Paleolithic?

Progress and Stability:

Once in a while, you will meet a Muslim who will defend Islam's position on women in something like the following terms: 'Islam represented a great advance for women's status in the region. Before the Prophet Muhammad, the treatment of women was much worse. Islam's rules raised women's stature a great deal.'

Historians and anthropologists might contest the claim to some degree, but for the sake of argument let's say that it's perfectly correct. Islam, in the seventh century, vastly raised the status of women. It also created a stable floor, so that women could never again be traded like cattle. This progress had real value for the lives of women in that era, and the stability has continued to protect each new generation of women since then. Again, for the sake of argument, let's assume all this is exactly true.

The problem is that the same stability that continues to protect women from being treated like chattel slaves -- which we are assuming that Islam does, for this argument -- also prevents any further alteration. To the degree that you undermine that stability in order to change women's status for the better, you also risk undermining the positive change. Perhaps you will enjoy the change you say you want; but it's also possible that you will enjoy the change you didn't want. As women are -- even under this system -- less powerful than men, undermining the stability is a dangerous proposition. It might more easily result in a backlash against women that lowers their status below the floor they currently enjoy, than force society to adhere to these new standards.

The one thing that might prevent that collapse is a stern preservation of the Prophet Muhammad's reasoning for the "floor" position. If you're struggling for progress, it would be easy to see these people fighting for stability as your enemy. Yet actually they are not: your enemies are the ones who are pushing for a backlash. The people who are fighting for stability are your allies even if you find yourself clashing with them, because they are your backstop against a serious backlash. Given that the people pushing for progress are necessarily weaker than the forces that could impose a backlash, those who want progress should never forget the value of those who merely want stability.

The stable foundation they preserve is, after all, what you're pushing off from in your attempt to achieve some greater height. It'd be best not to undermine that foundation.

Mutatis mutandis, this is a point that I wish certain New York progressives understood as well. Of course, as Mr. Kristof notes, the difference is that in much of the developing world, the Catholic Church is not simply holding the line and preserving stability. It is the primary force advancing the cause.

Yet even here at home, the people who want stability are not the enemy of the progressive. As frustrating as stability may be for those who want change, it is the stable foundation that they are pushing against. If that foundation gives way, there's a long fall to the bottom.

Car Bomb

Car Bomb in Times Square:

A fuel-air bomb of "an amateurish" sort is still a significant threat. America does not realize how lucky it has been to go this far without these things being common in our cities; if they are hard to stop in Baghdad, with divisions of the US and Iraqi armies controlling approaches and manning checkpoints, there's honestly nothing at all to stop them in New York except good luck.

One reason horrible crimes often set off copycats is just that there are always horrible people who hadn't thought of it yet. Seeing it done is enough to wake their minds to the possibility that it could be done.

A shooting rampage, or a stabbing rampage like the one cited above, can be stopped while in progress by armed citizens -- indeed, even just by brave citizens. Car bombs aren't like that. You can harden society against them -- look at Ireland or Israel, or Baghdad -- but they are a different order of threat.

UPDATE: Allah at Hot Air remarks:

Read this Time magazine piece from five years ago about Al Qaeda capo Dhiren Barot’s “Gas Limo Plot,” which involved packing limousines with tanks of compressed gas, driving them into underground garages, and detonating them to create a fuel-air concussion that would bring down the building. As I understand it, an enclosed place is ideal for maximum damage from a bomb like that, but obviously not essential.

Well, in fact that's true for any kind of explosive. The force of an explosion is the pressure wave, at the edge of which gas or shrapnel is being thrown away from the blast. If it hits a wall, that wave will reflect back upon you. Thus, if you get hit twice by the pressure wave, it roughly doubles the amount of pressure that you are subject to.

The force of the pressure of a bomb above regular atmospheric pressures is called "overpressure." Enclosure is one way to increase it, but not the only way. Fuel-air bombs have a longer pressure wave than many kinds of bombs, so the concept of generating overpressure by reflection is even more useful with them.

American Interest on Europe

On Europe:

The American Interest has an article on Europe which begins:

Of late most predictions, especially those coming out of Europe, have been on the dour and pessimistic side. So it is refreshing to come across a book like Steven Hill’s Europe’s Promise, which reaffirms the earlier optimistic take: The European model is not only superior to the American in almost every possible way, but also, as its subtitle proclaims, the world’s “best hope in an insecure age.” According to Hill, Europe’s vastly superior stores of smart power will even allow it to solve the problem of the Iranian bomb.

Optimism can be refreshing, however, even when it is neither correct nor justified.

