’s nothing else on the page. This sure looks like the work of the dastardly right-wing anti-gay attack machine, doesn’t it?Sloppy mistake, that.
But look who’s really behind this.
In the Linux console, if you enter the following commands, you can learn the secrets of a political dirty trick. First, look up the host of ‘sarahpalingayrights.com’ to get the site’s IP address.
host sarahpalingayrights.com
sarahpalingayrights.com has address 74.208.74.232
Then use the same command to look up the domain name pointer of that IP address.
host 74.208.74.232
232.74.208.74.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer obamadefense.com
Well, well. “Obamadefense.com,” eh?
And what happens if you enter obamadefense.com on your browser’s address line?
Why, you’re redirected to none other than FightTheSmears.com, the official Barack Obama site that’s supposed to be defending him against smears.
Looks like they may have a second purpose: to generate a few smears of their own.
What I find most interesting, though, is that the Obama campaign thinks it has more to gain by spreading that rumor than by spreading the truth. Palin is, as I gather from what I've read about her in the last day or so, actually strongly opposed to gay marriage (as are most Americans) but also to civil partnerships (which most Americans support). Obama himself took that very position in his recent speech: anti-marriage, pro-unions.
So why is it that his campaign is going to the trouble (and risk!) of running this attack, instead of just pointing out the truth? It's an odd thing to do, when they could presumably benefit with swing voters more by simply telling the truth.
ClintonDems2
The Clinton Democrats have sent another letter. I assume that most of you are either Republicans, or non-Clinton Democrats, so you probably didn't get the letter. It's interesting reading, so I'll post it here.
Dear Clinton Dem, Hillary touched us all so much and, by example, showed us to look into ourselves and find a strength we never knew we had. We found the power of our voice, and the power of our votes. The suffragetes would be proud!That was followed by a call for activism, and a link to this tribute video:
The selection of Senator Palin by McCain is bittersweet. Hillary was "The One". The choice of Palin just puts an exclamation point on the failures of the democratic party this election, and serves to highlight the ego-driven decision Barack Obama made to slight Hillary Clinton as his VP Choice. Had he joined forces with her right after the primaries, we may be looking at a whole different landscape, but the choice of Palin has irreversibly changed the scenery. John McCain put his ego aside and did what was best for his party -- and possibly his country.
Palin's policies are very different than some of ours, but she is a woman and a mother that has endured many of the same challenges we face every day. She has dealt with the same sexism and misogyny that Hillary has been pummeled with, and now we see Democrats in power treating Sarah much the same way they treated Hillary.
I am embarrased by the mean, small minded people that are the top of leadership in the so-called democratic party. The party of inclusion has become the party of exclusion and ridicule. Who has not been insulted by this campaign? Women have been abused, lower-income people (bitter, clinging to their guns & religion), we've been called "low-information voters", "uneducated", and "hags". African Americans that don't worship Obama are "Uncle Toms". Those that believe the right to privacy were sold down the river on FISA. "Freedom Cages" were built to prevent free speech. All true democrats were cheated by the handling of Michigan and Florida and the suppression of a free and fair roll call vote for president at the convention. Hillary supporters were insulted endlessly and still.
The party has lost it's way just as the Republican party seems to be reforming. It will be a difficult decision for Hillary supporters this year. Whoever you decide to vote for, please stay with us and help move the conversation forward. We are democracy. We are the one's we've been waiting for -- whoever we choose to vote for.
It's fairly obvious that, whoever else wins out this year, Sen. Clinton has done remarkably well for someone who lost. Though she won't be President -- not soon, at least -- she has bought herself a place at the center of the Party for years to come.
In Memoriam
Doc Russia's maternal grandfather has passed, and Doc has written a moving eulogy. I know, now, that all of you have interesting life stories: here was another man who did. You may wish to read of him, and express your condolences to our friend at this time.
DENVER - John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate on Friday in a startling selection on the eve of the Republican National Convention.
Holy Shiat, he did it. I didn't think he'd do it.
She's from Alaska, she hunts, her husband is a Eskimo, they have 5 kids---hell, she's a pioneer woman.
This is going to be an even more wild election than it already has been.
Ursa Major
An interesting symbolic aspect of Sen. McCain's choice for VP: the flag of Alaska has a constellation on it, normally called The Big Dipper, which points to the North Star.
The North Star is properly called Polaris, however; and the Big Dipper is properly Ursa Major, "the Big Bear," with the Latin taking the feminine form.
Whether or not Gov. Palin will live up to that symbolism remains to be seen. I note it now merely for interest's sake.
What Do You Want for a Daughter?
Ask John Wayne:
They take that oath a little more often, these days. But I don't think that would change how he felt one bit.
Typically, nobody gets away with that in the US Army. Not that I expect the army to get any credit for policing its own, as it has done several times before in this conflict.
Fear
I see that the Obama campaign has decided to attack a writer from National Review. His offense?
...the campaign's "Action Wire" has been waging large-scale campaigns against critics. That includes tens of thousands of e-mails to television stations running Harold Simmons' Bill Ayers ad, and to their advertisers — including a list of major automobile and telecommunications companies.So: they don't dispute that they served on the board together? They don't dispute that the relationship was far deeper than Obama acknowledged in his 'just a guy who lives in my neighborhood' remarks? Yet Stanley Kurtz is a "slimy character assassin" because he says that Ayers recruited Obama onto the board of the Challenge? But that is the point at which Obama could reasonably claim ignorance of Ayers' history. That's no assassination: even if that claim were true, it wouldn't be damning, and if it's not true, it's not a heavy blow.