It's a pretty snide piece after that. That isn't to say that the piece is not balanced; it has lots of snide things to say about America, too.

In this he is joined by Mark Steyn, who points out that we are accepting one of the things that undid Europe -- mass immigration -- at the same time that our, ah, "leadership" is interested in installing the other -- massive new social welfare programs -- at the same time that our existing entitlements are about to balloon out of control. Immigration was touted as the solution in Europe, once:

Almost every claim made for the benefits of mass immigration is false. Europeans were told that they needed immigrants to help prop up their otherwise unaffordable social entitlements: In reality, Turks in Germany have three times the rate of welfare dependency as ethnic Germans, and their average retirement age is 50. Two-thirds of French imams are on the dole.

But wait: What about the broader economic benefits? The World Bank calculated that if rich countries increased their workforce by a mere 3 percent through admitting an extra 14 million people from developing countries, it would benefit the populations of those rich countries by $139 billion. Wow!

As Christopher Caldwell points out in his book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, “The aggregate gross domestic product of the advanced economies for the year 2008 is estimated by the International Monetary Fund at close to $40 trillion.” So an extra $139 billion works out to a spectacular 0.35 percent. Caldwell compares the World Bank argument to Austin Powers’s nemesis, Dr. Evil, holding the world hostage for one million dollars! “Sacrificing 0.0035 of your economy would be a pittance to pay for starting to get your country back.” A dependence on mass immigration is not a gold-mine or an opportunity to flaunt your multicultural bona fides, but a structural weakness, and should be addressed as such.

Most Greeks and Turks are good folks. Their culture was never worse than Germany's culture; it was just different. The Germans had an equilibrium of savings and hard work that allowed for a certain level of social programs, especially since their national defense was being outsourced to the US Army. The Greeks had a different culture, but accepted a lower standard of living. With the coming of the EU to Greece, these cultures were suddenly blended; the Greeks were able to spend like Germans without having to adopt the German culture.

Now we see the results; but it isn't that Greece is morally flawed. Everyone is morally flawed. That is what it means to be human. The difference is that the equilibriums of these two cultures were both ruined by the sudden mixing of the cultures. The Greeks weren't getting any better, but they weren't getting any worse. Before easy credit was put in front of them, apparently for free, they accepted a lower standard of living in return for their culture of relative ease. The Germans worked harder but saved and spent more, even if they weren't really being honest with themselves about how much of their freedom to engage in social spending was being financed by the US military and taxpayer.

Then came the EU, and the sudden change in rules was not accompanied by a sudden change in behavior. The law can be changed overnight. People change slowly. This fact was somehow not written into anyone's plan.

Why were investors so complacent? The answer was that almost everyone believed that historical precedents were irrelevant. Greece was now part of Europe, and even more important, since 2001 part of the eurozone—sharing a currency with its more affluent neighbors. And that changed everything. Except that it didn’t.

Armed Liberal at Winds of Change tells a joke that's on point.

Greek Armor

Spring Ales IV

IPAs of Spring IV:

So, one of ya'll recommended Dogfish's "60 Minute IPA." I happened to be traveling the other day, and found a little store that sold a few things that aren't available locally. This was one of them!

The Dogfish is much drier than the Sierra Nevada I wrote about recently, but that is not a bad thing. It's got a similar spicy character. Good stuff, but in a different way.

Oh, Man

Oh, Man:

This is the sort of thing that really tries a man's temperance and moderation.

Some Links

Some Links:

I've begun working Eric's plethora of links into the sidebar. Also, at the very bottom of the sidebar, you'll find a new way of accessing the archives. I found the code in some ancient Blogger files today. It only works because I've never updated anything, but hey: it works!

There's no such thing as "backwards compatible" if you refuse to move forward. :)

What Was That Again, Pat?

What Was That Again?

Isn't the usefulness of this analysis outweighed by the irony?

"We have a deadlocked democracy," said Pat Buchanan, a conservative commentator and three-time presidential candidate. "Both parties, held hostage by their extremes, are incapable of tackling the issues that threaten this country."

So, Pat "Ride to the Sound of Guns" Buchanan, leader of the "Buchanan Brigades," complains that the two major parties are each captured by their extremists? If that's the case, why aren't you "Former President Pat Buchanan"?

I thought this was a much better analysis of what's really going on. The reason Pat Buchanan couldn't capture the GOP's leadership position isn't that he isn't an adequately extreme conservative. It's that he wasn't the insider candidate. If the Tea Party is successfully purging the GOP of many insiders, I'll be amazed, but hardly displeased.