And tonight, the campaign launched a more specific campaign: an effort to disrupt the appearance by a writer for National Review, Stanley Kurtz, on a Chicago radio program. Kurtz has been writing about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, and has suggested that papers housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago would reveal new details of that relationship.
...
"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," says the email, which picks up a form of pressure on the press pioneered by conservative talk radio hosts and activists in the 1990s, and since adopted by Media Matters and other liberal groups.
"It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves. At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies," it continues.
The campaign mentions, and objects to, one specific claim of Kurtz's, for which I've never seen hard evidence:Just last night on Fox News, Kurtz drastically exaggerated Barack's connection with Ayers by claiming Ayers had recruited Barack to the board of the Annenberg Challenge. That is completely false and has been disproved in numerous press accounts.
This campaign is deeply sensitive to the Ayers situation. They've actually tried to get the Justice Department to investigate a group running an ad about it, even though they apparently have no factual disputes with the ad.
They're afraid of this. Why? It's been in the public sphere for months.
Two Essays
I would like to ask you to take time to read two modestly long pieces. I realize this is quite an imposition from a blogger, but there are some important issues here that I'd like to talk about; and as I look over the pieces to sort out how to approach it, I realize that we just really need the whole of them each.
The first one is by Connie du Toit, where she draws on her world travels to question some basic assumptions about whether American-style freedom is right for the world.
The second is by the historian John Lewis Gaddis, calling for America to rededicate herself to ending tyranny.
The second piece is the more important of the two if you have only a little while to devote to it (no offense to Mrs. du Toit, who has written a thoughtful and deeply-felt piece). If you can read them both together, however, I think you'll profit from it.
When you've done the reading you can afford, let's talk about the issues raised.
Frank Racism
Dad29 says that there is some trouble among the unions for Sen. Obama:
A prominent union leader on Tuesday blamed racism for Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) failure to build a big lead over GOP rival Sen. John McCain.AFSCME is one of the strongest of the Democratic Party's support bases, because it's about public sector unions. Public sector unions are all about bigger government, so the establishment of new massive Federal bureaucracies to oversee health care or "a civilian national security corps" are right up their alley. If they're having trouble with the rank and file in AFSCME, they've got trouble indeed.
Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said many workers are considering voting for McCain (R-Ariz.) because of his military service and status as a hero of the Vietnam War.
The early part of the story suggests that it's trouble that is coming from the fact that these blue collar gentlemen admire McCain -- and indeed, the unions draw heavily from veterans. Grim's Hall has long supported Helmets to Hardhats, which assists veterans in finding such jobs. It's not really shocking that veterans admire McCain and value the kind of leadership he showed during his military career.
However, "our members think McCain is just a really admirable guy" is not a sentiment that AFSCME's leadership can allow to go unanswered. McEntee blames his membership for being, well, racists:
McEntee said several union members had approached him, saying they could not vote for Obama because of his race. He also said some local union presidents have failed to support Obama out of fear.Afraid? To say, "The boys downtown say we have to hand this stuff out"? Here's the question: are the union presidents claiming fear in order to resist HQ's demands that they hand out literature when they don't support Obama? Or is it possible that there really is such massive resistance to the guy that a union president would really be afraid to do it?
“There are some local union presidents that are afraid — yes, that’s the word, afraid — to hand out literature for Barack Obama,” said McEntee.
Hatred & Humor
A couple of conservative ladies, Rachael Lucas and Cassy Fiano (not our own Cassidy), have been talking about a piece printed in Oprah's magazine. The piece is another of the genre I would describe as "wives mocking their husbands in major publications." There are a number of good reasons to disdain the trend, and I won't add to what the ladies have to say on the subject.
On the other hand, I would like to draw a distinction between such pieces and the pieces of crockery that Ms. Lucas was mocking last week. The two things are similar, but there is a signal difference between them: one is an example of mocking a particular person as an expression of anger, while the other is mocking a class of people as an expression of humor.
Lucas says that you couldn't replace "men" in the insults with any other group of people without raising an uproar. That's not quite true, though: there is one other group that could fit in the space, which is women. I can't count the number of bumperstickers I've seen for sale that said something to the effect of: "I miss my ex-wife; but my aim is getting better," or "My wife said to give up fishing or she'd leave; I sure will miss her." (There was a successful country music song about the last one.)
Moreover, I think this kind of humor is broadly good and healthy. As long as it remains nonspecific -- as long as you aren't using it to hurt someone in particular -- it is a useful way of dealing with the inevitable tensions between the sexes.
The fact that such tension exists is not evidence of hatred. It's normal for humankind. The Greeks confined women out of public life to keep such tensions down in an otherwise robust democracy. The Medievals had a number of mechanisms for resolving the tension, at least one of which -- the courtly love concept -- really needs another look from scholars, who have misread it as adulterous.
I think I can honestly state that I am a friend to women, and both respect and honor women. I still enjoy humor of this sort -- and I enjoy it regardless of which sex is being mocked. One of my favorite examples is a song by The Merry Wives of Windsor:
Oh, how can I say that I'll miss him,Or, if you would like, consider this collection of bawdy songs. Close to the front of the podcast are a pair of these songs: "Beer is Better than Women" by Axel the Sot, and "The Cucumber Song" (which I will not quote at all -- if you want the lyrics, you'll have to dig them out yourself) by Iris and Rose-Wild and Thorny. Neither of them are at all clean, and if you took the lyrics at face value, they'd both qualify as "hate speech."
If he won't oblige me and leave?
If he'd do what was right,
He would die in a fight --
If he loved me at all, he would die in a brawl --
I pray to the Lord that he'll fall on his sword! --
And I'll sing of sadness and grief!
But they're not hate speech. When Axel the Sot is singing the chorus with the audience, and says, "Now, just the ladies!" everyone -- man and woman -- bursts out laughing.
It's inevitable that human sexuality produces irrational tensions in our lives that we have to deal with some way. Humor is one of the better ways.
Certainly, there are rules. It should never be used to hurt or to mock any particular person, but "men" and "women" are both fair targets. That means you shouldn't mock a man or a woman, but you can mock "wives" or "ex-wives" or "husbands."
We do have to remember to keep it in its proper setting. It may be fit only for the tavern and never for the office; for private play among friends, or for obviously over-the-top shows like the old Married with Children.
It's not hate speech, though, and it's not bad. In its proper place, resolving these tensions is part of keeping life merry.
BWAHAHAAHAHA!
I have never enjoyed a political convention as much as I've been enjoying this one in Denver. Wizard-hat (fails) to levitate the Denver Mint! Fellow activists, chanting "Love, Peace, Justice," turn into a lynch mob! Obama to accept from a mini-Greek temple! Fireworks! Hillary Clinton fans fighting with Obama fans on the floor! Bill Clinton "hypothetically" asking why you'd vote for someone who can't deliver because of inexperience! Hillary herself giving a test-run speech that doesn't name Obama!
And that's not even to mention good old Charlie Wilson:
"We should be led by Osama bin Laden," he said, then quickly corrected himself. "I mean Obama and Biden."Honestly, this is the best convention anyone has ever had. The Republicans don't have a chance of topping this.
UPDATE: I'm staying up to watch Sen. Clinton. The "no Obama" practice speech was obviously just to mess with him.
She isn't much of a speaker, but tends to boilerplate delivered as boilerplate. Only one thing she said got my attention, really, aside from her underground railway metaphor: "Putin in Georgia, Iran in Iraq"? This is the issue she wants to raise? Getting Iran out of Iraq? Getting Putin out of Georgia? Obama would do that how? All the rest she says about Iraq, or foreign policy, is about getting the troops home so we can provide them with health care.
I will say this, though: the lady sure can hit when she wants to. Her "my mother / my daughter / Harriet Tubman" piece was the best I've ever seen her. She's tough. The Democrats will miss her after tonight.
Totten in Georgia
I met Michael Totten in Iraq. He's a good guy, an adventurer who has wandered across Turkey into Kurdistan, through Lebanon, and now is traveling in the Republic of Georgia. He has a report on the recent conflict.
Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.Read the whole thing. It's possible that Totten is being fed a line by his hosts: but having met him, I'd expect him to see through it if such a thing were attempted.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn't start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.
16 Pints
So you have a couple acres, hate to mow, and are looking to cut down your food expenses somewhat? Buy a cow -- a minicow.
For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass “mown” and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.Hmm...
The Dexter, a mountain breed from Ireland, is perfect for cattle-keeping on a small scale, but other breeds are being artificially created to compete with it, including the Mini-Hereford and the Lowline Angus, which has been developed by the Australian government to stand no more than 39in high but produce 70% of the steak of a cow twice its size.
Social Gathering
In one of the posts below, I asked Elise to tell us a bit about herself -- she's become a regular in our discussions only recently, and so we don't know her as well as many of us know each other.
It occurs to me, however, that she doesn't know all of us either; and there are some of you who read the page regularly but only occasionally comment, who might want a chance just to say hello.
So: this post is just for everyone to take a moment in the comments and post a brief introduction. You can tell us whatever you like, and leave out whatever you like -- but feel welcome to tell us all you want about yourself, your upbringing, your philosophy and your religious sentiment if you like, major influences, whatever comes to mind.
No one has to do so, of course; but I expect it might be interesting.
For Good October Ale
August, of course, is the eighth month -- and so "October" beer is due starting about now. It's been a Grim's Hall tradition to celebrate the coming of Good October almost since our founding. Here is the 2004 post, for example.
In my mind, the coming of October beer always brings to mind the tales of Robin Hood, and merry making in the greenwood. We had a fine hike to the headwaters of the Amicalola today, and a feast roasted over a fire of hardwood. Here is a traditional ballad recalling the forest outlaws of those days, "The Lincolnshire Poacher."
Well, I was bound apprentice in famous LincolnshireI trust you're a merry folk tonight; and tomorrow we'll be sober, as the song says.
And well I served my master for more than seven years
Till I took upon poaching, as you shall quickly hear
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.
As me and my companions was setting out a snare
'Twas then we spied the gamekeeper, for him we didn't care
For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, and jump from anywhere
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.
As me and my companions was setting four or five
And taking them all up again, we caught a hare alive
We caught a hare alive, my boys, and homeward we did steer
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.
We threw him over my shoulder, boys, and then we trudged home
We took him to a neighbour's house and sold him for a crown
We sold him for a crown, my boys, but I dare not tell you where
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.
Good luck to every gentleman that lives in Lincolnshire
Good luck to every poacher that wants to sell a hare
Bad luck to every gamekeeper that will not sell his deer
Oh, 'tis my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year.
By the way: the song is not of purely academic interest. The tune can be found here, starting at 0:23.
You might want to read through the comments of this, and other allied videos. It's a little piece of... arcana.