Cathedral of May

In the Cathedral of May:

But how many months be in the year?
There are thirteen, I say;
The midsummer moon is the merryest of all
Next to the merry month of May.
IN summer time, when leaves grow green,
And flowers are fresh and gay,
Robin Hood and his merry men
Were [all] disposed to play.

Then some would leap, and some would run,
And some use artillery:
'Which of you can a good bow draw,
A good archer to be?

'Which of you can kill a buck?
Or who can kill a doe?
Or who can kill a hart of grease,
Five hundred foot him fro?

Queen Guinevere's Maying

We Ought To Love Her

We Ought To Love Her:

Why, yes, this is what I like about her, although I find your formulation interesting:

Republican primary voters like macho candidates and no one is more macho than Sarah Palin.

In a way the fashionista and mother of five evokes more toughness than any man regularly mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in the GOP. Palin is visceral, in your face, relishes combat, and won't be shamed. (Her hobbies include ice fishing, snowmobiling, running, and hunting.) These are traits usually and stereotypically associated with men - and they're especially endearing to Republicans, who like to see President Obama hit with the most force possible....

Republicans know she won't bow to what they think are elite sensitivities or political correctness. Say she was "going rogue" as a diss? She'll make it the title of her book. Dismiss the GOP as the "party of no?" Palin will rename it "the party of hell no!"

Note that it isn't the right saying that this is 'unladylike' behavior. We're saying, "We love that lady." I don't think she's even intending to run at this point; but she is serving as a great stalking horse, drawing all the fire away from those who probably will run. She's getting rich doing it, and having fun doing it.

Live to fight, love to fight. How could I fail to admire someone like that?

IPAs of Spring, III:

The best of the three I could lay to hand, by far, was Sierra Nevada's Torpedo "Extra" IPA.



It's close to their "Celebration Ale," which is the best beer in the world.* It makes use of different hops during the brewing process, but ends up with a similar character. While it lacks the perfection of Celebration Ale, it's a fine substitute for the rest of the year. (After all, there ought to be something special about Christmas!)

You can see the rich character in its color. For me, it's as good as I expect an ale to be, outside of the Yuletide.


* In my opinion.

Woof

Woof:

I'm almost scared watching her try to manage these rigs.

Having taught a few women, of several ages, how to use a firearm... I'm thinking they "set her up for failure," as the military saying goes. And that's on them. It's on them.

Bladework and related subjects:

I found the following list at a group called "Western Martial Arts" on Facebook.

So, as it says:

Here are some links for your reading pleasure:

Info and Forums:

http://www.myarmoury.com
http://www.swordforum.com
http://netsword.com/
http://www.thearma.org/forum/
http://www.bladesignforum.com/
http://www.oldswords.com/
http://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/
http://www.armourarchive.org
http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/phpBB2/index.php

A HEMA print periodical:

http://www.wmaillustrated.com/

To save me typing out the rest of them go here to find more links to many different websites and groups who study HEMA/WMA:

http://www.myarmoury.com/links.html

Groups represented in WMA (many of them have websites and you know that http://www.google.com is your friend ;-)

KdF - UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden
http://www.swordfighting-kdf.org/

Schola Gladiatoria - UK
http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/

The Grange - UK
http://www.suspensionofdisbelief.co.uk

European Historical Combat Group - UK, Denmark, Sweden, Eire and Germany
http://www.ehcg.net/

Boar's Tooth Fight School - London
http://www.fightmedieval.com

Selohaar Fechtschule - USA
http://www.selohaar.org/fechten.htm

The School of European Swordsmanship - Finland
http://www.swordschool.com/

Schola Saint George - USA
http://scholasaintgeorge.org/

Academia Duellatoria - USA
http://academiaduellatoria.com/

Academy of Historical Fencing - UK
http://www.historicalfencing.co.uk/

Dawn Duellists - UK
http://www.dawnduellists.co.uk/

Association for Renaissance Martial Arts - USA and Europe
http://www.thearma.org

Society for Medieval Martial Artists - USA

Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild - Canada
http://www.ottawasword.com/

Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts - Canada
http://www.aemma.org/

Melbourne Swordplay Guild - Australia
http://www.msg.swordplay.org.au/

Summer Knights (childrens summer camp) - USA
http://www.summerknights.com/

Western Swordsmanship Technique & Research - USA
http://www.westernswordsmanship.com/

De Taille et d'Estoc - France (Holders of the famed International HEMA Gathering)
http://www.detailleetdestoc.com/