That Won't Do
I almost never write about abortion. In reference to Peggy Noonan's column of today, though, I think I have to do so this once.
The Rick Warren debate mattered. Why? It took place at exactly the moment America was starting to pay attention. This is what it looked like by the end of the night: Mr. McCain, normal. Mr. Obama, not normal. You've seen this discussed elsewhere. Mr. McCain was direct and clear, Mr. Obama both more careful and more scattered. But on abortion in particular, Mr. McCain seemed old-time conservative, which is something we all understand, whether we like such a stance or not, and Mr. Obama seemed either radical or dodgy. He is "in favor . . . of limits" on late-term abortions, though some would consider those limits "inadequate." (In the past week much legal parsing on emanations of penumbras as to the viability of Roe v. Wade followed.)That won't do. You can't "let" a baby live. A baby will not live if you do not care for it. At that moment -- the one being discussed, when a baby has survived an abortion attempt and is now delivered and alive -- we must make a decision. We must accept the child into the human community and care for it, or let the baby die.
As I watched I thought: How about "Let the baby live"? Don't parse it. Just "Let the baby live."
Which is it, Senator? That was the question: that is what he is trying to talk around. But there is no talking around it. You care for the child, or you choose to let the baby die.
The Romans did. The Vikings did. And so do we.
If that is what you want, swear to it.
Early
Slate Magazine: "Racism is the only reason Obama might lose."
I suppose we all knew this was coming, but somehow, I thought we might get a little closer to November before all opposition to Obama was officially racist.
Joltin Joe Biden!
I still believe that the VP pick is of little consequence this year, but you have to admit, this one is amusing. The reaction is remarkable, given the affection the press has for Sen. Obama -- recall the recent AP story that said it was "innuendo and false rumor" that Sen. Obama had "attended a radical black church, explaining, "In fact, Obama... attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago." (Oh, well, our mistake!)
This morning, though, the AP has not one but two pieces declaring that lack of confidence is shown by the pick, and questioning if Obama is ready for the Presidency based on the choice. Oof.
What interests me is if this, coupled with the news that Sen. Obama's pulling his ads in red states, means that his internals are more negative than what we're seeing in the public polling. He was expected to choose Sen. Bayh, to help out in Indiana (and may have paid someone to print bumper stickers to that effect); or Sen. Kaine, to help bring Virginia aboard. Does this suggest that the plan to 'remake the map' is now admitted to be a fantasy in the private councils of the Obama campaign?
The choice does make Sen. McCain's job easier in some respects, as explored here. There's tape of Biden questioning Obama's experience, and stating that the Presidency is no place for 'on the job training'; he's about the same age as McCain, taking age off the table somewhat; he's been in Washington and the Senate even longer, since the Nixon administration; people who feel that Sen. Obama is arrogant will probably not be charmed by Biden's "My IQ is higher than yours" approach; etc.
Oh, and he voted to authorize the war in Iraq. Then he spoke kindly of Sen. McCain's push for the Surge. Then he rammed through a bill condemning the Surge as not in the nation's best interests. Then he...
Heh.
Who Serves?
This is a discussion we've had here occasionally through the history of the Hall, but I thought you'd like to see the latest figures. The US military continues to draw volunteers who are better educated than average, wealthier than average, and strongly disproportionately Southern:
What you'll see from the graph is that every single region in the nation is underrepresented except for the South, and the Mountain West. The Mountain West pulls 1.07 volunteers for every 1.00 recruit in the military; the South as a whole region, 1.19. The Midwest is close to parity, but just under, at 0.98 per 1.00. The Pacific states are all the way down at 0.88, but the Northeast and New England drag the tail at 0.73.
(The numbers are actually somewhat worse for the North than suggested here, because Maryland and Deleware are included in the "South Atlantic" region with Georgia and the Carolinas. We don't normally think of either as a Southern state. If they were broken out, the South's percentages would rise, and the north's drop yet further.)
All of this just confirms earlier data, but it's interesting to see that the trends hold in spite of a long war.
Clinton Dems
I've gotten an email tonight from a new group calling itself "Clinton Democrats." They wanted you to see this video, and as I did endorse Hillary back during the Primary season, I suppose I should show it to you.
So, if you're interested, here it is. It's long, and full of fairly serious charges.
It's an ad for a documentary about Texas voter fraud by the Obama campaign. This one is shorter and flashier, though it lacks a lot of the eyewitness accounts of fraud:
So the question we were discussing at Cass' place the other day is: is this a popular insurgency, or a Clinton-faction led insurgency?
Well, there sure are a lot of people from Texas in that video.
Dig that hole!
Awesome.
"This is my American Prayer."
"This is the church you cannot see."
Yeah, I give up.
Strong Beere
Some things never change.
Two soldiers of old acquaintance, having beene long asunder, chanced to meete, and after salutations they agree'd to enter an Ale-house, where a formall fashionable Tapster fill'd them as much nicke and froath with Petars of Tobacco, as made them (in his estimation) to bee reckoned at two shillings; they fell to the discourse of their severall Fortunes and Services, the one of Russia and Poland, the other of Germany and Sweaden; they talk't of hunger and thrift, cold, and nakednesse, sieges, and assaults, Artillery, Ammunition, Guns, and Drummes, wounds, scarres, death, and all the perils incident to men of the Sword.If that puts you in the mood for a "gunne" of strong beer and a mighty feast, the site has quite a few Medieval and early Modern English recipes. In fact, that's how I happened on it -- I was looking for a good way to cook some Rock Cornish Game Hens. (Eric would have liked the result, as it featured bacon.)
Bacon Bourbon
I always appreciate it when you separate the sheep from the goats early.
[S]ince bacon and bourbon are two Agitator favorites, I thought a post about how to deliciously combine the two was the least I could offer. (Why would you want to put bacon in your bourbon? If you have to ask, this isn’t the post for you.)Roger that.
(H/t: Southern Appeal, who were rather more enthusiastic about it.)
Sports and Fighting 3
The discussion to the introductory post was great: enlightening, intelligent, spirited and courteous. I commend all who participated.
William's remarks are insightful, and I note that one of his early comments contains the resolution to the dispute on the subject of children displaying courage 'without training.' As he points out, this is not quite so: they train for it all the time.
This is why children day dream of being great warriors and standing against (insert enemy du jour). They are training their mind to choose options in frightening situations. The enemy they are facing is both “real” and a surrogate for other frightening things that they will have to overcome in life. Hence, this applies not just to the warrior aspect, but to every aspect of life.However, my own sense comes closest to the one Doc Russia put forward. Training in armor can create and nurture courage, if it is done correctly. If it is not -- if the spirit of the thing is lost -- what follows is of no use.
Doc points out the importance of training for stresses in excess of what is probable, so you can minimize your concerns in the event. By the same token, training should emphasize that the way to end the stress is victory, and only that. Anything else is destruction: of the reason to train, of the chance to nurture the virtue being sought, and of the spirit of the man.
G. K. Chesterton wrote of courage:
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice.Miyamoto Musashi, in his Book of Five Rings, pointed out the error of the fighter in the video below -- and the virtue of the victor there.
He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.
When a warrior draws his sword the main intention must be to cut the enemy down. There is no reason to change your grip when you strike the enemy. When you have forced the enemy to lose control of his sword because of your parrying thrust, do not change your hand position.... Likewise, when you put aside the enemy's sword, or block the enemy's strike, you must be intent on following up with a powerful attack to win the fight. The martial arts are not a game to see who is stronger and who is faster. You must mean it when you strike the enemy. If you do not, you will certainly get hurt.The martial arts are not the only sport in which this matters. It occurs also in horseback riding. When a horse panics, there is a fatal voice in the head that says: "Stop. Let go. Get off." If you do, injury or death await. The only chance is to sit deep and ride it out.
Even then, of course, the world may prove too strong for you. Yet that is the only chance: and it is the spirit that the fighting arts, and any warrior's sports, must train.
This is part two in the series. There will be another, but before we move on, let's talk about this.
Retro
Kim du Toit -- winding down his blogging career, with a planned retirement date about 100 days out -- speaks to ladies associated with metrosexual men. Shy away from the men who wear mascara, he warns!
...[M]ore interesting was the number of women who told me that they had once been attached to metrosexual men, but soon tired of them, and tossed them aside for men who were, well, men and not ur-women. And were now as happy as could be, content in their role as women, while the men were being men, and the women loved them for it.If we're giving advice to young ladies on this subject, here's mine. Today was hot. My dog was hot, and panting hard. Finally I had to stop the truck, open up the back, take off my Stetson and pour a pint of water into it for my dog to lap up. When he was finished, I put the hat back on my head and we finished the drive home.
In fact, although I know that mnost of my Lady Readers are attached, and well so, to Real Men, I would suggest that if any casual Lady Reader is unhappy with their current relationship, they should check for signs of metrosexuality in her partner. If the Metro Quotient is high, I would bet money that the lady’s unhappiness would disappear if she tossed the girlyman out of her life, and found instead a man who was not afraid of being a man.
This is the proper use of a Stetson. Heck, it comes with instructions printed right on the liner.
If your man won't do that for his dog, he may not be the right man for you. Proverbs 12:10.
Sport 2
While I compose the next piece for discussion, a video that clarifies something of what I intend to say. This is the difference between sport and fighting, in spite of the ring, in spite of the rules. I've been sent this video by about a dozen of you folks:
As with the law, it's really the spirit of the thing that matters.
Obvious
A news story: apparently the Democratic Party leaders will be reviewing their nominating process. Can't imagine why.
Dell
My new motherboard arrived last night, accompanied by a Dell service representative who had never seen a dirt road before. Apparently there was some error at the factory with the old one, and it burned out cleanly; but so far, the new one works fine.
Dell seems to have moved its help center to India (along with the rest of the tech industry), and the experience of dealing with them is much like what you'd expect. However, once they determined (in the step-by-painful-step method that such call centers employ) that the error was indeed critical, they arranged to send someone to the house. The experience was painless: I borrowed the wee wife's computer for email and so forth, and now I'm back.
So: it looks like I need to sit down and read through an excellent discussion in the "On Sport" post, before I go further. I should leave you folks alone more often!
While Grim's Away...
...the peasantry will play. Full disclosure: this is going to be an utterly mindless post.
When the Editorial Staff were expecting our first grandchild (promptly dubbed "The Burrito" by his father upon arrival) we only half-jokingly began suggesting Manly Names for the prospective grand-progeny. Can you tell we were hoping for a boy? Since our eldest boy is of the law enforcement persuasion, our first Helpful Suggestions were "Law" and (our personal favorite) ...
[drum roll]
..."Justice".
Inexplicably, our well thought out contributions were heartlessly disregarded. Apparently, the offspring had their own ideas about what our grandchild should be called. The *nerve* of some people.
This is what we get for all those years of loving care and attention. O! How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, to have a thankless child...