British Quarterstaff Association - UK
http://www.quarterstaff.org/

GHFS (Gothenberg Historical Fencing Society and hosts of the hopefully soon to be annual Swordfish HEMA event) - Sweden
http://www.ghfs.se/

Saint George Fencing Group - Serbia
http://www.akademija.co.yu
http://www.youtube.com/user/SaintGeorgeFencing

PBSMCS - South Africa
http://www.swordfighting.co.za

Society for the Study of Swordsmanship - UK
http://www.ssswordsmanship.co.uk/

The Company for Historical Combat - UK
http://www.mymartialheritage.org

Academy of Historical Fencing - UK
http://www.historicalfencing.co.uk

Aisle O'var Backswording Clubbe
http://www.backswording.co.uk

Medieval European Martial Arts Guild - USA
http://www.memag.net/

Academy of European Swordsmanship - Canada
http://www.the-aes.org

Frie Duellister / Free Duellists Norway, Bergen.
http://www.frieduellister.no/

New Zealand Schools of European Martial Arts
http://www.swordsmanship.co.nz

Academia della Spada - USA
http://www.academiadellaspada.com/

Martinez Academy of Arms - USA
http://www.martinez-destreza.com/

Northwest Academy of Arms - USA
http://www.northwestacademyofarms.com/

Chicago Swordplay Guild - USA
http://www.chicagoswordplayguild.com/c/

English Fighting Arts - UK
http://englishfightingarts.com/

Company of Maisters
http://www.maisters.demon.co.uk/

Facebook Classical Fencing Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24902207605

Kuzgun Spor Turkish Hema Group - Turkey
http://www.kuzgunspor.com
http://www.kuzgunlar.tr.gg

Kuzgun Spor Turkish Hema Group Facebook
http://www.new.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=38490005866

Willington Backsword Club - USA (looking for Rapier enthusiasts in New England Area)
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=25336021161

Pirate Dojo - USA
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13646587031

Virginia Academy of Fencing - USA
http://vafinc.com/programs/hist.htm

The Academy of Arms - USA
http://www.AcademyofArms.com

MACS (Medieval Armed Combat Society) - South Africa
http://www.armoury.co.za/

Mid-Atlantic Society for Historic Swordsmanship - USA
http://www.mashs.org/

Academie Duello - Canada
http://www.academieduello.com

Roanoke Valley Sword Guild - USA
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31188018702&ref=mf

HEMA cph - Copenhagen, Denmark
http://www.hema-cph.dk

Die Schlachtschule - USA
http://www.schlachtschule.org

Meyer Frei Fechter Guild - USA
http://federfechter.com

Krigarenve - USA
http://www.krigarenve.com

LaFratellanza della Spada - USA
http://www.lafratellanza.com/
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/FratellanzadellaSpada/

Glima - Denmark
http://glima.dk
http://internationalglima.com

Durban Sword and Shield Club - South Africa
http://www.swordclub.za.org

Jojo de Pau Club - Portugal
http://www.jogodopauportugues.com/

Historical Fencing School - Vienna, Austria
http://www.klingenspiel.at/

Loyal Order of the Sword - Phoenix and NY, USA
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=78328979429#/group.php?v=info&gid=78328979429

School of Traditional Medieval Fencing - UK
www.ringeck.org

Ochs - historische Kampfkünste - Germany
http://www.schwertkampf-ochs.de/

Iran on the Women's Rights at the UN?

Iran Ascends to Leadership Position on Women's Rights:

In recognition of Iran's leadership on the issue, the United Nations has elevated that republic to its commission governing the rights of women. The vote was by acclamation, as no nation could see any reason to object. This is a proud day for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The U.S. couldn’t muster a word of opposition — not even call for a vote. That would be because . . . why? Because our policy is not to confront and challenge the brutal regime for which rape and discrimination are institutionalized policies. No, rather, we are in the business of trying to ingratiate ourselves, and making the U.S. as inoffensive as possible to the world’s thugocracies.

It wasn't long ago we talked about these matters in other terms.

Cadence Quiz Answer

Cadence Quiz Answer:

At least one other tune is present in the cadence piece besides "Scotland the Brave." Right at the beginning, they play this jig:

Adam Smith's Other Work

Adam Smith's Other Work:

Via Arts & Letters Daily, a review of the relevance of Adam Smith's other work, largely forgotten today because of The Wealth of Nations. Yet he also wrote about his Theory of Moral Sentiments:

First, even though Smith was in many ways the pioneering analyst of the need for impartiality and universality in ethics (Moral Sentiments preceded the better-known and much more influential contributions of Immanuel Kant, who refers to Smith generously), he has been fairly comprehensively ignored in contemporary ethics and philosophy....