/hand to forehead
But hope springs eternal in the grandmaternal breast, and so we have not given up. There is always the chance of further rugrats down the road. Consequently, we were gratified to see this list of The Manliest Names in the World, and even happier to see it included one of our fav actors.
Check it out. And feel free to suggest a name for our next grandchild in the comments section.
Death of Motherboard
Due to a dead motherboard in the computer, I'll be away for what I hope will be a short bit. I regret the timing, as I had what I hoped would be an interesting series of post prepared for this week; but we'll get back to it as soon as we can.
Sport
As the Olympics continue, we see some sports that were originally martial in origin. This reminds us of the Laches, in which Socrates is asked whether practice fighting in armor can actually build the courage needed for real fighting in armor. It was a critical question to Greek city-states whose survival depended on producing that kind of men: it remains a critical question.
The video is from A Knight's Tale, which (by the way) I suggest as an entertaining film. The film makes a highly risky choice in its musical score: so-called classic rock, in a Medieval setting. I fully expected to hate not only the music but the movie as a consequence, but in fact it comes off wonderfully. The film uses mostly tracks that are frequently used in modern American sports, and the effect is to make the emotions felt by Medieval characters immediately relevant to modern audiences. The film has a small amount of the usual Hollywood preaching about how we ought to feel on social issues, and a somewhat overwrought ending; but those are minor flaws. It is generally a good film, one you'll enjoy viewing again and again.
The part relevant to this discussion begins at 07:25 (although some of you, most especially Cassandra, will enjoy the earlier parts). Notice how, when "Ulric" is to strike, he does so at first with care, in a martial fashion: but after his first victory, he becomes increasingly flashy, showy, doing things (like turning his back on his foe) that no one would do in combat.
It is just that quick that the spirit of the thing is lost. Masters have made this mistake.
In Autumn Lightning, Dave Lowry writes about being instructed in Japanese swordsmanship by an old teacher from Japan. One night, after long practice, the sensei tries to convey the point.
"The swordsmanship we do, that is nothing. What is cutting with a sword? If I have an atomic bomb now, it will melt your katana and you.... We keep the Yagyu Shinkage tradition alive for another reason than fighting. Because it is like--" he paused, reaching for the right word, "it is like an antique that is living. Because we have the ryu [school of teaching], we have something of the past. We can depend on it. All the bugeisha in the old days, they are just like us. Same problems, they loved and hated, just like we do. Since they went before, they are an example for us."In fact, the man who practices a fighting art to preserve it, as a moral guide, is doing nothing like what the samurai was doing. The samurai wanted to kill. He would change anything about his technique, in an instant, if it gave him an advantage. The man who carefully preserves kata is the opposite of him. The man who seeks to preserve unchanged the techniques as a moral lesson is nothing like the man who would change any technique for a momentary advantage.
Yet it is possible to be "like" the fighting men of old. It is possible to learn courage by practicing fighting in armor. In coming days, we'll talk a bit more about this: and perhaps I'll finally get around to answering Eric, who has long said that "chivalry" was largely a romantic ideal, whose forms we have mostly of the 19th century.
Football
Feddie at Southern Appeal has a little Notre Dame film up, "Just because I can." They have to make films, because they don't have Larry Munson.
"We just stepped on their face, with a hobnailed boot, and broke their nose!"
That reminds me of a story.
Interesting
We looked at an article on Sen. Obama's faith the other day; here's one on Sen. McCain's. It's a very different kind of faith -- less intellectual, and less public:
Although polling suggests voters view faith as an essential ingredient in a president, McCain has never been a candidate to invoke God or dwell on religion. "In our case, faith is private," said his wife, Cindy, adding that once voters get to know him, "they will know he is a man of faith."I thought this was remarkable:
About six months later, they were back in the ironically named Hanoi Hilton, and Day, the senior officer, chose McCain as the group's chaplain. His first lesson — he doesn't like to call them sermons — recounted the biblical story of the man who asked Jesus whether he should pay taxes. Jesus replied, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's."I imagine not! Yet it is a highly plausible reading, and one achieved against personal interests and while under extraordinary duress.
McCain's point was that the prisoners should not pray for freedom, nor for harm to come to their captors.
"What I was trying to tell my fellow prisoners is that we were doing Caesar's work when we got into prison, so we should ask for God's help to do the right thing and for us to get out of prison if it be God's will for us to do so," McCain said. "Not everybody agreed with that."
I May Go See This One
Now this is kind of remarkable:
That's a fair set of big Hollywood names, thrashing a well-known and influential filmmaker. You don't see this kind of infighting very often. I may have to go see this movie, just since it has my (very) distant relative George Patton as a character.
OK...
I get about three of these conspiracy-theory mails a week from friends and family. I think I can honestly say that I've been diligent in pointing out the holes in them. I'm certainly opposed to Sen. Obama's election as President, and ready to use any true and fair weapon that comes to hand against him; but not untrue or unfair ones.
I normally know what to say about them, but I got one today that one I don't have an answer for. Probably some of you have seen it, and know what to say:
An AP photo appears to show Obama's school registration in Indonesia, listing his religion as Islam. I see that Obama's Fight the Smears page doesn't mention it, though it denies that he was "raised as a Muslim."
So: is the photo real? Does "not raised as a Muslim" mean that his father in law stepfather [UPDATE per ML: see comments] may have considered him a Muslim, but nobody else? Or just not him? Or what?
Goodness knows we've had our disputes with, or about, the writings of Edward Luttwak. His COIN theory drew a rebuttal from David Kilcullen (and a harsher response by Frank Hoffman that suggested he 'was off his medication'); his piece on "leaving the Middle East alone" provoked some arguments here as well (and another rather rude rebuttal). The comments to those pieces, even here at the Hall, have been contentious. One describes one of his works as a book "so bad I tried to make my officers read it so they could recognize a bad thesis when they saw it"; but another of our co-bloggers found his work sometimes "excellent" and sometimes, well, not.
So it is with some trepidation, metaphorically at least, that I offer his latest barn-burner. Called "A Truman for our times," it is a work strongly praising the foreign policy of George W. Bush. Not that it is entirely kind:
The swift removal of the murderous Saddam Hussein was followed by years of expensive violence instead of the instant democracy that had been promised. To confuse the imam-ridden Iraqis with Danes or Norwegians under German occupation, ready to return to democracy as soon as they were liberated, was not a forgivable error: before invading a country, a US president is supposed to know if it is in the middle east or Scandinavia.Yet in the end, Luttwak asserts, the problems will not be remembered: what will be remembered was that Bush was the man who threw back Islamism in the Muslim world, made it unacceptable to support in public among the leaders of Muslim states, and made great strides in denuclearizing the dangerous parts of the world.
Read it all, and let's discuss it.
Male/Female
I see Cassidy is in a panic over her male/female rating. No need to worry! The program is very poorly designed. To get an accurate reading, it would need to look at a far broader range of websites in your history than it does.
For example, if it finds a lot of stuff like this in your history, you're probably male:
"MapQuest"? It's really not that reliable an indicator by comparison.
Via Dad and SAppeal
Via both our friend Dad29 and our friend Feddie at Southern Appeal, a little lesson in authority.
From the Westminster Shorter Catechism:Presumably, the Senator meant to say something like "one's own values," which is a highly contestable definition -- but still a far kinder reading than, "Sin is when one doesn't align with my values."
Q. 14. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.
From the Baltimore Catechism:
Q. 278. What is actual sin?
A. Actual sin is any willful thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to the law of God.
From Senator Obama:
Q. Do you believe in sin? OBAMA: Yes.
Q. What is sin? OBAMA: Being out of alignment with my values.
In fairness, however, read the whole interview. They ask some very difficult questions. It might be worth trying to see if you can answer them yourself. There are a few I would want a long time to consider.
A far more serious confession is here:
OBAMA: When I’m talking to a group and I’m saying something truthful, I can feel a power that comes out of those statements that is different than when I’m just being glib or clever.So bear in mind: Obama really does think that, at least some of the time, the Holy Spirit is moving him when he speaks.
GG:
What’s that power? Is it the holy spirit? God?
OBAMA:
Well, I think it’s the power of the recognition of God, or the recognition of a larger truth that is being shared between me and an audience.
That’s something you learn watching ministers, quite a bit. What they call the Holy Spirit. They want the Holy Spirit to come down before they’re preaching, right? Not to try to intellectualize it but what I see is there are moments that happen within a sermon where the minister gets out of his ego and is speaking from a deeper source. And it’s powerful.
That's a bold statement: that a politician's work is like a minister's; that he is doing God's own work, and speaking words inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Do you believe that? About him? About yourself?
Oh, dear.
Victor, the Victory Elephant?
I am not sure why I get RNC emails, since I know I've never sent them any money; maybe they share mailing lists with the NRA or something. Anyway, is this really a good idea?
I guess they just mean 'victory in this year's elections,' but the word "victory" has a very different connotation right now. That fact can't be avoided. A lot has been paid for the victory we've won in Iraq. It is a word that should be used, but solemnly.
Probably this is meant as innocent fun, perhaps like the Purple Heart band-aids of a few years ago. As with that, though, there is a failure to consider how it would look to those whose minds were drawn to the war the symbol must necessarily invoke. Good intentions cannot answer for everything.
Everything old is new again.
Hunting used to be one of those skills that was always wanted for soldiers. The Roman author Vegetius explicitly mentions the desirablity of enlisting huntsmen in his De Rei Militari 1700 years ago. The Greek author (and soldier) Xenophon, wrote On hunting some 800 years before Vegetius, in which he says:
Therefore I charge the young not to despise hunting or any other schooling. For these are the means by which men become good in war and in all things out of which must come excellence in thought and word and deed.
Smart guys, those Ancients.
Today, Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of Georgia, has a letter in The Wall Street Journal.
Arts & Letters Daily has several background pieces on the conflict that are worth reading. Because they don't do permalinks, I'll list them here: one from the New York Times, one from the Washington Post, and a second from the New York Times.
Gwendolyn, in the comments below, offered this, which I see is also endorsed by Michael Totten (himself en route to the Caucasus region).
Charles King, in the Christian Science Monitor, has a perspective on the conflict that would like to offer conditional support to Russia. I pass it on out of respect for the publication and a willingness to hear everyone out.
A bit further
Looking a bit more into the sword site, I found this video:
It starts simply, but moves on to show some sword-binding and maneuver techniques. If you follow it to its YouTube page, there are a number of similar videos that demonstrate accurate Medieval martial arts.
One of the best ones is this (which is also noteworthy for its subtitles):
This shows a great deal of knife and dagger techniques, the fundamentals of which have not changed. Those interested in bladework may find these most amusing, and may find a few concepts worth thinking about to employ in your own training.
Sabers
I join Kat at the Castle in congratulating our womens' saber team for their sweep at the Olympics. Strong work.