The spirited attempt to see Smith as an advocate of pure capitalism, with complete reliance on the market mechanism guided by pure profit motive, is altogether misconceived. Smith never used the term "capitalism" (I have certainly not found an instance). More importantly, he was not aiming to be the great champion of the profit-based market mechanism, nor was he arguing against the importance of economic institutions other than the markets.

Smith was convinced of the necessity of a well-functioning market economy, but not of its sufficiency. He argued powerfully against many false diagnoses of the terrible "commissions" of the market economy, and yet nowhere did he deny that the market economy yields important "omissions". He rejected market-excluding interventions, but not market-including interventions aimed at doing those important things that the market may leave undone.

"Market-including interventions" are not a bad approach: they may include things like targeted small business loans designed to help people enter a market for which they are well suited, if they were too poor to afford the entry costs. More locally to Smith's own time, you could read the Colony of Georgia as such an intervention: Sir James Edward Oglethorpe's attempt to give some 'worthy poor' in debtor's prison a chance to build a new life, by giving them land to work.

Of course, Oglethorpe eventually ran afoul of the profit instinct: the clashes he had here had much to do with those who wanted to own, and not merely control, resources. Smith could learn from both impulses: the need to respect the profit instinct as reasonable and moral, but also the need to give a helping hand to those who would work hard, but didn't have the means to get started.

IPAs of spring II

IPAs of Spring, II:

Our second IPA is by another local brewery, this time local to Athens, Georgia instead of Atlanta: the "Hopsecutioner" by the Terrapin Beer Company.



As you can see, the color is a bit richer than the Sweetwater ale, and that is reflected in the taste. It has a good smell to it (if you like the smell of hoppy beer!). While it lacks the richness of flavor that beer #3 will have, I find this to be a very acceptable beer. Terrapin makes a few other robust ales of the 'big hops' type, which is an approach I like a great deal.

A Post for Ymar

A Post for Ymar:

Yesterday we were talking about analytic v. synthetic a priori concepts in ethics, and I said that synthetic a priori was as close as you could get to 'a priori' in ethics. After all, true analytic a priori principles are supposed to be derived merely from "an analysis" of a concept -- that is, breaking the concept down to see what it contains. Ethics requires more than concepts, but real situations that necessarily involve particular things, people, and cases: so even those philosophers, like Kant, who want to do 'a priori' ethical thinking end up with synthetics. For example, Kant's famous "categorical imperative" is supposed to be synthetic a priori.

However, I am reminded this morning that Kant did believe that he had at least one analytic a priori principle at work in his Doctrine of Right: the principle of right. This principle doesn't deal with ethics precisely -- Kant explicitly divides his Metaphysics of Morals into "The Doctrine of Right" and "The Doctrine of Virtue," the latter of which contains his moral system:

...the system of the doctrine of duties in general is now divided into the system of the doctrine of rights (ius), which deals with duties that can be given by external laws, and the system of the doctrine of virtue (Ethica), which treats of duties that cannot be so given...(6:379)

"The Doctrine of Right" is about what we might call law: cases in which coercive force can be used.

Dr. Allen Wood wrote, in "The Final Form of Kant's Practical Philosophy," that:

Kant declares that the concept of right is not made up of two elements -- namely, an obligation to act in accordance with universal law and also an authorization to coerce others to fulfill this obligation.... [Gottlieb] Hufeland had derived the authorization to coerce those who would violate rights from an alleged natural obligation to increase our own perfection. Kant insisted that this would have the absurd consequence that one may not refrain from enforcing all one's rights to the full. Instead, he argued that the authorization to coerce another who hinders one's rightful actions is already contained analytically in the concept of the action as rightful.

So, the idea is that if I have rights at all, the authority to use force to enforce those rights is contained in the concept of 'what it is to have a right.' The answer to the question 'do I have any rights?' is supposed to be analytic as well, but I'm not sure that's really true. Aside from a right to die, it's hard to think of anything that the world really provides you as a right.

The rest we get from God, if you follow the Declaration of Independence account; or else from valor alone, which is empirical. I mean by that: we would not have the rights we do if it hadn't been for the particular chain of events that we can trace to the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Arbroath, the Declaration of Independence, and the various wars that were fought to enforce and extend those concepts.

Hey, Life on Mars

Hey, Life on Mars!

It's amazing what gets reported below the fold these days. There was a time when this would have been the top story of the day.

Rex quondam, rexque futurus:

Perceval's Oath - Le Serment d...