On which topic, reader G.M. sends an interesting page for those of you who have an affection for sabers -- particularly, the British 1796 light cavalry saber. 
Sure, it looks good: but how does it manage if you wanted to chop an entire six pack of bottled water in half at once? Or if you had some old tires you needed to mince?
Go see.
Solidarity
I met some fine soldiers from the Republic of Georgia in Iraq, where they have heretofore kept a brigade of their fighting men to help the Iraqi people free themselves from the tyrant Saddam, and the petty tyrants who sought in so many places to replace him. The emergence from long tyranny into constitutional liberty is a difficult one, often a painful one, but the Georgian people understand that too well.
As we watch Russia invading their sovereign territory, we should remember that the Georgians have been our friends and allies. They are a good and noble people, though bitterly poor in many places: and we have ties of culture to them as well as our current alliance. The Cross of St. George flies over Georgia as it did over England; one of my friends from Georgia in Iraq was named for the Greek hero Hercules. They are a part of the West, and should enjoy Western liberty and self-determination.
For too long the Soviet Union sought to force Georgia and so many others under the shadow. We should stand by the Georgians at this time and ensure Russia understands that Georgia is not prey to be gobbled up. They have been our friends and our reliable allies, and we have much in common with them.
I suggest that you write to tell your Senators and Representatives today that a strong endorsement of Georgian independence is needed. A wider and more dangerous war may be avoided if Russia is shown that it cannot have an easy victory over a weaker neighbor. They have often stood by us. We should be strong in our support for them now, when they need us.
What? Georgia?
Via our friend and regular commenter Dad29, an oddity.
And so, last Friday, in stumbled Sens. Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Saxby Chambliss, Bob Corker and Johnny Isakson -- alongside five Senate Democrats. This "Gang of 10" announced a "sweeping" and "bipartisan" energy plan to break Washington's energy "stalemate." ... the plan is a Democratic giveaway. New production on offshore federal lands is left to state legislatures, and then in only four coastal states. The regulatory hurdles are huge. And the bill bars drilling within 50 miles of the coast -- putting off limits some of the most productive areas. Alaska's oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is still a no-go.That's both of my Senators. I haven't gotten any letters or emails explaining why the Senators from the Great State of Georgia are united in their opposition to drilling... have any of the rest of you Georgia readers?
The highlight is instead $84 billion in tax credits, subsidies and federal handouts for alternative fuels and renewables. The Gang of 10 intends to pay for all this in part by raising taxes on . . . oil companies!
Another Judicial Outrage
Assuming the facts are even close to what is presented here...
As Elaine Jones said in a letter published by the Idaho Press-Tribune, “A good, honorable widower is leaving his daughter to others to raise, and is going to prison for following the rules, obeying the law and helping his friends stay safe from flooding.”Via Kim du Toit, who challenges readers -- after finishing the essay in full -- to write a 100 word essay explaining why the judge shouldn't be hanged. I presume anyone submitting such an essay will say something about the importance of formal judicial processes and so forth, since that's the only thing I can think of as a reason not to hang him.
QotD
I am now the happiest woman on earth. When you marry a man with 86 wives you know he knows how to look after them.Another wife says, "As soon as I met him the headache was gone. God told me it was time to be his wife."
Don't mess with success, I say.
Media Love Affair
So we've seen the story about the idiot bail bondsman from Florida. "Man held in Fla. on charge of threatening Obama," says the story.
But you get down to paragraph six, and he apparently also told a student that he wanted to 'put a bullet in George Bush's head.'
Since when is threatening to assassinate a President not that big a deal? Much, much, less newsworthy than the fact that you also intended to maybe shoot a Senator? Since when is the threat to the Presidential candidate the headline, and the actual sitting President a very minor footnote?
That's the media space of summer 2008. Barack Obama is the news. Nothing else matters.
UPDATE: Heh. Old Bob Owens is on the task. Apparently CNN and CBS4 found the AP story too Bush-focused, and edited him out altogether.
Goodness
Here's a question I'd like to ask the Obama campaign: was this just a campaign gimmick, or do you intend to push for PSAs like this if elected?
Gas Station TV, which provides video content on gas pumps around the country, decided against running an ad for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Wednesday saying it’s decided to stay politically neutral. At the same time, however, Obama campaign staffers are telling media they believe the refusal had more to do with the content of the ads — which attacked oil companies for creating high gasoline prices — than for simply staying away from politics.So, if given the levers of power, would a President Obama push to require such ads? The government has in the past forced people to carry PSAs as a consequence of holding a broadcast license; it could do so in the future as a consequence of having a license to sell gasoline. Or alcohol. Or tobacco.
These aren't normally issued by the Feds, but the Feds can push states to comply with their guidelines because of funding concerns. So the question is: does he intend to follow this up if elected? And as a followup, do I really want to listen to lectures from Sen. Obama while going about my daily business?
Warning:Science
Our friend Jeffrey was recently speaking on this very topic, so when I saw that the Chronicle of Higher Education had written about it, I thought it might be a topic of interest to all of us.
In March, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, testified before the House Committee on Science and Technology about the abject failure of American schools, colleges, and universities to prepare students for advanced study in the sciences.Read it through, and let's discuss.
Well, that's not exactly what he testified. The purpose of his trip to the Hill was to impress on Congress the need for more H-1B visas.
Dogs on the Furniture??
What kind of house is Cassandra running, anyway? I trust that readers recognize the incivility associated with... hey, what's that noise?
...never mind.